The Kansas City Chiefs made a stunning move on Thursday, announcing that the team has parted ways with general manager John Dorsey. The news was announced a few minutes after the announcement that Andy Reid had signed a contract extension. Suffice to say, Chiefs fans are stunned.
Earlier this offseason, as the San Francisco 49ers were beginning their search for a new general manager, one candidate had been Chiefs executive Chris Ballard. The Chiefs blocked the move, with some speculation that Ballard might have preferred they do that. That was followed by him eventually landing the Indianapolis Colts GM job.
As Arrowhead Pride pointed out, if the Chiefs were expecting to part ways with Dorsey, it seems unlikely they would have let Ballard go so easily. There were reports Dorsey and the Chiefs were talking about a contract extension, but it would appear things went south in a hurry. Dorsey had one year left on his deal prior to this announcement.
It will be interesting to see how the dominos fall in this situation. I don’t remember the last time a GM job opened at this point in the offseason. Heck, I thought the delay by the Colts to get rid of Grigson was a long delay. Fooch’s update: I forgot about Scot McCloughan and Doug Whaley since getting canned.
The question now is how exactly they go about filling the role. They could go with an internal option and do a more formal search in January. They could very well decide that internal option is a long-term option. It’s tough to tell, but if they do open the process up after the 2017 season, 49ers VP of player personnel Adam Peters could end up on the radar. He joined the 49ers when John Lynch was hired, but there is a belief Peters is on the fast track to a GM job of his own. It’s still early in his time with the 49ers, but that could be something to keep an eye on next January.
As for Dorsey? There was speculation earlier that he could eventually end up with the Green Bay Packers. He got his start there, and Ted Thompson is not going to stick around forever. Eliot Wolf, who was on the 49ers initial list of GM candidates is also a potential successor to Thompson. He withdrew his name from consideration with the 49ers and signed a new contract with Green Bay, so that could suggest Dorsey is not in the running there.