The 2023 season also provided Cunningham with another learning experience, how to deal with issues that go beyond the field. Chicago found itself making headlines for the wrong reasons during the 2023 season, having two assistant coaches dismissed for cause due to inappropriate workplace behavior. While Cunningham wasn’t directly involved with the aftermath, he saw how an NFL organization handles it publicly and privately.

On the football side of things, Cunningham’s work as an area scout in Baltimore helped create a Super Bowl champion. A few years later in Philadelphia, he helped construct a perennial NFC contender and aided the Eagles in the transition from Carson Wentz to Jalen Hurts. Now, he’s one of the top architects behind the successful Bears’ rebuild. All of these qualities make Cunningham an ideal target for Las Vegas.

It’s rare for a team’s interim general manager and head coach to both have realistic chances of retaining the full-time jobs, but Las Vegas is in that unique position. When evaluating options for head coach and Raiders general manager candidates, Kelly might have a better shot than Antonio Pierce at retaining his title in 2024.

Related: Las Vegas Raiders draft picks 2024

The 44-year-old’s playing career was short after graduating from Kentucky, only spending a few seasons (2003-’06) with the Lexington Horsemen of the indoor football league. While things didn’t work out for him on the field, Kelly has been on a rapid ascension up the front-office ladder in the NFL

It all started as the general manager for the team he played for, with Kelly serving as a contract advisor, GM and wide receivers coach for Lexington in 2017. A year later, he was hired as a college scout by the Denver Broncos then promoted to assistant coordinator of pro/college scouting (2008-’09), assistant director of pro personnel (2010-’14) then joined the Chicago Bears as director of pro scouting (2015-’16) followed by a distant as the team’s assistant director of player personnel (2017-’21).

After joining Las Vegas in 2022 as the assistant GM, Kelly helped identify and draft Day 2 and 3 talents like Thayer Munford Jr (238th overall pick), Aidan O’Connell and Tre Tucker. His talent evaluation also goes beyond the NFL Draft, with Jack Jones and Robert Spillane providing examples of talents found in free agency and on the waiver wire. Kelly is going to be a full-time NFL general manager one day and Las Vegas would be a good fit.

We’ve been waiting several years for an NFL team to hire Joe Hortiz as a general manager and his time might finally be coming. The veteran executive has spent more than two decades with the Baltimore Ravens, learning from both Ozzie Newsome and now Eric DeCosta.

Related: Las Vegas Raiders coaching candidates

We don’t have to tell you what you already know about the Ravens; draft history. Baltimore doesn’t just hit on its first-round picks (Zay Flowers, Kyle Hamilton, Lamar Jackson, Tyler Linderbaum, Marlon Humphrey, Ronnie Stanley, C.J. Mosley) it also hits home runs on Days 2 and 3 (Za’Darius Smith, Kyle Juszyck, Matt Judon, Chuck Calrk, Bradley Bozeman, Mark Andrews, Orlando Brown Jr., Justice Hill, Geno Stone, Brandon Stephens, Ben Cleveland, Isaiah Likely and Justin Madubuike). Hortiz scouted and helped recomm

We like Hortiz for another reason. He’s media friendly and that should also matter to Las Vegas, especially team owner Mark Davis. In recent years with the Ravens, Hortiz has done breakdown videos on NFL Draft prospects and analyzes draft classes. An NFL executive willing to teach fans about the team’s evaluation process and educate them on incoming players makes for a better product and builds stronger fan support.