Mueller Becomes Saints Gm Seahawks Exec From St. Maries Lands Top Spot With New Orleans

When Randy Mueller set off on an NFL journey 22 years ago, his focus was on one thing - shagging footballs and doing it well.

But from those humble beginnings as a 16-year-old ball boy at the Seattle Seahawks’ summer training camp, Mueller has moved way, way up the pro football ladder.

On Thursday, the 38-year-old Mueller took a big step in his career when Saints owner Tom Benson named him the Saints general manager of football operations.

New Orleans is a long way, geographically and symbolically, from Cheney, for Mueller. But the ingenious mind that helped him land that job as a ball boy was a hint of things to come.

The Seahawks received around 300 applications for that ball boy job in 1978. But Mueller included a photo of himself in his football uniform.

And Mueller, a young lad from St. Maries, got the job.

“They had about 300 (applications), but that goofy picture got their attention,” Mueller told the Tacoma News-Tribune two years ago. “They joked and laughed about it, but they decided I’d be a logical guy to have.”

Since then, he quarterbacked his college, tiny Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., to an NAIA Division II national championship in 1982, when he earned Little All-America honors. With a year of eligibility left but having already graduated, Mueller accepted a job as an assistant in the Seahawks pro personnel department in June 1983.

Seven years later in 1990, Mueller was promoted to pro personnel director. In 1995, he was promoted to vice president of football operations where he oversaw the Seahawks’ player personnel and scouting.

Among the moves he made were signing linebacker Chad Brown as a free agent in 1997. Brown has led the Seahawks in tackles all three seasons since. He also signed starters such as cornerback Willie Williams, guard Brian Habib and safety Darryl Williams. All four players helped Seattle win the AFC West in 1999.

He also swapped struggling quarterback Rick Mirer to the Bears for a No. 1 draft pick in 1997. He used that pick and Seattle’s own No. 1 pick and traded into the No. 3 and No. 6 slots in the first round. With those picks he added cornerback Shawn Springs and tackle Walter Jones, a pair of Pro Bowl players.

Along the way, he’s earned respect around the NFL.

“He’s a very capable person,” said Charley Armey, the NFC champion St. Louis Rams’ vice president of player personnel. “What I like about him is how he came up in that organization from the ground up. He knows how an organization runs.”

Over the last week, Mueller convinced Benson that he was the man to make the Saints a winning franchise again.

But joining the Saints means leaving the Pacific Northwest - the only place he’s ever lived - and the Seahawks - the only NFL team he’s ever worked for.

“The only thing that made it a hard decision for me was the fact that I had a pretty good job in Seattle and that it was one I could probably kept forever,” Mueller said. “It’s a place where I grew up. It is the only thing I know.”

But if Mueller wanted to run a team, it was a move he had to make.

In January 1999, Seahawks owner Paul Allen hired Mike Holmgren as executive vice president of football operations/general manager/head coach. In other words, he was put in complete control of the Seahawks.