During the offseason, the Detroit Lions experienced a departure in their front office as Lance Newmark, who had been with the team for 26 years, left to take on the role of assistant general manager for the Washington Commanders. According to a report by Mike Garafolo from NFL Network, it was revealed that the Commanders are in the process of recruiting Brandon Sosna, the Lions’ senior director of football administration, for a senior position within their front office. On Monday morning, ESPN’s Adam Schefter confirmed that Sosna has finalized an agreement to join the Commanders. He is set to become the senior vice president of football operations for Washington.
The Commanders have officially announced the recruitment of Sosna. The Lions brought on board Sosna, aged 31, in 2022. Before joining Detroit, he had a three-year stint at USC and prior to that, was with the Cleveland Browns in the NFL. In his role as the lead contract negotiator, Sosna played a crucial part in the Lions’ offseason this year by finalizing three significant contract extensions in recent weeks.
Schefter reported that Sosna will take on the role of handling contract negotiations for the Commanders as part of his new promotion.
Brandon Sosna will be responsible for negotiating contracts as the club’s lead negotiator under the supervision of GM Adam Peters. He will have oversight over various football operation departments such as analytics, health and performance, and football administration. Additionally, he will be heavily involved in the strategic planning of roster construction, managing the salary cap, and understanding the CBA.
Despite the Commanders’ obvious effort to tarnish his reputation when he withdrew from consideration, they would have quickly hired Lions’ offensive coordinator Ben Johnson as their head coach instead of Dan Quinn.
This means that the Lions could have potentially lost three important individuals to Washington in the past few months. The Lions have made changes to their management team by bringing in Dwayne Joseph and Tom Roth for undisclosed positions. Although Sosna’s departure is significant, the team’s front office is now gaining attention from other teams due to their on-field success.
The Lions are now facing the challenges that come with success. Other teams are trying to copy their achievements by poaching their staff. Sosna is the third member of the front office that the Lions have lost in the last year. Newmark left for Washington, and the Arizona Cardinals recruited Dave Sears as their assistant general manager in January 2023
