Scott Pioli

With over 20 years of NFL executive experience, Scott Pioli, assistant general manager of the Atlanta Falcons, is regarded as one of the league’s top executives with a proven history in player personnel evaluation, salary cap management and contract negotiating. He has been named NFL Executive of the Year by various national media outlets numerous times during his career, including honors from Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports, and Pro Football Weekly/PFWA. Pioli also serves as a member of the NFL’s Bill Walsh Minority Fellowship Advisory Council, helping to make the NFL a more diverse and inclusive league.

Before joining the Atlanta Falcons personnel department, Pioli served as a regular contributor on NBC’s NFL studio program Football Night in America and on NBC Sports Network’s daily NFL program Pro Football Talk.

Pioli spent four seasons as the general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs. In his second season in Kansas City, he orchestrated one of the greatest turnarounds in Chiefs history as the club won the AFC West with a 10-6 record.

Pioli joined the Chiefs after serving as the Vice President of Player Personnel with the New England Patriots, where he spent six seasons working with Falcons General Manager Thomas Dimitroff. During his nine-year tenure in New England, the Patriots compiled a 102- 42 regular season record, won Super Bowls XXXVI, XXXVIII and XXXIX, claimed four AFC championships, and won six AFC East titles.

With New England, the Patriots became widely recognized as one of the NFL’s model franchises.

Pioli was named the George Young NFL Executive of the Year by The Sporting News following the 2003 and 2004 seasons, an award voted on by other NFL executives. The youngest individual ever to win that accolade, Pioli joined Bobby Beathard (Washington ‘82-83) and Bill Polian (Carolina ‘95-96) as just the third person to ever win that honor in consecutive seasons.

Pioli began his NFL career when he was hired by Bill Belichick as a Scouting Assistant for the Cleveland Browns in 1992. He spent the next three seasons working as the Browns Pro Personnel Assistant where he was responsible for the evaluation of both college prospects and veteran free agents, as well as negotiating various player contracts.

In 1997, Pioli was hired as the New York Jets Director of Pro Personnel. In just two seasons working with Head Coach Bill Parcells, the Jets completed a worst-to-first turnaround, rebounding from a 1-15 campaign in 1996 to a 12-4 record in 1998.

Pioli played defensive tackle at Central Connecticut State (1983-87), where he was a three-time Division II All-New England selection and graduated with a degree in Communications. From 1988-89, he served as a Graduate Assistant at Syracuse University, where he also earned a master’s degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Pioli then took a full-time coaching opportunity at Murray State, where he spent one season as the offensive line coach (1990) and one season as the defensive line coach (1991). He left the coaching ranks to join the Browns personnel department in 1992.