O'Brien - Staying or Going?

[Warren]

"The GM is going to have full authority over personnel, and he'll report to Cal and me," McNair said. "That's our main message to potential GMs, and there's no question about it."

"Rick needs to take care of his family. Hopefully they'll get good results. Some people have raised the question if Rick comes back at the end of the year, he's going to have undue influence on the GM. That's not the case. Rick might not want to come back."

"We don't know what Rick might do. That's something we'll discuss a year from now. The only concern is to take care of his family, and we're not going beyond that."

McClain

That authority would be set out in the GM's contract, so (assuming the contract doesn't allow for it) Smith couldn't just be reinserted in the personnel power structure if he comes back. It looks to me like Smith is being given the option of either being able to look for another job when he's ready to do so, without being fired, or to come back in some football operations role that doesn't involve personnel. Keep in mind that Jamey Rootes is responsible for all business functions, so I don't know what duties that would leave. Smith's entire career has been in coaching and personnel and he's only in his late 40s so it seems unlikely that he'd be ready to permanently move to a different role.