The Nebraska Athletic Department announced Tuesday that Pat Stewart has been hired as the new general manager for Nebraska Football. Stewart had worked as the director of pro player personnel for the last two years for the New England Patriots. He replaces Sean Padden, who has been re-assigned in the athletic department to the newly created role of assistant athletic director for strategic intelligence.
Stewart will be responsible for “Huskers’ roster management and player acquisition, including high school and transfer portal recruiting, evaluation, and retention”, according to a news release.
Stewart joins the Husker program after two years with New England. Before that, Stewart worked with Coach Matt Rhule with the Carolina Panthers from 2020 to 2022 as Director of Player Personnel and Vice President of Player Personnel. Before that, Stewart was a national scout for the Philadelphia Eagles for two seasons. That was after an eight-year stint with the Patriots in various scouting capacities.
Stewart worked with Rhule previously at Western Carolina in 2005, where Stewart worked as a graduate assistant, and at Temple in 2006 and 2007, where Stewart served as assistant director of football operations. Stewart went to The Ohio State University from 2000-2004 and worked as a student manager for Buckeyes football under Jim Tressel. He graduated from OSU in 2005.
While Stewart takes over as general manager, Padden’s new role will set his focus on “cap analysis and compensation trends, stakeholder engagement, contract negotiations, data analytics leadership, collaboration and implementations and project management”, according to the news release.