Rams to hire former Broncos GM, Brian Xanders

Alden Gonzalez
ESPN Staff Writer

Can confirm that the Rams are hiring former Broncos GM Brian Xanders, as first reported by NFL.com. He will be senior personnel executive, and it sounds like this was a hire that was made by Rams GM Les Snead. Xanders and Snead were on the Falcons together from 1997 to 2007. Xanders spent the last five years as a senior personnel executive with the Lions.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/team/_/name/lar/los-angeles-rams

==

This is happening. Not yet sure what official role will be. Will work with Snead in some capacity. https://t.co/buHrE7PI31

— Rich Hammond (@Rich_Hammond) July 20, 2017

Les Snead and Brian Xanders worked together for 10 years with the Atlanta Falcons, so one would assume there's some chemistry there.

— Rich Hammond (@Rich_Hammond) July 20, 2017

..

from the wiki:

Brian Xanders

Career history as an executive:

Atlanta Falcons (1994–2007)
Player Personnel/Coaching/Football Operations
Denver Broncos (2008)
Assistant general manager
Denver Broncos (2009–2012)
General manager
Detroit Lions (2013–present)
Senior personnel executive

Brian Xanders (born April 10, 1971) is an American football executive and former Florida State football player. He is the former general manager for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL), and currently is a senior personnel executive for the NFL’s Detroit Lions.

Xanders is in his fifth season with the Lions, following a five-year stint with the Denver Broncos. During his last four seasons with the Broncos he served as the team’s general manager. For the Lions, Xanders works with all areas of the club’s player personnel department, including college scouting, pro personnel, advance scouting, coaching research/analytics and football systems development. He has also modified and enhanced the evaluation process and systems for the NFL Draft, free agency and internal information acquisition.

This season marks Xanders’ 23rd year in the NFL working in a variety of player personnel, scouting, football operations and coaching staff roles during his time at three different teams (Detroit, Denver and Atlanta). He has direct experience in player evaluations with the last 21 NFL Draft classes and 16 free agency periods. During his tenure as the Broncos’ general manager, he engineered the personnel transformation where 90-percent of the team’s roster (55 of 61 players) were acquired through the draft, free agency or re-signed by the club. The four-year personnel foundation from 2009-2012, yielded 5 straight division titles and a 64-26 record from 2011-2015 (two Super Bowl appearances / Super Bowl XL Champions).

The Broncos executed high-producing NFL Draft classes from 2009-12, which finished fifth in the NFL in playtime and third in games started during the four-year period. Those four draft classes became the second highest compensated draft classes in NFL history from 2012-2016. There are 22 primary starters (1+ year) on NFL teams from those draft classes, including five Pro Bowl players: LB Von Miller, WR Demaryius Thomas, CB Chris Harris, TE Julius Thomas and OG Zane Beadles.

Core Starters [2009-2012] – 22 (1+ year as a starter)
Pro Bowl Players – 5
Pro Bowl Appearances: 15 (3rd)

LB/Von Miller [2011 – 1] 7-year starter, 5 Pro Bowls, 5 NFL All-Pro
WR/Demaryius Thomas [2010 – 1] 6-year starter, 4 Pro Bowls, 2 NFL All-Pro
DC/Chris Harris [2011 – CFA] 5-year starter, 3 Pro Bowls, 3 NFL All-Pro
TE/Julius Thomas [2011 – 4] 5-year starter, 2 Pro Bowls
OG/Zane Beadles [2010 – 2] 8-year starter, 1 Pro Bowl
OT/Orlando Franklin [2011 – 2] 7-year starter
WR/Eric Decker [2010 – 3] 6-year starter
DT/Derek Wolfe [2012 – 2] 6-year starter
DT/Malik Jackson [2012 – 5] 4-year starter
DE/Robert Ayers [2009 – 1] 4-year starter
DC/Perrish Cox [2010 – 5] 4-year starter
LB/Danny Trevathan [2012 – 6] 3-year starter
OC/J.D. Walton [2010 – 3] 3-year starter
FS/Rahim Moore [2011 – 2] 3-year starter
RB/Knowshon Moreno [2009 – 1] 3-year starter
TE/Virgil Green [2011 – 7] 3-year starter
6 players with 1-year as core starter

There were also eight other Pro Bowl players who were acquired, signed or extended during his tenure: QB Peyton Manning (FA, 2012-15), SS Brian Dawkins (UFA, 2009-11), WR Brandon Lloyd (FA, 2009-11), RB Willis McGahee (FA, 2011), CB Champ Bailey (re-signed, 2011), DE Elvis Dumervil (re-signed, 2010), WR Brandon Marshall (re-signed, 2010), and OT Ryan Clady (1st round, 2008).

