Delaware native's long road to Chargers GM began by begging a coach not to take Eagles job

To think that Salesianum graduate Joe Hortiz ultimately became the Los Angeles Chargers general manager because one day, nearly 30 years ago, while he was a student at Auburn University, he cold-called head football coach Terry Bowden.

What on earth could Hortiz, a random student at Auburn, possibly tell Bowden, who in that winter of 1994-95 was considered a candidate to replace Rich Kotite as the Eagles head coach? And why would Bowden even answer the phone?

Hortiz, who grew up a rabid Eagles fan, told Bowden not to go after the job.

Hortiz had read about the dysfunction in the organization after the Eagles ended the 1994 season with seven straight losses following a 7-2 start. That sounds much like the Eagles' collapse this season, when they started 10-1, only to finish 1-6 with a first-round exit.

"It was one of those moments that changes your life, even if you don't know it at the time," Hortiz told Delaware Online/The News Journal in January 2001 about that phone call with Bowden. In 2001, Hortiz was just 25 years old, finishing up his third season as a personnel assistant and scout with the Baltimore Ravens, who had just won the Super Bowl.

CHANGING PHILOSOPHY? Eagles neglected linebacker, safety for years. How Howie Roseman can change it in free agency

BOYS IN BRAZIL: Philadelphia Eagles will play in Brazil's 1st NFL game. Who will they play? Sao Paulo facts

Hortiz got that job with the Ravens because during the course of that 10-minute phone call with Bowden, Hortiz told him that he wanted to get into coaching. Bowden hired him as a student aide.

"I was a student assistant doing anything that I could do," Hortiz said Tuesday at his introductory press conference as the Chargers' GM. "I made sure coffee was made every morning at 7 a.m. for the staff meeting. I broke down film, and I ran the football camps."

It was at those summer football camps where Hortiz met Phil Savage, who at the time was the Ravens' director of college scouting. Savage helped get Hortiz a job as a personnel assistant with the Ravens upon his graduation in 1998.

Hortiz was starting at the bottom. He didn't care. In fact, former Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome referred to Hortiz and the other longtime personnel staffers as part of the team's "20/20 Club," saying a few years ago that they were hired as 20-year-olds for about $20,000 per year. Newsome admitted it was a slight exaggeration.

Yet all of them climbed the Ravens' organizational ladder. Eric DeCosta, for example, replaced Newsome as the Ravens' general manager in 2019. And now, 26 years later, Hortiz is a GM too.

That experience prepared Hortiz for his current job.

"I’ve been in every position," Hortiz said Tuesday at his press conference. "Certainly, going through the ranks, I know what it’s like to pick players up at the airport, to be the guy putting the magnets on the (white) board, to scheduling travel, to being a pro scout, to being a college scout, to being on the road away from your family.

"It can be an isolated feeling."

Beginnings at Salesianum

The irony is that Hortiz last played organized football in youth leagues in Middletown.

Hortiz was a baseball player at Salesianum, where as an infielder and leadoff hitter, he helped the Sals reach the state championship game as a senior in the spring of 1993. The only experience Hortiz had with the football team came the previous summer when he tried out as a kicker.

"He had a good leg," said Jim Brazill, who back then was an assistant coach for the Sals. "But we already had a good kicker. I think he saw the writing on the wall, and he probably didn't want to stay on the team as the second-string kicker.

"For a guy who was only with the program for a week or two, it's great to see him end up with a career in football that has been outstanding."

Yet when Hortiz got to Auburn in the fall of 1993, he tried out for the baseball team as a walk-on. He didn't make the team.

A year or so later, Hortiz called Bowden, and everything changed.

How Hortiz met the Harbaughs

It would seem like the connection to Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh would be a natural one.

After all, Hortiz was already a top scout with the Ravens in 2008 when John Harbaugh was hired as the head coach. So the assumption was that John Harbaugh would recommend Hortiz to his brother, who had just left Michigan to become the Chargers coach.

But Hortiz said he actually knew Jim Harbaugh first, and didn't need John to sell him to Jim. That's because when Hortiz was first hired by the Ravens in 1998, Jim Harbaugh was in his only season as the Ravens starting quarterback. That was Harbaugh's 12th NFL season overall.

One day during that season, Harbaugh invited Hortiz to play racquetball with him and backup quarterback Eric Zeier.

"The one thing I knew before I knew how competitive John was, was how competitive Jim was," Hortiz said at his press conference. "I'm thinking, I’m 22 years old, I’m a kid, right? This is the coolest thing in the world. I’m getting ready to go play with a starting quarterback and his backup. I’m going to show them that I'm an athlete, that I can hang."

How did that go?

"I swear to you, I'm so blessed to be here today (because) I got out of that room," Hortiz said with a laugh. "I was getting thrown around. I'm getting ready to hit a ball off of the wall, Jim comes in and just chucks me into the middle of the court.

"I realized that I was there just to give them a break in a game of cutthroat, as they called it."

Finding Flacco and Lamar Jackson

When John Harbaugh was hired as Ravens coach in 2008, Hortiz reconnected with Jim Harbaugh. At the time, Hortiz was a college scout focusing on the eastern part of the country. That included the University of Delaware. That spring, the Ravens drafted UD quarterback Joe Flacco in the first round.

The next year, Hortiz was promoted to director of college scouting. The Ravens, meanwhile, remained a perennial playoff team, winning the Super Bowl in 2012-13 as Flacco was named the game's MVP.

Hortiz helped find Flacco's successor in 2018 when the Ravens traded with the Eagles to get back into the first round. They selected Lamar Jackson with the Eagles' pick at No. 32 to end the first round.

The next year, Hortiz was promoted to director of player personnel, the position he served in until last week.

Now he's running the Chargers, who finished a disappointing 5-12 in 2023 despite having one of the top young quarterbacks in Justin Herbert.

But it won't be easy for Hortiz. The Chargers are an estimated $46 million over the salary cap, according to overthecap.com. That means Hortiz will have to make tough decisions on star players like wide receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams, and pass rushers Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack.

Hortiz knows he can't keep all of them, but the Chargers also have the No. 5 pick in the draft. With a quarterback already in place, Hortiz can use that pick on an impact player, or he can trade back for multiple picks.

"It’s not going to be gut it and start over," Hortiz said. "We’re not mailing in the season, no way. We’re going to try to win this year."

And Hortiz is excited to work next to Jim Harbaugh. The feeling is mutual as Harbaugh said this last week upon Hortiz's hiring: "I really want to be Robin to his Batman in the offseason. And then when it turns around to the season, I'll be Batman and he'll be Robin. We'll be the 'Caped Crusaders.'"

Hortiz couldn't have imagined any of this 30 years ago, when he went from a baseball player at Salesianum to cold-calling the head football coach at Auburn, to 26 years with the Ravens, to the Chargers' GM.

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on X @Mfranknfl.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Joe Hortiz's unlikely journey from Delaware to Los Angeles Chargers GM