Chris Grier is entering his 18th season with the Miami Dolphins and second as the club’s general manager. Grier was appointed general manager on Jan. 4, 2016 after spending the previous nine years as the team’s director of college scouting. He works together with Executive Vice President of Football Operations Mike Tannenbaum and Head Coach Adam Gase to help build a championship-caliber football team. In his role, Grier oversees the draft, both college and pro personnel departments and all scouting efforts.
In his first draft as general manager in 2016, Grier worked with his staff to bring linebacker Kiko Alonso and cornerback Byron Maxwell to Miami in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles. The deal net the team the 13th pick of the draft, which Grier used to select guard/tackle Laremy Tunsil, who started 14 games as a rookie and became the first offensive lineman in franchise history to start at least one game at guard and tackle in his rookie year. Alonso went on to start 15 games and lead the team with 115 total tackles (69 solo), ranking No. 9 in the AFC in 2016, while Maxwell started 13 games and had 15 passes defensed, the most by a Dolphins player since 2008.
The team also drafted running back Kenyan Drake and wide receiver Jakeem Grant in 2016, who became just the second rookie duo in team history to combine for a kickoff return and punt return for a touchdown in the same season.
Grier helped turn more than half the roster over in 2016, as the team entered training camp with more than 45 new players acquired during the offseason. The results were a four-game improvement from the previous season, the fifth-best mark in the NFL. The Dolphins finished 10-6 with a playoff berth, the team’s best record and first playoff appearance since 2008.
As the team’s director of college scouting (2007-15), Grier was part of a front office that discovered some of the best collegiate players the Dolphins have ever drafted, including wide receiver Jarvis Landry and running back Jay Ajayi.
A second-round selection in 2014, Landry finished his first three NFL seasons with 288 receptions, tied for the most any NFL player has ever recorded in his first three years in the league. A fifth-round pick in 2015, Ajayi became just the fourth player in NFL history to post three 200-yard rushing games in the same season in 2016. His 1,272 rushing yards were third all-time in team history and he holds three of the team’s six best single-game rushing performances. Both Landry and Ajayi were Pro Bowl selections following the 2016 season.
In 2011, the Dolphins drafted center Mike Pouncey in the first round. Pouncey has developed into one of the league’s best interior linemen and was selected to the Pro Bowl for the third time in his career in 2015.
Ajayi wasn’t the only diamond in the rough found by the team during Grier’s tenure as director of college scouting. Safety Reshad Jones was a fifth-round pick in 2010 and was named the team’s co-MVP following the 2015 season after he became the first player in team history to record at least 100 tackles, four interceptions and two sacks in a single season.
Prior to being the team’s director of college scouting, Grier served as an area scout with the club from 2000-02, before being promoted to national scout/assistant director of college scouting in 2003. Miami won the AFC East during his first season with the team.
Grier started with the Patriots as an intern in 1994. He joined the club on a full-time basis the following year, and served as a regional scout until joining the Dolphins in 2000. In 1996, Grier was part of a New England staff that won the AFC Championship. He helped scout several players for a Patriots roster that went on to win Super Bowls XXXVI, XXXVIII and XXXIX.
Grier has worked with several of football’s most successful coaches and executives throughout his career and that has helped shape his football philosophy. His father, Bobby Grier, is the former vice president of player personnel for the Patriots and recently retired as a senior personnel advisor with the Houston Texans. Chris has also worked with and learned under Pro Football Hall of Famer Bill Parcells, Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick, Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll and University of Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban.
Grier attended the University of Massachusetts-Amherst where he majored in journalism and played football for two years before injuries ended his career. He spent his final two years there as an undergraduate assistant.
Chris’ brother, Michael, played for the Edmonton Oilers, Washington Capitals, San Jose Sharks and Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League. He is currently a scout for the Chicago Blackhawks.
A native of Holliston, Mass., Grier resides in Weston with his wife, Paige, and their two sons, Landon and Jackson.