Duval County

Trent Baalke officially named general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Jaguars announced Thursday that Trent Baalke has been named the team’s general manager.

Ian Rapoport, National Insider for NFL Network and NFL.com, initially reported Tuesday that Baalke was expected to be named the team’s next GM, but the deal wasn’t done yet.

Baalke was named interim general manager after former GM Dave Caldwell was fired in November. He will now work on restoring the team, which finished this season with a 1-15 record, with the team’s new Head Coach Urban Meyer, whose hiring was announced on Jan. 14.

“Trent Baalke has had success at virtually every level of football, notably so as a general manager who shrewdly and quickly built an NFL conference championship organization and team,” Jacksonville Jaguars Owner Shad Khan said in a news release. “That experience inspired us to recruit Trent to Jacksonville a year ago to serve as our director of player personnel and is one of many reasons why we are naming Trent as the new general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Trent thoroughly knows the NFL and the dynamics of today’s game, has an exceptional eye for talent and I know will have excellent chemistry with Head Coach Urban Meyer as they begin their mission to bring a consistent winner to our fans in Jacksonville.”

“I would like to thank Shad Khan for the opportunity to continue with the Jacksonville Jaguars as the team’s general manager,” Baalke said in the release. “I look forward to getting to work with Coach Meyer and giving Jaguars fans everywhere the winner they deserve. I am confident that our shared vision will lead our team to success in 2021 and beyond.”

Baalke originally joined the Jaguars in February 2020 as the team’s director of player personnel before being named the interim general manager on Nov. 29, 2020. Prior to arriving in Jacksonville, Baalke spent 12 seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, rising from the ranks of western region scout (2005-07) to director of player personnel (2008-09) to vice president of player personnel (2010) to general manager (2011-16). He was named Executive of the Year following the 2011 season by the Pro Football Writers of America and Pro Football Weekly after transforming a 6-10 team into a 13-3 team in his first season as general manager with San Francisco.

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