During his tenure in Denver, he also supervised the day-to-day operations of the Broncos’ college scouting, pro scouting, labor operations/salary cap, equipment, medical, video, football systems and football operations departments. He served on the NFL College Advisory, NFL Combine Selection and the NFL Statistics Committees. He was originally hired by Denver as assistant general manager in 2008.

Before joining the Broncos, he worked 14 seasons (1994-2008) with the Atlanta Falcons in various scouting, player personnel, football operations, coaching staff and technology/systems roles. Xanders was a member of the Falcons’ defensive coaching staff on their 1998 team that became the first in franchise history to earn a Super Bowl berth (XXXIII). Selected by the Falcons to attend Stanford University’s NFL Program for Managers in 2005, he has given presentations at several universities on NFL player personnel issues.

A former linebacker who played for Bobby Bowden at Florida State University from 1989-92, Xanders was a member of four bowl-winning teams with the Seminoles that had a 42-7 combined record. He was an All-Atlantic Coast Conference academic team selection and graduated from FSU with a master’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree in business management. Xanders and his wife of 18 years, Amy, have two children, Reid and Mary Claire and reside in Northville, Michigan. He participates with Habitat for Humanity charities, Homes for the Holidays, Detroit Soup Kitchen and Warrick Dunn Charities.

===

Brian Xanders no longer with Detroit Lions front office

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2017/05/04/who-is-brian-xanders/101283492/

Brian Xanders’ time with the Detroit Lions has come to an end.

Xanders has left the team after four seasons as a senior personnel executive. The news was first reported by InsideTheLeague.com.

Former Lions general manager Martin Mayhew brought Xanders into the fold after the 2012 season, and Xanders has worked in several areas of the front office.

He helped scout on both the college and pro side, and helped the Lions’ restructure their scouting database upon his arrival in 2013.

Before coming to the Lions, Xanders spent nearly two decades with the Atlanta Falcons and Denver Broncos. He was Broncos general manager from 2009-12, when the team drafted Demaryius Thomas and Von Miller in the first round.

Xanders did not immediately return a text message from the Free Press.

The Lions overhauled their scouting department after Bob Quinn was hired as general manager last year. Quinn brought Kyle O’Brien in as his top adviser, hired Brendan Prophett to run the pro personnel department and kept Lance Newmark as director of college scouting.

===

The Lions’ senior personnel executive for the past four years has stepped down, per a report.

https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2017/5/4/15543450/detroit-lions-senior-personnel-executive-brian-xanders-steps-down

In somewhat surprising news, Detroit Lions Senior Personnel Executive Brian Xanders is stepping down from his post after four years, according to a report from Neil Stratton:

Xanders joined the team in 2013 after a very successful run with the Denver Broncos as their general manager. According to the team website, since joining the team, Xanders has been working “with all areas of the club’s player personnel department, including college scouting, pro personnel, advance scouting, coaching research/analytics and football information systems development.”

Xanders immediately made a name for himself when the Lions had arguably the most successful 2013 draft in the league, despite it being one of the worst draft classes in recent history. Although his role in the draft process wasn’t clear, he was credited for completely modernizing Detroit’s evaluation process.

The team has yet to confirm the news, so it isn’t clear whether this was a firing, a resignation or a mutual agreement to part ways. However, this split does resemble the way things ended for Xanders in Denver. John Elway took over the team as the executive vice president of football operations in 2011. After taking a year to work alongside each other, the two mutually agreed to part ways the next year, and Elway assumed full general manager duties.

Now that Lions general manager Bob Quinn has had a year to work with Xanders, it’s quite possible that the two have also agreed to part ways. As we saw last year, Quinn has not hesitated in overhauling the Lions’ scouting department. Just a few weeks after accepting the job as Lions GM, Quinn fired several long-standing scouting directors.

Slowly but surely, this team is becoming Bob Quinn’s organization, from the top to the bottom.