What Exactly Does Each Member of an NFL Team's Front Office Do? | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

In the NFL, the general manager is the highest standing employee in the team’s personnel department.

He answers directly to the owner and has final veto power on all player-related decisions the team makes. Job responsibilities include hiring the head coach, building the remainder of the personnel department staff, coordinating the rubric for scouting college prospects and compiling the team's roster in accordance to the NFL’s salary cap.

Clearly, the general manager can’t possibly handle all of these tasks personally. He divvies up the labor amongst his other front office staffers, but the general manager ultimately is accountable for all of the team’s personnel decisions.

When a team lands a Hall of Fame quarterback like Peyton Manning in the draft, it won’t be the lead scouts who are recognized and attributed with the home run selection: It’s the general manager.

Conversely, when a team drafts a bust like Ryan Leaf, the scouts who propped him up and recommended the selection are not held to the fire, it’s the general manager.

General managers are starting to receive more public attribution for the essential role they play in an NFL team's success, but that praise comes at a price. At the conclusion of the 2012 season, six general managers were fired, and with Carolina firing theirs during the regular season, the total number of axed general mangers in 2012 was seven.

That number is the highest in league history.