Ossenfort Named Arizona Cardinals GM

A member of the Tennessee Titans front office since 2020, he was a candidate to replace Jon Robinson.

Tennessee Titans

There is one fewer candidate in the Tennessee Titans’ search for a general manager.

Monti Ossenfort is the new general manager of the Arizona Cardinals, that team announced Monday afternoon.

With Arizona, he will be in charge of personnel for a franchise that has been to the postseason just once in seven years and has not won a playoff game since 2015. After finishing 4-13 this season, the Cardinals have the No. 3 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Arizona also is seeking a head coach. Kliff Kingsbury was fired following the regular season after having gone 28-37-1 in four seasons.

"It was critically-important for us to find the right person to lead us as general manager and there is no doubt in my mind that we have that in Monti Ossenfort," Arizona owner Michael Bidwill said in a statement. "He possesses every attribute of a successful GM – passion, leadership, intelligence, work ethic – and his extensive experience has clearly prepared him for this role. We could not be more thrilled to have Monti and his family joining the Cardinals."

Bidwell added that wants Ossenfort to be involved in the selection of a head coach.

Ossenfort, the Titans’ director of player personnel for the past three seasons, was one of two in-house candidates who kicked off the interview process last week as the Titans seek a replacement for Jon Robinson, who was fired on Dec. 6.

He reportedly interviewed with Arizona on Friday, three days after he met with Titans franchise leaders led by controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk.

Before he came to Tennessee, Ossenfort was runner-up in the Cleveland Browns’ general manager search in 2020. Last year, he interviewed with three teams (Chicago, Minnesota and the New York Giants) in pursuit of a job as a general manager.

With the Titans, he was a key member of the front office that rolled through an NFL-record 91 different players during the 2021 season. Tennessee went 12-5 and finished as the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs. Tennessee finished first in the AFC South in each of his first two seasons.

The 44-year-old spent more than a decade in the New England Patriots’ front office before he joined the Titans. During that time, the Patriots won four Super Bowls, and he replaced Robinson as New England’s scouting director in 2014 when Robinson left to join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ front office.