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A league source tells PFT that the New Orleans Saints have fired Vice President of Player Personnel Rick Mueller.
We’re hearing that Mueller is out as a result of losing a power struggle with General Manager Mickey Loomis.
There may have been some friction between the two related to the fact that Loomis has a background as a salary cap manager, while Mueller’s background is in scouting and evaluating players.
But the thinking we’ve heard in league circles is that what ultimately matters for front-office executives is neither expertise in managing the cap nor in scouting. What really matters is having the ear of ownership. In New Orleans, Loomis is the one who has ownership’s ear.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Those of us in Detroit know all too well about “having ownership’s ear” and its consequences.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 4th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Wow, two Muellers get their walking papers from the Saints
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June 4th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Randy Mueller is the complete spare. I am not familiar with Rick. Randy will run a franchise in the gorund for you and then get hired onto ESPN as an Expert. Hahahahahahha. Randy Mueller an Expert. What are the qualifications for that designation? Getting fired everywhere you go for completely turning the Team into a toilet? THen Randy is an expert.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 4th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
More and more, the bean counters are taking over the football side of things, not good. Eventually the game of Football will literally just be a bunch of accountants running around chasing a dollar bill.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 4th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Good Riddance to Rick Mueller. After that disasterous 2007 draft class for the Saints he should have been let go. I was surprised he stayed this long with the Saints after his brohter got canned by Tom Benson 5 years ago. Mickey Loomis is one of the better gm’s in the league today; He has the Saints in great shape salary cap wise. The Saints organization is tem times better ever isnce Mickey Loomis became GM; The Saints under Loomis leadership are one the league’s better run small market teams.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 4th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Dont bash Randy Mueller. He stockpiled some draft picks for the Dolphins. He was able to get two 2nd round picks for a Pro Bowl TE (Donald Lee, a WR that only caught 112 balls (Welker), and Chris Chambers.
I think that is a great job by a GM. Probably because I am a Patriots fan
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June 4th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Yeah, Randy Mueller sucks. All he’s done in his career is draft Joey Galloway, Pete Kendall, Fred Thomas, Phillip Daniels, Shawn Springs, Walter Jones, Itula Mili, Anthony Simmons, Todd Weiner, Ahman Green, Darren Howard, Marc Bulger and Deuce McCalister. That is no reason to think he knows anything.
I mean, just because all those guys were at least 7-year starters in the NFL, well, that doesn’t prove a thing!
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June 4th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Ferris Mueller’s day off?
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June 4th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I’ll agree that in the 2007 draft the Saints got debacled (Thanks Emmitt). But you can’t throw Mueller under the bus for the 2007 draft without giving the man huge props for the 2006 draft. Throw Reggie Bush out of it. You still have Roman Harper, Jahari Evans, and Marques Colston who all started. And they got great sub play from Ninkovich and Strief. And thats not counting picking up Weatherford as a street free agent. Simply put, the fantastic run in 2006 never happens without this draft.
I don’t know if he should be fired or not. The inner workings of the Saints are best left to madman to ponder. All I’m saying is don’t call the man worthless without looking beyond one year.
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June 4th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
As a Saints fan, I’m somewhat frightened by this. First of all, Mueller was a football guy, Loomis is a money guy, and I have no reason to trust his player evaluation skills. Worse, if the rumor that Payton will be exerting more control over personnel is true, I’m terrified. Not only do I think it’s almost always a bad idea for a coach to “pick the groceries” (Holmgren, Shanahan being examples of very good coaches who can’t evaluate talent), but Payton shows the possibility to become Mike Martz Jr. with some of his bizarre play calling (reverse against the Bucs last year, overuse of Bush when it’s not working) and game management, and I’m not so comfortable with him picking the players too. Next thing you know we’ll have Trung Candidate’s little brother and ten other running backs, but no defensive players…
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June 5th, 2008 at 12:22 am
mike florio,
Can you please drug test some of these posters on your website before they pop off. Can these people read, they are confusing Randy Mueller with Rick Mueller. If these “experts” actually read your website, they would have realized that Randy Mueller was hired by A.J. Smith to work in San Diego and that Rick Mueller is a completely different guy. I can’t believe the IQ level on PFT, maybe these are some of Eskin’s listeners that read this site.
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June 5th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Another football guy gets his walking papers in favor of a money guy…the NFL is going to hell if you’re not a Moneyball attorney whose main function is to suck up to ownership. And someone said that I need psychiatric help *shakes head*…
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June 6th, 2008 at 8:37 am
This story should get as much play as the CBA ongoing saga…
It strikes to the core of what is wrong with NFL owners…
The only owners as bad as Benson is Bidwell and Ford…
Some these posters like ryc30078 need to have their meds checked if they think Mickey Loomis is a good executive…
The best thing he ever did was acquiese to his boss, Benson, and stand in his wedding and pay for his own tuxedo; ask Florio, he’ll tell you; in fact, he should repost that story, priceless…
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