Tag: front office

Broncos hire David Shaw as senior personnel executive

The Broncos are hiring former Stanford head coach David Shaw as a senior personnel executive. He coached with Sean Payton in Philly in 1997.

The Denver Broncos are hiring former Stanford head coach David Shaw as a senior personnel executive, according to a report from KUSA-TV’s Mike Klis. The team confirmed the news on Thursday morning.

Shaw interviewed for Denver’s head coach opening last year and he was considered a “sleeper candidate,” perhaps in part due to his Stanford connection with team co-owners Greg Penner, Carrie Walton Penner and Condoleezza Rice.

Earlier in his career, Shaw coached with Jim Harbaugh at the University of San Diego and later followed him to Stanford. Harbaugh was a candidate for the Broncos’ head coach opening last year and there was speculation that Shaw could join him on Denver’s staff.

The Broncos ultimately ended up hiring Sean Payton after Harbaugh opted to stay at Michigan for another season, and now one year later, they’re hiring Shaw as well. Payton overlapped with Shaw while employed by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1997 and he spoke highly of the coach during an interview with Steve Wyche and Jim Trotter in 2020.

Payton was Philly’s quarterbacks coach in 1997 and Shaw was an offensive quality control coach. Payton later became a head coach in the NFL and Shaw later moved to the college level, becoming Stanford’s head coach in 2011. He went 96-54 in 12 seasons with the Cardinal, winning five bowl games.

Shaw stepped down from his role at Stanford following the 2022 season. He will now return to the NFL for the first time since 2005 when he served as a wide receivers coach for the Baltimore Ravens.

In Denver, Shaw will work with general manager George Paton to evaluate college and pro players, according to Klis. Shaw, 51, is the second addition Paton has made to the front office this offseason. Earlier this year, the Broncos hired Cody Rager as vice president of player personnel.

[vertical-gallery id=620142]

Commanders to hire Dwaune Jones as national scout

Adam Peters is staying busy.

Washington Commanders general manager Adam Peters is on a roll. Earlier on Monday, the Commanders announced the hiring of Brandon Sosna as the club’s new senior vice president of football operations. Sosna is viewed as a rising star in the NFL and comes to Washington from the Detroit Lions.

The Commanders are also reportedly hiring away David Blackburn from the Ravens to serve as the organization’s new director of player personnel.

Peters isn’t done. Neil Stratton — @InsideTheLeague on X — revealed that Washington hired Dwaune Jones as a national scout. Jones, 46, is a McLean, Va., native, played college football at Richmond and spent 12 years with the Saints as a scout, four years with the Ravens in the same role and the previous three seasons with the Falcons as the assistant director of college scouting.

The Commanders have allowed multiple members of their front office to depart as Peters reshapes the organization under his vision. Chris Polian, who served as Washington’s director of pro personnel for the past three seasons, is the latest departure. Polian heads to the Cleveland Browns, where he’ll be an advisor.

Chiefs, Panthers fans react to Carolina hiring Brandt Tillis as Executive VP of Football Operations

Fans on Twitter reacted to the #Panthers’ hiring of former #Chiefs executive Brandt Tillis on Wednesday afternoon.

On Wednesday, the Kansas City Chiefs lost a key piece of their front office staff when the Carolina Panthers hired long-time executive Brandt Tillis to be their Executive Vice President of Football Operations.

Offseason departures like this are common, especially for teams that have found as much success as the Chiefs have in recent seasons. The Panthers are in the midst of what seems to be a never-ending rebuild and brought in Tillis for his expertise and championship pedigree as Carolina looks to get its franchise back on the right track.

[gambcom-standard rankid=”3011″ ]

While the move may not prove to be a crushing blow for Kansas City, it may prove instrumental in the Panthers’ rebuild in the coming years.

Fans on social media were quick to offer their take on the news of Tillis’ move shortly after Carolina announced his signing on Wednesday afternoon.

Check out some of Twitter’s top reactions to the Panthers’ signing below:

Panthers name Chiefs executive Brandt Tilis as their new Executive VP of Football Operations

The Carolina #Panthers named former Kansas City #Chiefs executive Brandt Tilis as their new Executive VP of Football Operations.

The Carolina Panthers are hiring former Kansas City Chiefs front office executive Brandt Tilis as their next Executive VP of Football Operations.

According to a new report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Panthers are officially finalizing a deal to hire Tilis. He was linked to Carolina in 2021 when the franchise searched for a new general manager. The veteran executive has earned the salary cap expert title from many around the league for his exceptional insight into the team’s roster finances.

