The Jacksonville Jaguars have found their new general manager, announcing on Friday that they have come to terms with James Gladstone. Gladstone has spent the past four years as the Los Angeles Rams’ director of scouting strategy.
The Jaguars completed a second in-person interview with Gladstone earlier on Friday, and welcomed him as their new GM a few hours later. Gladstone will work closely with Jacksonville head coach Liam Coen, who was hired last month.
In a statement sent to reporters, Jaguars owner Shad Khan praised Gladstone and expressed his confidence in Gladstone’s ability to lead Jacksonville to “a new and promising path forward.”
“James emerged as my choice, and our choice, following a painstaking but energizing interview process that left nothing to doubt,” Khan said. “In the end, we found James to be a class ahead and exceptional in every regard – vision, new ideas, communication, chemistry and a keen understanding of the league and our team, to name a few of many virtues he will bring immediately to the Jaguars.”
Jacksonville interviewed a number of candidates throughout the process before settling on Gladstone. Over the past two days, the team held in-person second-round interviews with four other candidates: San Francisco 49ers director of scouting and football operations Josh Williams, Chicago Bears assistant GM Ian Cunningham, Green Bay Packers VP of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan and Jaguars interim GM Ethan Waugh.
Gladstone has been with the Rams for eight seasons in multiple roles. Coen and Gladstone have previously crossed paths: Coen was on the Rams’ staff for two separate stints while Gladstone was working in the front office.
Gladstone’s hiring process was more straightforward than Coen’s, which evolved quickly and resulted in the coach reneging on a verbal agreement to stay as the Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator. In his introductory press conference, Coen called the Jaguars job “an opportunity that you just can’t pass up.”
Gladstone may have been a piece of that opportunity. Former Jaguars GM Trent Baalke was fired two days before Coen took the head coaching job; as part of taking the Jacksonville job, Khan had reportedly given Coen free rein to select the team’s next GM. The Jaguars, it seems, have now settled on Gladstone as that person.
