Andy Weidl Could be Next to Leave Eagles' Personnel Department
In this story:
In what would be a devastating hit to an Eagles’ personnel department that has already lost Ian Cunningham and Brandon Brown pre-draft, there seems to be a growing sentiment in Pittsburgh that the head of Philadelphia’s scouting department, Andy Weidl, could be the heir apparent to outgoing Steelers GM Kevin Colbert.
Colbert, one of the more highly-regarded football executives in the NFL, has announced he will retire after this year’s draft cycle and Pittsburgh has performed a wide-ranging search for his successor that included Weidl, the Eagles’ vice president of player personnel and a native of Western Pennsylvania.
His first NFL job was as a Steelers’ player personnel assistant in 1998 and 1999.
Longtime Steelers reporter Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently opined that Weidl is the favorite.
“I’d be willing to bet he is the frontrunner for the position, as of right now,” Dulac said during a chat on the newspaper’s website.
Now, it’s worth pointing out that Dulac did not report that Weidl is the frontrunner and was just giving his current feel for the landscape with the Steelers, who have interviewed 11 candidates to date when it comes to replacing Colbert. That said, Dulac is one of Pittsburgh's more plugged-in reporters.
The Eagles were so unhappy about losing Cunningham and Brown pre-draft that they co-sponsored a resolution at the league’s recent spring meeting that would allow teams to keep “secondary football executives” until after the draft.
Brown was of particular concern for Howie Roseman because he left to become the assistant GM of the New York Giants, a divisional rival.
“It's hard for me because you see these guys and they have an opportunity to kind of help themselves and their families,” Roseman said at the NFL Scouting Combine. “But at the same time, it doesn't really help the Eagles.
"Especially the timing of this, which I think it's something maybe that we have to talk about going forward, about losing guys during this draft process, especially in your conference, one in your division. That's not ideal.”
The measure passed and will move the calendar back for those types of hires moving forward.
The worst-case scenario for the Eagles with Weidl is him working through the draft and then getting the Pittsburgh GM job which is at least more palatable.
Losing your top three scouting executives in one offseason, though, would be a tough blow.
Weidl has led the Eagles’ scouting department since Joe Douglas left to become the GM of the New York Jets with Cunningham and Brown essentially serving as his co-right hand men.
Weidl is No. 3 on the current Philadelphia flow chart when it comes to football operations behind Roseman and VP of football operations Catherine Raiche, and was the third Eagles exec to receive a GM interview this offseason joining Raiche and Brown, who both talked with Minnesota before the Vikings went with Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, an Andrew Berry disciple.
Berry was the Eagles VP of football operations before getting the Cleveland GM job.
"We have a lot of good people in our building,” Roseman said when discussing the churn caused by others coveting Eagles personnel executives. “We have a lot of people ready to step up. We've been in situations where back in 2016, we had a decimated personnel department, and we were able to have a good off-season. So, there are no excuses for that.”
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