Tilis has spent the last 14 seasons with the Chiefs and the last three as vice president of football operations. He has been notably the lead contract negotiator since 2017, working to develop a structure enabling Kansas City to give quarterback Patrick Mahomes his record-breaking 10-year, $450 million contract extension in 2020.

In his new role, Tilis is expected to be responsible for all football administration and non-coaching matters related to operations, equipment, video, and analytics, among other areas. According to the Panthers press release, He will also lead player contract negotiations, compliance with the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement and league rules, salary cap management, and maintenance and labor administration.

The Chiefs continue to see many of their executives move on to new opportunities, showing the ongoing development of the front office tree. Teams around the league are watching Kansas City’s success, hoping to take a piece of their talent to spark their franchises.

Saints announce staff changes, promote Khai Harley to assistant GM

New Orleans Saints announce staff changes for 2023 season, promote salary cap specialist Khai Harley to assistant general manager:

This is cool: the New Orleans Saints announced a couple of staff changes and additions on Tuesday, with the most notable news being a promotion for Khai Harley. The salary cap specialist still retains his title as vice president of football operations — but he’s now pulling double-duty as their assistant general manager.

Mickey Loomis is still on top of the organizational chart as general manager and executive vice president, but Harley now shares a title with Jeff Ireland as assistant GM to Loomis. Ireland’s main focus remains on the college scouting department, but now both he and Harley carry the assistant GM title.

Loomis is the longest-tenured general manager in the league. He’ll turn 67 this year. He won’t be around forever, and it’s very possible that the Saints are setting up someone like Harley to succeed him in a couple of years. Ireland also has experience at the top of the organization from his six-year run with the Miami Dolphins. Either way, this promotion is a well-deserved recognition for a key member of the front office. Harley has done a great job navigating the salary cap and the CBA to keep the Saints competitive year in and year out.

What about the other moves? For the most part, the Saints confirmed additions who were previously reported during the summer like defensive assistant coach Matt Giordano, analytics director Zach Stuart, and football administration director Scott Kuhn. They also shuffled the scouting department with Matt Phillips becoming an area scout and Will Martinez taking over as NFL combine scout.

But a couple of other new hires stand out. Former Louisiana Tech assistant to the head coach and NFL liaison Ziad Qubti is joining the team as their new college scouting coordinator under Ireland, with Rishi Desai (former Ole Miss director of scouting and an LSU graduate) also joining the scouting department. It’s good to see minority candidates getting these opportunities, especially with the NFL awarding compensatory draft picks when they’re hired to executive positions. If they help the organization find good players and develop into sought-after GM candidates in their own right, them leaving someday would bring back valuable draft assets to New Orleans. It’s a win-win.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Saints add another member to Khai Harley’s front office department

The Saints added another member to Khai Harley’s department in the front office: former Vikings analytics director Scott Kuhn

Check the New Orleans Saints’ list of front office personnel and you’ll see just two people working in the department of football administration: vice president Khai Harley and director Scott Kuhn. Harley’s former assistant Tosan Eyetsemitan moved to the pro scouting department this offseason, opening a role for Kuhn. So who is he?

Kuhn was hired as a pro scout with the Minnesota Vikings back in 2007, where he worked under former Vikings general manager Rick Spielman. Last season he was promoted to Minnesota’s director of football quantitative methods while continuing to work in the pro scouting department, where his work took a more analytical focus. The Vikings didn’t retain him after the 2022 season while new GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah restructures his front office.

Harley is known as New Orleans’ in-house salary cap expert, working to navigate the cap and maximize the team’s spending resources each year. But he won’t be around forever. It’s only a matter of time before other teams come sniffing around and seek to poach him for a general manager job of his own (ex-Saints executive Terry Fontenot tried to bring him to the Atlanta Falcons) and it’s worth investing in qualified candidates to replace Harley, if need be. Bringing in guys like Eyetsemitan and Kuhn could pay off in a big way.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Chargers’ Austin Ekeler sounds off on running backs being regarded as ‘discardable widgets’

Austin Ekeler expressed his frustration with running backs being regarded as “discardable widgets.”

Running backs around the NFL are taking to social media to decry the devaluation of their position amidst the league’s turn away from the ground game, and  Chargers veteran Austin Ekeler is at the forefront of this newly formed movement.

