Troy Aikman on the field during Monday Night Football. Photo by Al Powers / ESPN Images
By Sam Neumann on

Troy Aikman is dipping his toe into NFL front office work, at least temporarily.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Thursday that the Dolphins have hired Aikman to help with their search for a new general manager. The role has been deemed temporary, as Aikman will advise the organization through the hiring process but won’t be taking on a permanent front office position.

Aikman isn’t leaving ESPN or his Monday Night Football role alongside Joe Buck. This is a consulting gig, not a career change. But it gives him a window into what running an NFL franchise entails, and it gives the Dolphins access to one of the sharpest football minds in broadcasting.

The Dolphins are in transition after firing general manager Chris Grier, who’d been with the organization since 2000 and had been GM since 2016. They need someone to help navigate a critical hire that will shape the franchise’s direction.

Aikman has been open about his interest in running a team, though his stance has shifted over the years. In 2019, he admitted he had entertained the idea. A few years later, he said it wasn’t really something he aspired to do anymore. But during an appearance on the Sports Business Radio podcast in mid-December, Aikman wouldn’t totally close the door.

“At that point, I was really enjoying my broadcasting career. I was just getting ready to make the move over to ESPN, it’s been really enjoyable for me and then it kind of slipped me by,” Aikman said. “Will it come along at some point? Maybe, I doubt it, but maybe. As I’ve often said, if it doesn’t…there will be a part of me that always wonders as to whether or not I could have done the job. I’d like to think I could and would be good at it. But unless you do it, it’s just talk.”

When pressed on whether he’d stop and entertain the opportunity to run a team in the future, Aikman said, “Yeah, yeah, it might be. I’m not opposed to hard work…it’s not so much the hours that would be involved, it’s more about, at my age currently, there would be a learning curve. Would an organization be willing to allow that to happen? It’s a young man’s game, it’s a young man’s world.”

Aikman is 59 years old. If he’s serious about running a franchise, the window is closing. He recently said he can’t envision working in the Monday Night Football booth at 70, not because he couldn’t do it, but because he wants to enjoy life and travel while he still can.

“I do feel like I could be a real asset to an organization,” Aikman said last month. “Currently, I’m hopeful that I can continue to be an asset to my employer, ESPN, and keep doing this for a little while longer.”

The Dolphins’ consulting role gives Aikman a chance to test those waters without committing to a full-time front office job. He can advise on the GM search, see what that process looks like from the inside, and decide whether it’s something he’d actually want to pursue down the road.

It also helps that Aikman has been thriving in his broadcasting career lately. He’s entered what Awful Announcing’s Sean Keeley called his “give-no-f*cks era,” becoming more willing to criticize teams, players, and officials without pulling punches.

Just last week, Aikman said on Monday Night Countdown that many NFL quarterbacks receive unfair “bust” labels due to organizational failures rather than their own shortcomings. He pointed to his own career as an example, crediting offensive coordinator Norv Turner for turning things around in his third season.

“I think there’s been a lot of quarterbacks that have been drafted high who have left the game and have been labeled a bust, and I think it’s unfair,” Aikman said. “I do feel that organizations and coaching has failed quarterbacks more than quarterbacks have failed organizations.”

That perspective — understanding how much organizational structure matters for player development — is exactly what the Dolphins need as they search for their next GM.  And while Aikman won’t make that hire himself, his input could help Miami find the right person for the job.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann