The Miami Dolphins’ general manager search seems to be moving quickly. On Wednesday night, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Dolphins have advanced to the second round of interviews, all in-person, for the position and are down to four candidates for the job. For what it’s worth, Miami “mutually parted ways” with their previous general manager, Chris Grier, on Halloween, so they’ve had significantly more runway than the Atlanta Falcons, the only other team with a general manager opening, who
fired theirs on Sunday.
The finalists for the job, per Schefter, include Jon-Eric Sullivan, the Packers’ vice president of player personnel, who has been with the team since he was a training camp intern in 2003. From there, Sullivan was promoted to football operations department employee, central plains region south, southeast region scout, director of college scouting, co-director of player peronnel and finally his 2022 promotion to his current role.
Packers fans are probably most familiar with Sullivan from draft weekend interviews, as he and Milt Hendrickson, director of football operations, are the most-interviewed members of the front office beyond general manager Brian Gutekunst. (Cap guru Russ Ball is an important member of the front office, but he hasn’t really ushered in front of cameras before.)
Sullivan was previously a finalist for the Jacksonville Jaguars’ general manager job in 2025, a search which started very late after the team dragged their feet on the firing of Trent Baalke (he scared head coaching candidates away!) Sullivan had a second interview with the Tennessee Titans last year, a search run by a former Packers front office member (2009-2022) and current Titans’ president of football operations Chad Brinker. Sullivan also interviewed with the Las Vegas Raiders, too.
Current Miami head coach Mike McDaniel is a close friend of Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, and the list of initial candidates for the Dolphins included many front office members who had previously worked with McDaniel’s close friends (including Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay and San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan.) Early reporting claims, though, that GM candidates haven’t been told that McDaniel will absolutely be their head coach in 2026, and Josina Anderson has reported that the Dolphins have “been in touch” with former Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, currently the hottest coaching candidate on the market.
Previously, Schefter had claimed that seven teams had called Harbaugh’s representatives about becoming their 2026 head coach, despite only six jobs being available right now (aside from the Ravens, who just moved on from Harbaugh). When asked on ESPN Wisconsin today if the Packers were the team that called about Harbaugh, he said, “I’d be surprised.”
The other candidates for the job, per Schefter, are Dolphins interim general manager Champ Kelly, 49ers director of scouting and football operations Josh Williams (obvious Shanahan connection there) and Los Angeles Chargers assistant general manager Chad Alexander.
