Eight months ago, Champ Kelly wasn’t even part of the Miami Dolphins’ front office.
Now, named interim general manager after the Friday firing of ex-GM Chris Grier, he’s the primary executive handling the team’s transactions ahead of the NFL trade deadline at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Kelly, 45, is tasked with making Dolphins moves in the coming days that could establish the preliminary foundation for what is likely another rebuild brewing over the coming months and years. As he manages Miami’s roster for the final nine-plus weeks of the season, with coach Mike McDaniel alongside him, he can also make his case to owner Steve Ross to keep the job full-time before the GM vacancy is opened up to outside candidates upon the dawn of the offseason.
While Grier was previously unwilling to part ways with a piece like wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, Kelly may now be more open to dealing any player on the Dolphins’ roster for the right price in terms of draft capital, according to multiple national reports Saturday night. Meanwhile, Miami has long been expected to trade one of its starting edge rushers — Jaelan Phillips or Bradley Chubb — to a contender for probably a mid-round draft pick.
How did Kelly, whose given first name is Anthony, end up here?
At the end of the first week of free agency last March, as Miami’s 2025 roster began taking shape, an under-the-radar move was made in bringing him in as a senior personnel executive. It came after high-ranking executive Reggie McKenzie, formerly a GM for the Oakland Raiders, departed for a similar role with the Tennessee Titans.
Kelly was available because he was let go by the Las Vegas Raiders after the 2024 season. He was assistant GM there and took over as an interim GM, like he now will with the Dolphins, in 2023 when the Raiders parted ways with Dave Ziegler.
He was considered then for the permanent role after a run to end the season, but the team instead hired former Chargers GM Tom Telesco in January 2024.
Kelly has been in the running for GM openings in recent years. He interviewed with the New York Jets in 2019 for the job that went to Joe Douglas, the Denver Broncos in 2021 (George Paton) and, this year, the Jacksonville Jaguars (James Gladstone).
Kelly rose to these ranks in the NFL after a stint as Chicago Bears assistant director of player personnel from 2017 through 2021 and director of pro scouting in 2015 and 2016. He graded the franchise’s top 100 draft prospects, spearheaded efforts in free agency and did advance scouting.
He was there when the Bears made the blockbuster trade for star pass-rusher Khalil Mack in 2018.
Before joining Chicago, another chunk of his NFL experience came in Denver. Starting out as a scout in 2007, he was assistant director of pro and college scouting the next two years and then assistant director of pro personnel from 2010 through 2014.
He was part of a front office under John Elway that built the Broncos’ 2015 Super Bowl-winning team around the acquisition of veteran quarterback Peyton Manning years earlier.
In his career, Kelly has worked — and thrived — through a shift in the league in recent decades that has made scouting more tech- and analytics-driven.
What helped him with that is, after playing college football at Kentucky and graduating with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and master’s in business administration, he was hired by IBM as a quality-assurance agent and then became a software engineer.
Kelly also played both sides of the ball, like he did with the Kentucky Wildcats from 1998 to 2001, in an indoor football league with a team called the Lexington Horsemen. That has helped him understand all positions on a roster in scouting. He also had a short stint as general manager and wide receivers coach in Lexington before joining the Broncos in 2007.