Director of football operations Eliot Wolf to interview for 49ers GM job.
GM job is available in San Francisco
Green Bay — With an eight straight playoff appearance, the Green Bay Packers front office remains a collection of talent attractive to teams across the NFL.
Director of football operations Eliot Wolf will interview to be the San Francisco 49ers general manager, a league source confirmed on Monday night. Wolf has been considered a potential general manager in waiting with the Packers.
His interview was first reported by USA TODAY Sports.
Wolf apparently won’t be the only Packers employee interviewing for the job. Brian Gutekunst, the Packers director of player personnel, also will interview with the 49ers, according to an ESPN report. His interview has not been confirmed.
Both Wolf and Gutekunst were promoted to their current jobs in March.
Wolf, son of Hall of Fame Packers general manager Ron Wolf, has been an especially fast riser in the industry. Only 34 years old, Wolf has worked much of his life in the Packers front office, starting as a pro personnel assistant following the 2003 season. Wolf spent the 2015 season as the Packers director of player personnel, with three years as director of pro personnel preceding that.
It isn’t the first time Wolf’s name has come up in GM searches. He was the Detroit Lions top choice for general manager a year ago, but the Packers denied their interview request.
Gutekunst was promoted last spring after spending four seasons as director of college scouting. Rollins is doing better: Packers cornerback
Quinten Rollins is progressing well after leaving Sunday’s game following an awkward fall along the sideline.
Rollins, who was quickly ruled out with a neck injury, spent the night in a Detroit hospital and returned to Green Bay on Monday. He passed through the locker room briefly while reporters were present but did not speak to the media.
“Everything is progressing in a positive manner,” coach Mike McCarthy said in his news conference.
Rollins remained down along the Lions’ sideline after tumbling over the top of wide receiver Marvin Jones Jr., who made a 30-yard reception with Rollins in pursuit. The second-year defensive back from Miami (Ohio) landed in a sitting position but did not rise to his feet. He turned his head slightly but was quickly stabilized by the medical staff.
“You never want to see a guy get taken out on a stretcher,” cornerback
Damarious Randall said. “The team was just pulling closer together and we just knew that we were going to fight for him.”
Players from both teams dropped to a knee for several minutes as trainers tended to Rollins late in the third quarter. Many of his teammates on defense offered words of encouragement as Rollins was loaded onto a backboard and carted off the field. An ambulance took him to the hospital immediately.
“Everything so far is going very well,” McCarthy said. “We feel good about it . ... There’s still some tests that we have to go through, but ... so far so good.”
Though the end result of Sunday evening was positive for the Packers — they held off the Lions to win the NFC North title and secure at least one home playoff game — the toll it took on the secondary was not.
In addition to Rollins, whose status for Sunday and beyond remains uncertain, the Packers lost Randall (knee/shoulder) and cornerback Makinton Dorleant (knee) over the course of the game. By game’s end, the Packers were using two safeties as their slot corners and Micah Hyde, a corner-safety hybrid, out on the perimeter opposite LaDarius Gunter.
“We’ve got a lot of versatile guys,” Randall said. “That’s why they drafted guys like that, just in case things like that happen, and guys are ready for the challenge.”
As with Rollins, the potential availability for Randall and Dorleant will be determined later in the week. Randall, who entered the game with a shoulder injury, bumped
knees with someone in the first quarter and was hobbled the rest of the way. He returned briefly before dropping out a final time in the third quarter.
Dorleant, the undrafted free agent from Northen Iowa, injured his knee trying to change direction during a special-teams play. He is waiting for the swelling to go down before undergoing an MRI.
Three yards short: Receiver Davante Adams staggered through Ford Field’s visitors’ locker room Sunday night. From a corner, teammate Jordy
Nelson asked if Adams
got it.
Adams, dazed in disbelief, held up three fingers.
The friendly ribbing was about to begin. Adams knew it would. Moments earlier, a public relations staffer delivered the news.
He had landed on 997 yards for the season. Three short of 1,000.
“I’m sick thinking about it,” Adams said. “But we got the win today, and that’s really all I’m thinking about. I put my (NFC North champions) hat in my bag already, but I get to put that hat on and wear that for the rest of the day and all week. So it’s a great feeling.”
It was the bounce-back season Adams desperately needed after his sophomore slump in 2015. He has emerged as a viable threat, a near-1,000-yard receiver.
Adams had two touchdown catches against the Lions, the third time this season he’s had more than one in a game. He finished with 12 touchdown catches on the season, tying Pittsburgh’s Antonio Brown and Tampa Bay’s
Mike Evans for second in the NFL behind Nelson.
With three more yards, the Packers would have had a pair of 1,000-yard receivers for the seventh time since 1940. Nelson finished his first season back from a torn ACL with 97 catches, 1,257 yards and 14 touchdowns. The Packers last had a pair of 1,000-yard receivers in 2014, when Nelson and Randall Cobb each crossed that barrier.