Jason Cole: Tom Gamble said to be Ross' top pick for GM

[utahphinsfan]

Like any business, football is based on relationships. I'm glad to see at least some exist here, if perhaps second hand.

Cronyism has screwed the phins over for the last decade plus. Its about frikkin time its works for them.

 

[utahphinsfan]

John Scotland looks a bit like Dick Dastardly of Wacky Racers. He looks a bit suspicious but probably inspires great hope and loyalty...

[video=youtube;SKm5xQyD2vE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKm5xQyD2vE[/video]

If an NFL gig doesn't transpire maybe he could become a televangelist

Whatever would Tebow do?

 

[13marino13]

Hes interviewed for other GM jobs and has been among the finalists for a couple years now. Owners seem to have a high regard for the man.

Making the lateral move to Philly was purely sentimental. If he's been this driven to run a franchise, then i suspect he will put aside his nostalgia and jump at the chance.

If he's so highly regarded among owners, then why hasn't he landed one of these gigs yet. Doesn't pass the smell test. Always a bridesmaid never a bride. Why is that? If he was some great genius, I'm thinking someone would have swooped in and taken him already. Not saying he's a bad pick, don't really know enough either way to form a solid opinion.

 

[phishxhead]

If he's so highly regarded among owners, then why hasn't he landed one of these gigs yet. Doesn't pass the smell test. Always a bridesmaid never a bride. Why is that? If he was some great genius, I'm thinking someone would have swooped in and taken him already. Not saying he's a bad pick, don't really know enough either way to form a solid opinion.

That's the question I have, if he's so great why is he bouncing around the NFL?

 

[futurescout]

Excuse me, I need to change pants.

hahahahahahaha

 

[phins_4_ever]

Gambles drafts with the 49ers [lots of talent for sure!!]


2005 NFL Draft

Round Pick # Overall Name Position College
1 1 1 Alex Smith Quarterback Utah
2 1 33 David Baas Center Michigan
3 1 65 Frank Gore Running Back Miami (FL)
3 30 94 Adam Snyder Guard Oregon
5 1 137 Ronald Fields Defensive Tackle Mississippi State
5 38 174 Rasheed Marshall Wide Receiver West Virginia
6 31 205 Derrick Johnson Cornerback Washington
7 1 215 Daven Holly Cornerback Cincinnati
7 9 223 Marcus Maxwell Wide Receiver Oregon
7 34 248 Patrick Estes Offensive Tackle Virginia
7 35 249 Billy Bajema Tight End Oklahoma State

2006 NFL Draft

Round Pick # Overall Name Position College
1 6 6 Vernon Davis Tight End Maryland
1 22 22 Manny Lawson Linebacker North Carolina State
3 20 84 Brandon Williams Wide Receiver Wisconsin
4 3 100 Michael Robinson Running Back Penn State
5 7 140 Parys Haralson Linebacker Tennessee
6 6 175 Delanie Walker Wide Receiver Central Missouri State
6 23 192 Marcus Hudson Cornerback North Carolina State
6 28 197 Melvin Oliver Defensive End Louisiana State
7 46 254 Vickiel Vaughn Safety Arkansas

2007 NFL Draft

Round Pick # Overall Name Position College
1 11 11 Patrick Willis Linebacker Mississippi
1 28 28 Joe Staley Offensive Tackle Central Michigan
3 12 76 Jason Hill Wide Receiver Washington State
3 34 97 Ray McDonald Defensive End Florida
4 5 104 Jay Moore Defensive End Nebraska
4 27 126 Dashon Goldson Safety Washington
4 36 135 Joe Cohen Defensive Tackle Florida
5 10 147 Tarell Brown Cornerback Texas
6 12 186 Thomas Clayton Running Back Kansas State

2008 NFL Draft

Round Pick # Overall Name Position College
1 29 29 Kentwan Balmer Defensive Tackle North Carolina
2 8 39 Chilo Rachal Guard Southern California
3 12 75 Reggie Smith Safety Oklahoma
4 8 107 Cody Wallace Center Texas A&M
6 8 174 Josh Morgan Wide Receiver Virginia Tech
7 7 214 Larry Grant Linebacker Ohio State

