© Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The 49ers are reportedly interested in former Indianapolis Colts general manager Ryan Grigson for a front office position, according to CBS Sports reporter Jason La Canfora.
Last week, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said he does not plan to make any changes to the coaching staff. He did not touch on the front office.
Grigson served a five-year stint as Colts general manager from 2012 to 2016. His tenure was defined by aggressive, and at times questionable, personnel decisions. Some blossomed and others backfired.
In 2012, he inherited a 2-14 team. He drafted Andrew Luck No. 1 overall in the 2012 NFL Draft and overhauled 70 percent of the Colts roster in Grigson’s first year on the job. After the Colts made the playoffs that season, Grigson won the NFL’s Executive of the Year award, and former head coach Brice Arians took home Coach of the Year honors.
The Colts made the playoffs in each of Grigson’s first three seasons with Indianapolis. They went 3-3 in postseason play.
Among Grigson’s best personnel decisions: drafting Luck and T.Y. Hilton in the 2012 draft and trading for Vontae Davis weeks before the season started.
But the Colts plateaued in Grigson’s final two seasons, going 8-8 each year. His tenure was marred with some head-scratching personnel decisions, including drafting receiver Phillip Dorsett in the first-round of the 2015 NFL Draft. The most infamous transaction was trading a first-round draft pick for former Browns running back Trent Richardson, who went on to play just one season with the Colts. He never played another year in the NFL thereafter.
Grigson has since bounced around NFL teams. In 2017, the Cleveland Browns hired him as their senior personnel executive. He was let go after one season.
In June of 2018, Grigson joined the Seattle Seahawks as a senior football consultant.