A supremely productive piece of Los Angeles’ burgeoning offense in recent years, many thought Ekeler’s performance last season should have warranted a high-dollar extension. Still, their front office wasn’t so sure.

After initial speculation that a holdout could be on the horizon, Ekeler agreed to a revised contract with the Chargers back in May but expressed his displeasure with the state of affairs relative to his situation via a Twitter post on Monday.

In response to a tweet about the modern “rent-a-back” philosophy of NFL roster building, Ekeler made it clear that he and his running back brethren are worth more than the media gives them credit for.

“This is the kind of trash that has artificially devalued one of the most important positions in the game,” Ekeler wrote. “Everyone knows it’s tough to win without a top RB and yet they act like we are discardable widgets. I support any RB doing whatever it takes to get his bag.”

While the brewing firestorm on social media is unlikely to advance Ekeler’s cause in the near term, some of the league’s top rushers chimed in with similar input, frustrated with the diminished leverage that they have in contract discussions.

It is unclear whether these posts constitute a larger effort going on behind the scenes. However, what has become abundantly obvious is that the discourse surrounding the value of the running back position has turned a corner with some of the NFL’s biggest stars, including Ekeler, pushing the dialogue forward.

Report: New Orleans Saints hiring Jets’ Zach Stuart as director of analytics

ESPN reports former New York Jets coordinator of football analytics Zach Stuart is headed to the New Orleans Saints in a similar role | @crissy_froyd

The New Orleans Saints are hiring the former New York Jets coordinator of football analytics in Zach Stuart as the team’s new director of analytics, as was first reported by Seth Walder of ESPN.

Stuart had been with the Jets since 2020. Before entering the professional sports sphere, he worked as a mathematics R&D for Sandra National Laboratories (2017-2020) and actuarial analyst for Mountain States Insurance Group (2014-2016).

Stuart comes to New Orleans after the departure of Ryan Herman, who spent six years with the team, at the end of May. The NFL has shown more prioritization of analytics, something that has helped the game a lot over recent years, and the way things have only continued to trend only indicates that the usage of data in more expanded ways is only going to be something that gets bigger.

Since taking over for heralded longtime head coach Sean Payton, how Dennis Allen continues to grow his team in this area with people like Stuart will be something to keep an eye on.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Reports: Saints part ways with longtime analytics chief in mutual split

Reports: Saints part ways with longtime analytics chief Ryan Herman in ‘cordial, mutual’ split

[anyclip pubname=”2103″ widgetname=”0016M00002U0B1kQAF_M8036″]

Here’s a change to the New Orleans Saints’ front office, as first reported by Nola.com’s Jeff Duncan and confirmed by NewOrleans.Football’s Mike Triplett: analytics chief Ryan Herman is not returning after a six-year run with the team. Triplett adds that it was a “cordial, mutual” decision to go in a different direction once Herman’s contract ended, giving him an opportunity to devote more time to his family.

Herman worked in the player personnel department in football research and strategy, primarily focusing on weekly in-season studies on developing trends around the league as well as advanced scouting on future opponents. He wore a couple of different hats, also assisting Khai Harley in managing the salary cap, and the Saints will need to replace him and his contributions to the team.

Maybe they’ll more fully embrace the analytical side of the game and build a more robust advanced-stats team, as has become more popular around the league. Ex-Saints head coach Sean Payton talked up the resources available to him now with the Denver Broncos compared to those in New Orleans, and it’s an area the team could improve upon. They left a lot of meat on the bone last year with conservative in-game decisions on fourth down, and Dennis Allen could benefit from stronger information to help him out in that phase.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Seahawks announce 2 front office leadership staff promotions

The Seattle Seahawks announced two members of the front office leadership staff have been promoted.

The Seattle Seahawks organization announced a couple of promotions to the front office leadership staff on Thursday afternoon via the team website.

First, Jeff Dunn has been named Chief Strategy Officer and will report to Seahawks President, Chuck Arnold. Dunn originally joined the organization in 2013 and was quickly promoted to Vice President of Business Strategy & Analytics in June 2014.

In addition, Seattle elevated Kenton Olson to Vice President of Digital & Emerging Media. In his new capacity, Olson will report to Seahawks Chief Communications Officer, Dave Pearson. Olson has been with the Seahawks since 2007 and most recently served as Seattle’s Director of Digital & Emerging Media from 2010-2023.

[lawrence-related id=103800]

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbycpfe4qgv9nf6 player_id=01eqbvhghtkmz2182d image=]