Cardinals name Monti Ossenfort as new general manager

Monti Ossenfort (Google Images)

According to the Associated Press on Monday, the Arizona Cardinals have named Monti Ossenfort of Luverne, Minnesota as their new general manager. This will be the first general manager assignment in the National Football League for Ossenfort.

Over the last 22 years, Ossenfort has worked with the Minnesota Vikings, Houston Texans, New England Patriots, and Tennessee Titans. He was with the Vikings as an intern in 2001. Ossenfort was then a Professional Personnel Intern with the Texans in 2002. After a year in New England as a personal assistant in 2003, he returned to the Texans, where he was a professional and college scouting assistant in 2004, and a college scout in 2005.

Then Ossenfort returned to the Patriots for the next 14 years. He was the Patriots area scout from 2006 to 2008, the Patriots national scout from 2009 to 2010, the Patriots assistant director of college scouting from 2011 to 2013, the Patriots director of college scouting from 2014 to 2019, and the Titans director of player personnel from 2020 to 2022.

While with the Patriots, Ossenfort was on four Super Bowl winning teams. He was with the Patriots when they won Super Bowl XXXVIII on February 1, 2004  (beat the Carolina Panthers 32-29) as a personal assistant. Then the next three Super Bowl titles, Ossenfort was the Patriots director of college scouting. He was part of the Patriots team that won Super Bowl XLIX on February 1, 2015 in a 28-24 Patriots win over the Seattle Seahawks, Super Bowl LI on February 5, 2017 in a 34-28 Patriots win over the Atlanta Falcons, and Super Bowl LIII on February 3, 2018 in a 13-3 Patriots win over the Los Angeles Rams.

Clearly the Cardinals are hiring Ossenfort for his accomplishments in New England rather than Tennessee. This past season, the Titans underachieved in the NFC South and had a record of seven wins and 10 losses.

Ossenfort’s first major assignment in Arizona will be to hire a head coach. Kliff Kingsbury was fired on January 9, one day after the conclusion of the 2022 NFL regular season.

Should the Cardinals have taken a chance on Ossenfort now or waited until after the Super Bowl, when better candidates could have been made available?

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