The Washington Football Team is expected to make Marty Hurney its new general manager, sources confirmed to ESPN.
The move, which was first reported by the NFL Network, provides another familiar face for coach Ron Rivera.
Hurney spent parts of five seasons with Rivera in Carolina, having been fired twice. He hired Rivera in 2011 and spent one more year there before being ousted.
He returned in 2017 as an interim general manager and remained in that job until he was fired in December, in part because his “old-school” methods clashed with owner David Tepper’s desire to find someone more aligned with an analytics- and data-driven approach.
Rivera will still have power on the football side in the organization, having been hired to provide a “coach-centric” model, according to owner Dan Snyder. But Washington wanted to add a person to its front office to take some of the administrative burden off Rivera. Hurney handled the salary cap in Carolina, among other duties. Last offseason, Washington hired his former assistant from Carolina, Rob Rogers, to handle that role.
Washington also talked to former Detroit general manager Martin Mayhew, Tennessee’s vice president of player personnel Ryan Cowden and Washington’s director of pro personnel Eric Stokes, among others. Rivera did not interview Kyle Smith, Washington’s vice president of player personnel, who has been with the franchise for 11 years.
Hurney returns to an organization he used to cover as a sportswriter. He spent four years covering the team for The Washington Times before moving into the team’s public relations department. He became San Diego’s assistant general manager in 1990.
Washington hired 12 former Carolina coaches plus head athletic trainer Ryan Vermillion after landing Rivera. It also hired Rogers, Stokes and pro scout Donnie Warren, who also had been with the Panthers.