Stephen Holder posted an interesting thought on twitter today: he thinks Butch Davis' role positions him for a general manager job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Mark Dominik must be thrilled with that, although Dominik's recent contract extension makes a move like that somewhat unlikely.
Still, the constraints on Butch Davis' tasks related to his North Carolina contract as well as the way the Buccaneers have been presenting him do point to this fact. Mark Dominik's credibility took a hit with last year's four-win season, and the Glazers never committed to him as the final decision maker on personnel matters after the season. They danced around Dominik's job security, and both the Glazers and Dominik said that he would give up control if that's what it took to get the right coach.
And with Butch Davis' appointment as a special assistant to the head coach, it seems Dominik is losing some control. Davis will advise Schiano, but it seems he'll have some say on personnel matters too. When asked about it in his press conference, Davis noted that he would help Schiano on many issues "from personnel to combines, to the draft, all the different kinds of things." It's unclear who will make the final decisions, but it's clear that Davis will have some say.
The question is: how smart is it to hand a degree of personnel control to someone who has never worked in the front office, and whose last NFL experience came nearly a decade ago as a failed head coach? At this point Davis' responsibility seems relatively limited, but that could change quickly if the Glazers or Greg Schiano become disappointed in Mark Dominik.