After three years on the job, Brian Xanders is done as the general manager of the Denver Broncos.
Xanders and Broncos front office boss John Elway met today, and afterward they both claimed that it was a mutual decision to part ways.
“John and I had a lengthy conversation today and we mutually decided to part ways for the best interest of my career aspirations,” Xanders said, via Mike Klis of the Denver Post.
“It was tough because I have a great deal of respect for Brian as a football man but also as a person,” Elway said. “Even more so as a person. He was very helpful to me in this first year getting acclimated back to the NFL. I owe him a lot. Just from the conversation we had, we just thought for his career and for the Broncos we felt that now was the best time to go a different way.”
It’s hard not to be a bit skeptical that this was a truly mutual decision. (Other than Jerry Seinfeld and Janeane Garofalo, no one really has a mutual breakup.) When Elway took over the Broncos’ front office, Xanders was already in place as the general manager, but Elway’s presence as the final decision-maker on personnel moves raises the question of why a general manager was needed at all. It sounds as though Elway decided that the Broncos don’t need a general manager, and that was a decision Xanders would have to live with whether he liked it or not.