McKenzie meets with Tennessee

[Heatherthepackgirl]

By TOM SILVERSTEIN
[email protected]
Posted: Jan. 26, 2007

Green Bay Packers pro personnel director Reggie McKenzie interviewed Friday for the Tennessee Titans' general manager position, sources said.


Packers pro personnel director Reggie McKenzie (left) and GM Ted Thompson watch as Green Bay prepares for a game against the Bears last September. McKenzie interviewed Friday for the Titans' GM position, according to sources.






The Packers gave the Titans permission last week to interview McKenzie, a native of Knoxville, Tenn., who attended the University of Tennessee. McKenzie is one of a handful of candidates the Titans are interviewing for the position formerly held by Floyd Reese.

McKenzie has privately expressed a strong interest in the job because of the proximity to his hometown and the increased responsibility he would have. The Titans aren't giving their general manager final say on the head coach, but they are allowing him control of the personnel department.

Titans coach Jeff Fisher is considered one of the top coaches in the NFL, but he has expressed no desire to run the football operation by himself. Still, he will wield tremendous influence in everything the Titans do, so the new general manager won't have the kind of authority, for example, that Ted Thompson has in Green Bay.

McKenzie, 44, interviewed for the Houston Texans' general manager position last year but did not get the job.

Under Thompson, McKenzie is in charge of the pro personnel department but he also has been given college scouting duties. Both he and personnel analyst John Schneider handle both pro and college scouting assignments.

Among the others the Titans are interested in are Seattle vice president of football operations Mike Reinfeldt, Seattle director of player personnel Ruston Webster, Jacksonville director of pro personnel Charles Bailey and possibly Miami general manager Randy Mueller. They are also considering two in-house candidates.

It's unclear how Thompson would make up for McKenzie's loss if he were hired by the Titans. McKenzie's assistants, Tim Terry and Eliot Wolf, would be candidates, although Thompson could bring someone in from outside.

 

[Zero2Cool]

McKenzie out of running for Titans' GM job

Former Packers exec Reinfeldt is front-runner

By Pete Dougherty
[email protected]

Former Green Bay Packers executive Mike Reinfeldt is a leading candidate for the Tennessee Titans’ general manager job, but the Packers’ current director of pro personnel, Reggie McKenzie, no longer is in the running, said sources familiar with the Titans’ search.

Reinfeldt, who was a high-ranking front-office executive with the Packers from 1991-98, was invited back for a second interview with Titans owner Bud Adams this week. Reinfeldt, who currently is the Seattle Seahawks’ vice president/football administration, has a strong and long relationship with Adams and the organization, dating to when Reinfeldt was a starting safety for eight seasons (1976-83) when the team was the Houston Oilers.

McKenzie, in the meantime, was one of seven other candidates the Titans originally interviewed but was not asked back for a meeting with Adams. Besides having extensive experience as a pro and college scout with the Packers since 1994, McKenzie also has strong ties to the state of Tennessee. He was born in Knoxville, played football at the University of Tennessee and continues to run a three-day football camp in Knoxville every summer.

This was the second time McKenzie, who turns 44 on Feb. 8, has interviewed for a GM job. The other was last year with the Houston Texans.

The Titans are replacing Floyd Reese, who resigned this offseason after the team decided not to offer him a contract extension. Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher also carries the title of executive vice president and has a strong say in personnel, though he’s expressed no desire to take over the team’s personnel department as well as coach.

 

[Greg C.]

Good. Let them plunder Holmgren's front office instead of ours.