Who is Chicago Bears GM candidate Monti Ossenfort

The Chicago Bears recently announced that they completed an interview with Tennessee Titans’ director of player personnel Monti Ossenfort. Ossenfort is not an off of the radar candidate because he is highly regarded in circles, but it is a bit off of the Bears’ radar because he is one of the few candidates that they interviewed without a tie to Bill Polian.

In fact, Polian spent most of his years in the NFL as a rival to Ossenfort. Ossenfort spent the majority of his NFL career in the New England Patriots front office.

After growing up in Minnesota and going to college locally, Ossenfort was able to get an internship with the Minnesota Vikings. That sprung to him getting a gig with the Houston Texans in 2002, and then the New England Patriots in 2003. He went back and forth between Houston and New England for a few years but wound up sticking with the Patriots in 2006.

He was in New England from 2006-2020, starting as an area scout. He moved up to assistant director of college scouting and finally was a director of college scouting before moving to Tennessee.

It is worth noting that Monti Ossenfort started on the college side, but his last two seasons have been all of the player personnel, and certainly more pro scouting. This helps show that his role has evolved and that he has more layers than some who are just scouts.

Beyond that, he has been with success his entire tenure. He watched and became a part of the New England culture, and eventually helped instill that in Tennessee. Tennessee has been turning out winning teams and great draft classes, and while Monti Ossenfort does not get all of the credit, it is the people like him that fill out the culture in the building and shape things the right way.

Monti Ossenfort has obviously worked with Brian Flores, and it may bring speculation that he would be a preferred candidate for Flores. Maybe that is why he came in for an interview at this point. Either way, his credentials make him worth a look.