Eagles Confirm Front Office Shakeup
PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles suffered significant attrition on both their football operations and scouting staff over the previous few months so a shakeup was necessary.
New hires and promotions trickled in over the previous month and the organization made them official on Friday afternoon, bringing a total of 11 new bodies - three on the football operations side and eight on the scouting staff.
As far as promotions, there were 12 in football operations and seven on the scouting staff.
The biggest news was the assistant GM titles being given to the vice president of football operations and compliance Jon Ferrari and vice president of football operations and strategy Alec Halaby.
The scouting side took on a new look after losing Andy Weidl, the former vice president of player personnel and the leader of the department to the assistant GM job with the Pittsburgh Steelers, as well as his two top lieutenants, Ian Cunningham and Brandon Brown, to assistant GM gigs with Chicago and the New York Giants respectively.
Dave Caldwell, the former GM in Jacksonville, was promoted from personnel executive to senior personnel director/advisor to the general manager while Matt Russell, a long-time personnel heavyweight in Denver, was brought back to the organization with the same title.
Brandon Hunt was brought in from Pittsburgh to be the director of scouting and two execs will share the director of player personnel title: Alan Wolking who gets a promotion from director of college scouting and outside hire Chuck Walls, who comes in from the Cleveland Browns.
The other changes were as follows:
Football Operations Promotions:
Dom DiSandro – Senior Advisor to the General Manager/Chief Security Officer
Bryce Johnston – Vice President of Football Transactions and Strategic Planning
Paul Lancaster – Senior Director of Player Engagement
Connor Barwin – Director of Player Development
James Gilman – Director of Football Analytics
Jeff Scott – Director of Football Operations
Jon Liu – Assistant Director of Football Analytics
Kathy Mair – Player Resource Coordinator/Assistant Director of Player Engagement
Patrick McDowell – Player Development Assistant/Scout
Nick Still – Assistant Equipment Manager
Scouting Department Promotions:
Phil Bhaya – Director of Draft Management
Max Gruder – Director of Pro Scouting
Ameena Soliman – Director of Personnel Operations/Pro Scout
Ryan Myers – Assistant Director of College Scouting
Matt Holland – Senior College/Pro Scout
Football Operations New Hires:
Zach Drapkin – Quantitative Analyst
Marlon Sanders – Video Assistant
Elsie Reyes – Administrative Assistant, Football Operations
Scouting Department New Hires
Jeremy Gray – Assistant Director of Pro Personnel
Jordon Dizon – National Scout
Jarrod Kilburn – College/Pro Scout
Rod Streater – Northeast Area Scout
Ben Ijalana – Scouting Assistant
Both Streater and Ijalana are South Jersey natives and played in the NFL.
Streater was a WR at Temple who then spent six years in the pros hauling in 127 receptions for 1,755 yards and 10 touchdowns. Ijalana, meanwhile, went to Villanova, and spent four years in the NFL as an offensive lineman.
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Sports. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talker Jody McDonald, every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube.com and JAKIBSports.com. You can reach John at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
