Report: Patriots College Scouting Director Monti Ossenfort 'Likely' Leaving 'in the Coming Weeks'
After speculation heading into the 2020 offseason that the New England Patriots could potentially lose several key members of their coaching staff and front-office, they were lucky enough to have only lost one, which was special teams coordinator Joe Judge, who became the head coach of the New York Giants.
But it looks like they may not make it through the offseason without losing at least one more member of their organization.
The MMQB's Albert Breer noted in his weekly column that college scouting director Monti Ossenfort - who was one front-office executive in New England that was rumored to be on the move this year - is "likely" going to be getting a job elsewhere "in the coming weeks".
The Patriots were fortunate to come out of the January hiring cycle largely intact, with OC Josh McDaniels, director of player personnel Nick Caserio and pro scouting director Dave Ziegler all eliciting interest. With them staying put, New England avoided the kind of mass exodus it went through last year. But the Pats won’t make it through this offseason totally unscathed. Highly-regarded college scouting director Monti Ossenfort will likely be on the move in the coming weeks—he was twice requested for, and blocked from, interviews for the Texans GM job over the last two years, and interviewed for the Browns GM job in January. Ossenfort succeeded Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff in his current role in New England, and has been an integral part of building the second iteration of the Bill Belichick dynasty. For obvious reasons, this figures to be a quieter year for movement in the scouting community (normally, May is when a ton of guys are switching jobs). But in the case of someone like Ossenfort, having an established reputation and relationships should supersede the difficulty teams might have in running a search process amid the circumstances. The Patriots, for their part, weren’t caught off-guard here, with Ossenfort letting his contract expire. They brought former Browns and Packers exec Eliot Wolf aboard in February.
Ossenfort, interviewed for Cleveland's GM job once the 2019 season was over. After Vikings assistant GM George Paton withdrew his name from consideration for that job, that left Ossenfort and Philadelphia's vice president of football operations Andrew Berry as the last two candidates the Browns would choose to be their new GM. In the end, Cleveland chose the latter person for the job.
Ossenfort has been the college scouting director for the Patriots for six seasons. Before that he spent time with the organization as the assistant college scouting director and as an area scout. He's been working in the NFL since 2001.
