10 potential candidates to be next Giants general manager, including Kevin Abrams

Dave Gettleman is officially out as general manager of the Giants, after he announced his retirement on Monday, and he left quite a mess in his wake. The Giants have questionable talent at key spots, uncertainty about their franchise quarterback, and almost no salary cap space to use to clean it all up.

In other words, it could be a difficult rebuilding project for what has become one of the worst teams in football, and it might not be a quick fix.

The real question, though, is: Who’s going to be doing the fixing?

No one is sure who is on John Mara’s shortlist to replace Gettleman, but the franchise appears ready to embark on a wide-ranging search that will include multiple candidates from outside of the Giants’ “family.” The widely held assumption is that Mara would prefer to keep the job in-house and will promote assistant GM Kevin Abrams to be Gettleman’s successor. But that could be an impossible sell.

All Mara has said, in the press release announcing Gettleman’s retirement, was that, “This will be a comprehensive search for our next general manager. We are looking for a person who demonstrates exceptional leadership and communication abilities, somebody who will oversee all aspects of our football operations, including player personnel, college scouting and coaching.”

Who that could be is hard to predict, since the Giants have never really considered outside candidates before. Ernie Accorsi was George Young’s preordained successor when he was promoted to GM in 1998. When Jerry Reese took over for Accorsi in 2007, only one outside candidate was interviewed. And the same was true when Gettleman succeeded Reese at the end of 2017.

So at the moment, Gettleman’s successor is anybody’s guess. But here’s a look at some of the names mentioned most often as possible candidates for the Giants, based on interviews with multiple sources around the NFL:

Kevin Abrams 

He was being groomed to eventually be Gettleman's replacement if everything had worked out right. But of course it didn't, and that may have killed his candidacy. He’s more qualified than many give him credit for being. Hired by the Giants in 1999 to help manage the salary cap, the 50-year-old’s football portfolio has steadily increased over the years. In fact, he’s also been the VP of football operations since Gettleman arrived, though he never had final say in football decisions. He certainly wouldn’t be a popular hire, even though those who know him say he wouldn't be an extension of Gettleman, either.

John Dorsey 

A very strong sentiment around the NFL is that the Giants need an experienced GM to turn their franchise around, and there are few better available than the 61-year-old Dorsey. He helped build a Super Bowl champion and perennial contender as the Green Bay Packers director of college scouting from 2000-2011. He turned the Kansas City Chiefs around as their GM from 2013-17 and built the core of their championship team. And he took over an 0-16 Cleveland Browns team and in two years (2018-19) built a team that went 11-5 the year after he left. He’s currently a senior personnel executive in Detroit.

Monti Ossenfort

The current director of player personnel for the Tennessee Titans, Ossenfort was the director of college scouting when Joe Judge was an assistant coach in New England. He also was a finalist for the Panthers GM job last year and interviewed for the Browns GM job the year before.

Eliot Wolf 

A long-time executive in Green Bay (2004-17), the Packers spent years blocking teams from interviewing him for their GM jobs. In fact, he was thought to be a candidate for the Giants job in 2017, though it’s unclear if they ever formally requested an interview. Notably, Accorsi tried to hire Wolf as the Detroit Lions GM in 2017 when he was consulting on that search, but the Packers wouldn’t let Wolf interview for the job – and Accorsi’s voice still has strong weight inside the Giants organization. After Wolf finally left the Packers, the 39-year-old spent two years as the Browns assistant GM and has been a “front office consultant” in New England the last two seasons. His father, former Packers GM Ron Wolf, is well-regarded inside the Giants organization.

Dave Ziegler 

Ziegler has spent the last decade with the Patriots, and became their director of player personnel – or their de facto GM – last offseason. Highly regarded inside their organization, most don’t believe Bill Belichick would let the Giants even interview him. The Broncos interviewed him for their GM job last January and might have even hired him, but Belichick convinced him to withdraw his name from consideration to stay in New England.

Joe Schoen 

The assistant GM in Buffalo, he’s been GM Brandon Beane’s right-hand man as they’ve quickly built the Bills into a Super Bowl contender and is seen by many as one of the best GM candidates available in this cycle. He began his climb up the front office ladder when he was hired as a national scout in Miami in 2008 by their then-executive VP of football operations, Bill Parcells. He is believed to be a Parcells favorite, which would carry enormous weight with Mara.

Dave Caldwell

The Jacksonville Jaguars were pretty terrible during his eight seasons (37-86), which would make him an impossible sell to fans in New York. He did have one successful season (2017) when the Jags got to the AFC Championship game, but that also coincided with the arrival of coach Doug Marrone and executive VP of football operations Tom Coughlin. A Coughlin endorsement would guarantee he’d get an interview.

Alonzo Highsmith

A bit of a rising star in NFL circles, he’s only been working in NFL front offices for 10 years, including the last year as a “personnel executive” in Seattle. The former NFL running back – and third overall pick of the 1987 draft – also worked with the Packers and Browns, for whom he was the VP of player personnel from 2018-19. He helped build the Browns team that, one year later, broke their 17-year playoff drought.

Louis Riddick 

There is no doubt the current ESPN analyst wants the job, and he was the lone outside candidate to interview with the Giants before Gettleman was hired. A former director of pro personnel in Washington (2005-07) and Philadelphia (2010-13), he’s also interviewed for GM jobs in Houston and Detroit.

Scott Pioli

The 56-year-old has been out of the game since resigning as the assistant GM of the Atlanta Falcons in 2019 and he was last a GM with the Chiefs from 2009-12. He had a lot of support in the Giants organization back in 2007 when they were looking to replace Accorsi, but Pioli turned down their offer to interview for the job. Some think he’s looking for one more shot at a GM job, and some of his old supporters in the Giants organization are still there.