CHARLOTTE, NC – The Carolina Panthers hope Scott Fitterer will do for them what helped the Seattle Seahawks do after the 2013 season.
Win a Super Bowl.
The 47-year-old vice president of football operations in Seattle was offered the position of general manager of the Panthers on Thursday, the team announced.
He was chosen over three other finalists, Kansas City Assistant Chief of Staff Ryan Poles (35), San Francisco 49th Vice President of Personnel, Adam Peters (41), and Tennis Titans Vice President Monti Ossenfort (42).
Fitterer was a late addition to the search, but, according to sources, quickly impressed the search panel.
Carolina interviewed 15 candidates in general to replace Marty Hurney, who was fired with two games remaining in a 5-11 2020 season. Among them were two internal candidates, player negotiation director and salary cap manager Samir Suleiman and director player staff Pat Stewart.
Each of the finalists matches the job description of being relatively young, with a strong research background, to work with head coach Matt Rhule to identify talent. Owner David Tepper is also looking for a data-driven general manager.
Rhule will make final decisions on the list of 53 people, according to sources with knowledge about employment, similar to what Andy Reid has with Kansas City and Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots.
However, NFL Hall of Fame executive Bill Polian warned him not to do too much.
“It’s very, very, very overrated,” said Polian, who helped Indianapolis win a Super Bowl during the 2006 season and built a Buffalo roster that reached four Super Bowls in the early 1990s. “An effort between GM and head The coach and the coaching staff have to get the best 53 players and, if there are problems, it is almost always decided in favor of the head coach. He has to walk and play.
“I’ve only had two situations in my entire career, and in both cases, it went the way the head coach wanted.”
Fitterer has been with Seattle since 2001, initially as an area researcher. He raised the chain to his current position, where he worked closely with general manager John Schneider to make the Seahawks a perennial playoff team.
Fitterer has interviewed for several general manager positions in the league in recent years. In his first four years as director of university research, he selected 13 players who eventually became incumbents.
Fitterer was an athlete with two sports in college, playing defender and playing at UCLA and LSU. He spent three years in the Toronto Blue Jays minor leagues before joining football as a part-time researcher for the New York Giants in 1998.