Earlier this week, the Raiders finally announced their new GM hire, Tom Telesco. Telesco’s recent work came with the Raiders’ division rival, the Los Angeles Chargers. Tom has a load of experience, and has made both smart and bad decisions in his career. So far, Raider Nation seems split on their opinion of the hire. Let’s take a closer look at Telesco’s past work and see how fit he is for the job.
Finally, A GM With Experience
Before this hire, Mark Davis sure did love himself an inexperienced general manager. Here’s a list of the Raiders past GM hires:
- Hue Jackson (de facto GM)
- Reggie Mckenzie (first-time GM)
- Mike Mayock (first-time GM)
- Dave Ziegler (first-time full-time GM)
Those hires date back to 2011, and since then it is no coincidence that Las Vegas/Oakland has made a ton of head-scratching moves.
Telesco will be a breath of fresh air, bringing over a decade of experience in this role. He’s made a lot of good moves in his career, but it’s more than fair to criticize some of his decisions as well. Let’s get into that.
Telesco’s History
Telesco has had an eventful tenure in Los Angeles. One of the things he was best at was evaluating talent in the NFL draft. Telesco hit on several key draft picks in Los Angeles, and this led to a very promising core for the Chargers over the past decade.
Some of Telesco’s best draft hits were; Keenan Allen, Derwin James, and Justin Herbert. These three are each stars in the league, and alongside some other players acquired through trades and free agency, Telesco built some very impressive rosters during his time with the Bolts.
Some of those key trades and signings were Casey Heyward Jr, Corey Linsley, Khalil Mack, and Morgan Fox. Additionally, Telesco signed Austin Ekeler and Michael Davis as UDFA’s.
One thing that must be addressed is the Chargers’ cap situation. Los Angeles is in salary cap hell, nearly $50 million over the salary cap. That’s not acceptable for a team that finished the year the way the Chargers did. There are multiple people in charge of the salary cap for Los Angeles, so it’s unclear how much of this fault lies with Telesco. He surely did have a part in it, though.
Telesco did his best to put competent, competitive teams on the field, but the results did not go his way. The Chargers had just three playoff appearances in Telesco’s decade-long tenure, and only two playoff wins. It’s true that injuries and bad coaching did plague the team for much of that time, but still, Telesco was unable to field a team that made a deep playoff run. It’s hard to tell just how much of that is his fault, though.
Beginning His Raiders Tenure
Telesco has done a lot of good in the past, and the Raiders are hoping he can do the same here. For the first time in nearly 15 years the Raiders will have a GM with experience in the role, and his first offseason will be a massive one. An 8-9 team on the fringe of the playoffs and without a franchise quarterback is not an easy animal to tackle. If Telesco can nail his first draft selections, he’ll be off to a great start.
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