2026 NFL GM Hiring/Firing Grades
As with the coach-related page, I have made a centralized post for all 2026 GM move-related grades (most recent first) as well. Once again, these moves are typically made on or near Black Monday, the first Monday after the regular season concludes. Moves can occur midseason or after the draft, but these are rare and mean that a team is either in a bad state or being grossly mismanaged. Here, I provide hiring/firing grades for each GM change made. Teams that clean house often prefer to hire a GM first, who will then have a say in picking the coach. For those coaching changes, check out this page.
January 9, 2026
Dolphins Hire Jon-Eric Sullivan as GM:
It’s always hard to tell how good another team’s assistant front office personnel will be in the head role because you don’t know how influential they were on their former team’s decisions. I like to look at these hirings based on the characteristics of the organization to see what we can glean. Green Bay is famous for drafting and developing talent extremely well. As their former VP of Player Personnel, Sullivan would’ve been a key factor in related decisions. Miami’s exact problem has been effective drafting, as Chris Grier whiffed on numerous first-round picks. Most people were going to be upgrades over Grier, but this is actually a quality hire. Unless you’ve got a can’t-miss candidate, it’s hard to earn an A, but this is about as solid as you can otherwise get.
Grade: B+
January 4, 2026
Rams Fire GM Terry Fontenot:
Atlanta went all-in on their house cleaning, firing Fontenot along with HC Raheem Morris. Once again, they’re making the right choice. Whenever I think of Fontenot, all that comes to my mind is signing QB Kirk Cousins for $100M guaranteed and then drafting a QB 8th overall a few months later. No matter how good Michael Penix Jr can become, that moved sabotaged the team. Penix has often been unavailable due to injury, and Fontenot never put a defense around him until it was much too late. He finally did so in 2025 but at the cost of next year’s first-round pick. That selection is going to be fairly decent due to his roster construction shortcomings. I think it’s right to move on from both men at the same time. They made this mess together, so they can depart together. His successor will be in a hole without that pick, but someone professional needs to be in charge.
Grade: A+