After several interviews for general manager jobs in the 2025 offseason, Jon-Eric Sullivan finally got one after his first interview in 2026. Sullivan, who had spent the last several years as the Green Bay Packers’ Vice President of Player Personnel, will be the new general manager of the Miami Dolphins, as first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Sullivan was one of four finalists for the Dolphins job and was interviewing in person with Miami’s top brass this week.
The Dolphins had a tumultuous 2025
season, in which they and former GM Chris Grier reportedly mutually parted ways in October. The team also fired head coach Mike McDaniel this week, but not until Thursday, well after they had begun interviews for the GM opening. Whether Sullivan, the team’s pick, had any influence on the team moving on from McDaniel remains to be seen.
With Sullivan moving into that role, the Packers will lose a keen talent evaluator and the man who has been GM Brian Gutekunst’s number two for the last several seasons. Sullivan has surely been heavily influenced by Gutekunst and his mentor, Ted Thompson, having worked his way up from within the Packers organization. In fact, Sullivan’s tenure with the team began in 2003 as an area scout, even before Thompson returned to the team as GM.
Expect Gutekunst to promote from within to fill Sullivan’s old position. Sullivan and John Wojciechowski spent a few years as co-Directors of Player Personnel prior to Sullivan’s promotion to VP in 2022. Wojciechowski has held the Director role since then and is the logical choice to move up into the now-vacant VP role.
Sullivan joins John Schneider and Eliot Wolf as former Packers personnel executives who currently have personnel control over other NFL teams. Schneider is the GM of the Seattle Seahawks, a role he has held since 2010, while Wolf is the New England Patriots’ executive VP of Player Personnel, which is a de facto GM role in that team’s organization.
