Names have begun to emerge in the Detroit Lions' search for a permanent general manager.
Team president Rod Wood confirmed Sunday that interim general manager Sheldon White, the team's former vice president of pro personnel before adding interim GM job to his duties midseason, will interview this week for the job.
The Lions also plan to interview Seattle Seahawks co-director of player personnel Trent Kirchner and New England Patriots director of pro scouting Bob Quinn, ESPN's Adam Schefter reports.
Quinn has been in New England's personnel department for 16 seasons, and is currently in his fourth as the director of pro scouting after being named to the position in May of 2012. He's worked as both a pro and college scout, and was the assistant director of pro personnel for three years before being promoted to his current position.
Kirchner has spent time with three different NFL teams after starting his career as a scouting intern in Seattle. He was a college scouting coordinator for one season in Washington, then spent eight years as a pro scout with the Carolina Panthers before rejoining the Seahawks as assistant director of pro personnel in 2010. He's been in charge of the team's pro personnel department since 2013.
White, like Quinn and Kirchner, has spent most of his time in the NFL on the pro personnel side of the front office.
Head coach Jim Caldwell praised White's performance as both the head of the personnel department and interim GM the second half of the season.
"It's a complex job," Caldwell said Monday. "Oftentimes, you hear about head coaches that have both titles. That's difficult to do because of the fact that you have to keep up, number one, with every, single guy in the league that's available in case you have injuries. You have to keep guys going in and out in your conversations with not only those men, but also the men that represent them.
"You have to know your craft inside and out, and he has always been about the business of understanding the personnel that's available in the league, and he's also a very good evaluator. All those things come into play.
"We have to make moves in terms of getting guys in here. That was a smooth operation, you didn't have to re-learn or learn how to go about it. So it was smooth in almost every phase. He's done a tremendous job in a tricky situation because he's doing two jobs, the pro personnel side of it as well as the college side of it. That's not easy."
The Lions, with the help of consultant Ernie Accorsi, hope to to have a new general manager in place "as soon as possible," Wood said Sunday.
