The Detroit Lions have lost a front office player to the Washington Commanders this offseason for the second time.lbirex Niigata
This summer, the Detroit Lions lost one member of their front office when Lance Newmark, who had been there for 26 years, left to take a job as assistant general manager with the Washington Commanders.
The Commanders were reportedly “working to hire” Lions senior director of football administration Brandon Sosna to a secret “high-ranking” position in their front office, according to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network on Sunday.
Adam Schefter of ESPN announced on Monday morning that a deal has been reached with Sosna and the Commanders. He will take over as senior vice president of football operations for Washington.
The Commanders have confirmed the hiring of Sosna.
In 2022, the 31-year-old Sosna was employed by the Lions. Before moving to Detroit, he attended USC for three years, and before that, he played for the Cleveland Browns in the NFL.
As the principal deal negotiator for the three significant contract extensions that were completed in recent weeks, he was undoubtedly crucial to the Lions’ offseason this year.
Schefter reports that Sosna will handle a broad range of responsibilities along with his promotion, including serving as the Commanders’ principal contract negotiator.
As the club’s chief contract negotiator, Brandon Sosna will answer to General Manager Adam Peters. He will be in charge of several football operations divisions, such as football administration, analytics, and health and performance.
Additionally, he will be heavily involved in the strategy pertaining to the CBA, the salary cap, and roster formation.”
Lions are seeing the other side of success
When a group achieves success, other groups aim to imitate them by recruiting their members. The Lions are feeling that, as Sosna marks the team’s third front office departure in the previous year or so.
Dave Sears, the scouting director, was hired by the Arizona Cardinals as their deputy general manager in January 2023 after Newmark left for Washington.
And in a hurry, the Commanders would have chosen Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson over Dan Quinn for head coach, despite their clear attempt to malign him after he withdrew himself from consideration.
Thus, it’s possible that the Lions lost three important players to Washington in the past few months.
The Lions have added Dwayne Joseph and Tom Roth to their roster for positions that are not yet known or acknowledged.
Although the loss of Sosna is significant, the Lions have a front office pipeline that other teams are taking note of given their on-field success.