2009 NFL Draft

Round Pick # Overall Name Position College
1 10 10 Michael Crabtree Wide Receiver Texas Tech
3 10 74 Glen Coffee Running Back Alabama
5 10 146 Scott McKillop Linebacker Pittsburgh
5 35 171 Nate Davis Quarterback Ball State
6 11 184 Bear Pascoe Tight End Fresno State
7 10 219 Curtis Taylor Safety Louisiana State
7 35 244 Ricky Jean-Francois Defensive End Louisiana State

2010 NFL Draft

Round Pick # Overall Name Position College
1 11 11 Anthony Davis Offensive Tackle Rutgers
1 17 17 Mike Iupati Guard Idaho
2 17 49 Taylor Mays Safety Southern California
3 27 91 NaVorro Bowman Linebacker Penn State
6 4 173 Anthony Dixon Running Back Mississippi State
6 13 182 Nate Byham Tight End Pittsburgh
6 37 206 Kyle Williams Wide Receiver Arizona State
7 17 224 Phillip Adams Cornerback South Carolina State

2011 NFL Draft

Round Pick # Overall Name Position College
1 7 7 Aldon Smith Defensive End Missouri
2 4 36 Colin Kaepernick Quarterback Nevada
3 16 80 Chris Culliver Cornerback South Carolina
4 18 115 Kendall Hunter Running Back Oklahoma State
5 32 163 Daniel Kilgore Guard Appalachian State
6 17 182 Ronald Johnson Wide Receiver USC
6 25 190 Colin Jones Safety Texas Christian
7 8 211 Bruce Miller Fullback Central Florida
7 36 239 Mike Person Guard Montana State
7 47 250 Curtis Holcomb Cornerback Florida A&M

2012 NFL Draft

Round Pick # Overall Name Position College
1 30 30 A. J. Jenkins Wide Receiver Illinois
2 29 61 LaMichael James Running Back Oregon
4 22 117 Joe Looney Guard Wake Forest
5 30 165 Darius Fleming Linebacker Notre Dame
6 10 180 Trenton Robinson Safety Michigan State
6 29 199 Jason Slowey Center Western Oregon
7 30 237 Cam Johnson Defensive End Virginia

LOTS of all pro names in there. and there are a LOT of players in those drafts who we dont recognize off the bat who are filling depth and special teams roles. his guys, top to bottom are actually making the team and producing. IMAGINE THAT??

we could do a WHOLE LOT WORSE than mr. gamble. BILL POLIAN holds him in the highest regard as a gm candidate and personel man.

Tom Donohoe is Senior Football Advisor for the Eagles. Not a GM.
I like Bill Polian but I don't think he wants to go back to being a GM.

If you get a promising young guy like Gamble why not get Polian as a Senior Advisor who can guide him?

 

[phins_4_ever]

Gamble was the frontrunner for our job last year, for a while he was a supposed lock to get the job. I forget why we passed him over.

Maybe Gamble passed on the Jets job. It's a cluster **** organization.

 

[Spesh]

If he's so highly regarded among owners, then why hasn't he landed one of these gigs yet. Doesn't pass the smell test. Always a bridesmaid never a bride. Why is that? If he was some great genius, I'm thinking someone would have swooped in and taken him already. Not saying he's a bad pick, don't really know enough either way to form a solid opinion.

I have no definitive answer to that. Just doing a quick search it appears that he backed out of the running for the Jags, then bailed on the Jets due to the issues Daytona threw up earlier(bad cap, market, quarterback situation), and simply didnt get the Chargers position. From what i can recall, he was a finalist for all the positions, especially the Jets where he had a substantial lead over everyone else. Article brushing up on some of it:

Tom Gamble, the 49ers' director of player personnel, has moved well out ahead of the pack, according to a person with knowledge of the search. The person requested anonymity because the Jets are not making details of the hiring process public. Gamble recently turned down a second interview with the Jacksonville Jaguars to focus on securing the Jets job, according to multiple reports.

