Thursday, March 18, 2010
If McCloughan leaves 49ers, would Packers be next?
If Scot McCloughan has stepped down as the San Francisco 49ers' general manager, the Green Bay Packers are one of several logical landing spots for their former college scout.
According to a report on AOL FanHouse, McCloughan no longer is the 49ers' GM because of "longstanding personal issues." ESPN.com reported shortly thereafter that McCloughan is only on an extended leave of absence to deal with those issues, which were not identified. But the FanHouse report was by a former 49ers beat writer and cited several NFL sources.
McCloughan's only public response so far is a text message to FanHouse that said, "I'm fine and moving forward."
If McCloughan's indefinite leave becomes permanent, it could open the door to his return to the Packers because of his strong ties to GM Ted Thompson.
Former GM Ron Wolf hired McCloughan to join the Packers' college scouting staff in 1994, when Thompson was the Packers' director of pro personnel. In 1999 Mike Holmgren took McCloughan with him to Seattle to become the Seawhawks' director of college scouting. A year later, Holmgren hired Thompson to run his personnel department, and from 2000 through 2004, McCloughan worked closely with Thompson on the Seahawks' drafts.
When the Packers hired Thompson as GM in 2005, he wanted to bring McCloughan with him, but the 49ers hired McCloughan that same offseason to run their personnel department.
If McCloughan is out of work, there's a good chance Thompson will be interested in bringing him back to the Packers, though Cleveland and Seattle are just as likely landing spots also. Holmgren this offseason became the Browns' president and is re-making that scouting staff. Last month Seattle hired former Packers personnel executive John Schneider as GM, and McCloughan and Schneider worked together both with the Packers and Seahawks.
If McCloughan leaves the 49ers, there is no indication whether he'd be able to join a new team before or after the draft in late April. McCloughan has been heavily involved in scouting this year's draft class for the 49ers, and any financial agreement on his departure could prevent him from joining a new team until after the draft to protect the 49ers' proprietary information.