The Bombers will have a taste of high-performance culture in American football this week, with NFL executive and analyst Michael Lombardi a guest of the club ahead of its clash with Port Adelaide on Saturday.

Essendon has constantly sought ways to continually improve across all areas of the organisation and recently, Lombardi accepted the Club’s invitation to be fully immersed in the football and administration programs for a full week.

Lombardi commenced his NFL career in 1984 as an area scout under Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers. He joined the Cleveland Browns as pro personnel director in 1987 and later became the Browns’ director of player personnel. 

Working under head coach Bill Belichick managing drafts, negotiating contracts and acquiring free agents, Lombardi has also previously served as an NFL executive with the Philadelphia Eagles and Oakland Raiders.

Lombardi is also a former analyst for the NFL Network and sportswriter at NFL.com. He currently works for the subscription-based sports website The Athletic, and hosts his own podcast The GM Shuffle with Adnan Virk.

General manager of football Dan Richardson said it was an exciting opportunity for the club to continually innovate. 

“As a football department, we’re constantly striving to improve and, in this industry, you have to be open-minded to new ideas and different ways of thinking,” Richardson said.

“Throughout the week, Michael will draw on his extensive experience in the ultra-competitive and professional NFL competition. Having Michael fully immersed in our football program will be a terrific experience for our playing group and coaching panel and we look forward to taking in his learnings across his wide-ranging career in America.

“His observations will provide an additional external lens into how we endeavour to create the most effective high-performance environment possible."