However, Gamble will interview for the Chargers GM job on Tuesday, according to a report by ESPN's Adam Schefter. This means that the Jets will eye other candidates as well.

http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2013/01/jets_gm_search_tom_gamble_rema.html

Like others, i would like the team to at least look into outside the box candidates. For example, im not exactly pleased we are apparently ignoring Jason Licht of the Cardinals(who himself interviewed for GM jobs last year). That said, id take Gamble in a heartbeat. He might be a very unsexy hire, but after the on-and-off the field disaster that was Jeff Ireland perhaps hiring a solid candidate wouldnt be the worst idea.

 

[Spesh]

That's the question I have, if he's so great why is he bouncing around the NFL?

"Bouncing around" implies he couldnt keep a job. Hes apparently only worked for 3 teams since 1998(Colts, 49'ers, Eagles) and he was set to continue working with 49'ers for the foreseeable future. The changes in his responsibilities with said teams were all promotions. He made the lateral move to the Eagles out of sentiment, not because his job was in jeopardy. Gamble's reasons for leaving the 49'ers:

"I grew up here, I'm from here, I worked here, love this team, love this franchise, love the city," Gamble, the team's new vice president of pro personnel, said. "It was a big deal for me to get back this way. Thirty other opportunities I wasn't interested in. Philly called and I was interested."
.....
"I wasn't looking to go anywhere," he said. "I was in a great situation with great ownership, a great head coach and general manager, but it's Philly and that's as good as it gets in this business. That means something to me. I didn't know when it would come up again and I was ecstatic to come back."

Gamble was effusive with his praise of the 49ers willingness to let him leave for the Eagles job:

"I think a lot of this business is individuals and people and relationships. They didn't have to let me visit with Philadelphia," Gamble said, "If people respect you, you have dialogue, you have conversation, and I've been denied a bunch in this business a lot of different positions and a lot of different things.

"Not a great time of year, no question, but because of my relationships there, [general manager] Trent Baalke, and the head coach, ownership, for them to allow that for a lot of different reasons, we were able to come to an agreement and we were able to talk to them.

"We visited for a couple days. I wasn't looking to leave. Had a great situation. Loved it there. But this is a little bit something different when you have a chance to come back home. I applaud the 49ers for allowing me to do it. It's unusual, tough time of year, but they were nice enough to allow me to do it."

http://www.ninersnation.com/2013/2/21/4011422/tom-gamble-eagles-49ers-front-office

 

[MD]

Perhaps Gamble left SF so he wouldn't get caught in the crossfire between Harbaugh and Baalke. I like the thought of hiring him and I think if Ross makes it clear that Gamble will be in charge, he'll accept if offered.

 

[Doug385]

Gamble is a very solid, very well respected personnel man. But jeez, you know... wouldn't it be nice to be the forward thinking franchise for once? To paraphrase myself from another thread, wouldn't it be nice to be the team that takes Russell Wilson rather than looks at the next short quarterback and considers drafting him because Wilson worked out?

Didnt we already try this with Nick Saban?

 

[Alex Trevelyan]

Some of you guys are going overboard on Gamble. Gamble was the director of pro personnel in San Francisco for seven-years, he was only director of player personnel for one. Most of his career as an executive he had almost nothing to do with evaluating and choosing college players, this is a red flag. As director of pro personnel he just evaluated potential free agents and trade acquisitions. There are better personnel people available. Omar Khan being one of them. Jason Licht being another. Licht's resume is much more impressive than Gamble's.

 

[TheWalrus]

Didnt we already try this with Nick Saban?

I don't think that's a proper comparison. People had been trying to hire Nick Saban precisely because he was considered a slam dunk. Son of an NFL coach, a former coordinator, ran dominant, pro style college teams.

