Chargers general manager candidate profile: Joe Hortiz

The Chargers interviewed Ravens’ Director of Player Personnel Joe Hortiz for their general manager vacancy on Saturday.

Hortiz, 48, has been in Baltimore since 1998. He’s played pivotal roles in college scouting and the Ravens’ draft process. Hortiz was originally a scout who was promoted to Baltimore’s Director of College Scouting in 2009. 10 years later, in 2019, he earned the promotion to his current title of Director of Player Personnel.

The legacy of Baltimore over the past two decades needs no further explanation. Under Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens have consistently dominated the draft in constructing several playoff and Super Bowl teams. Eric DeCosta was promoted to general manager following Newsome’s retirement. Hortiz has remained a constant in Baltimore as he potentially waits for his own opportunity elsewhere to become a GM.

Hortiz also has coaching experience, albeit brief. He was a graduate assistant at Auburn for three years under then-head coach Terry Bowden.

Hortiz’s biggest asset is his decades of college and scouting and draft experience. Baltimore has consistently been a draft enigma in their team construction. Whether it’s slithering up the board or meticulously accumulating capital by trading down, April is where the Ravens are truly built. They also pursue free agency and other team-building moves, of course, but Baltimore hasn’t existed in their current form over the last two decades without success in the spring’s primetime event.

LA also needs a vision of team management that is flexible in approach. Tom Telesco’s hesitance to trade back in the draft has the Chargers generally having fewer draft assets outside of years where they earned compensatory picks. For a team about to enter some version of “cap hell,” more swings at the bat under a GM with Hortiz’s vision and experience could be massive.