 

[TheWalrus]

Some of you guys are going overboard on Gamble. Gamble was the director of pro personnel in San Francisco for seven-years, he was only director of player personnel for one. Most of his career as an executive he had almost nothing to do with evaluating and choosing college players, this is a red flag. As director of pro personnel he just evaluated potential free agents and trade acquisitions. There are better personnel people available. Omar Khan being one of them. Jason Licht being another. Licht's resume is much more impressive than Gamble's.

Excerpted from Gamble's old bio from the 49ers Web site:

Gamble’s extensive NFL resume includes work in both college and pro scouting, contract negotiations, and a stint in the coaching ranks.

While working closely with General Manager Trent Baalke, Gamble oversees both the college and pro personnel efforts. In his previous role, Gamble monitored every NFL roster with an emphasis on scouting talent of upcoming pro free agents, while also maintaining continuous depth of personnel on the 49ers roster. In 2010, Gamble had been assigned additional responsibilities in collegiate scouting in order to maximize the use of his extensive experience in talent evaluation.

During his time in the NFL, Gamble has helped build nine playoff teams – five with Indianapolis and four with Philadelphia. Prior to his arrival in San Francisco, Gamble served as a college scout for the Colts from 1998 to 2004 under veteran NFL executive Bill Polian.

Gamble originally entered the NFL as an assistant in the player personnel department of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1988. He stayed with the Eagles through 1994, serving as a college scouting administrator, area scout, contract negotiator, and later served as the director of pro scouting.

From 1995 to 1996, Gamble served as a defensive assistant/quality control coach with the New York Jets. He then worked as a part-time college scout for the Carolina Panthers before serving as a pro scout for the Baltimore Ravens during the 1997 season.

As you can see, Gamble has worked both in college and pro scouting, and both at a high level. So your information there was simply incorrect. I think you're also in error in calling Omar Khan a "personnel" man. Khan's area of expertise is in the business and contracts side of football, not the scouting side. He is, essentially, the Dawn Aponte of the Steelers organization.

Licht on the other hand is a qualified personnel guy and I hope we bring him in.

 

[Spesh]

Some of you guys are going overboard on Gamble. Gamble was the director of pro personnel in San Francisco for seven-years, he was only director of player personnel for one. Most of his career as an executive he had almost nothing to do with evaluating and choosing college players, this is a red flag. As director of pro personnel he just evaluated potential free agents and trade acquisitions. There are better personnel people available. Omar Khan being one of them. Jason Licht being another. Licht's resume is much more impressive than Gamble's.

From '98-'04 he was a college scout for Bill Polian. He seems to have a lot of experience in most of the departments of a front office, even has some coaching experience:

Gamble’s extensive NFL resume includes work in both college and pro scouting, contract negotiations, and a stint in the coaching ranks.

While working closely with General Manager Trent Baalke, Gamble oversees both the college and pro personnel efforts. In his previous role, Gamble monitored every NFL roster with an emphasis on scouting talent of upcoming pro free agents, while also maintaining continuous depth of personnel on the 49ers roster. In 2010, Gamble had been assigned additional responsibilities in collegiate scouting in order to maximize the use of his extensive experience in talent evaluation.

During his time in the NFL, Gamble has helped build nine playoff teams – five with Indianapolis and four with Philadelphia. Prior to his arrival in San Francisco, Gamble served as a college scout for the Colts from 1998 to 2004 under veteran NFL executive Bill Polian.

Gamble originally entered the NFL as an assistant in the player personnel department of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1988. He stayed with the Eagles through 1994, serving as a college scouting administrator, area scout, contract negotiator, and later served as the director of pro scouting.

From 1995 to 1996, Gamble served as a defensive assistant/quality control coach with the New York Jets. He then worked as a part-time college scout for the Carolina Panthers before serving as a pro scout for the Baltimore Ravens during the 1997 season.

http://www.49ers.com/team/staff/tom-gamble/17f5afbb-6679-4250-bc18-6bfb470bb433