Philadelphia loses another valued front office member.
The Philadelphia Eagles lost one of their two directors of player personnel when Ian Cunningham was hired by the Chicago Bears last month. Now the other one, Brandon Brown, is reportedly leaving Philly to be the New York Giants’ new assistant general manager.
Brown previously interviewed for the Minnesota Vikings’ general manager job. Here’s what we wrote about him at the time:
Brown is in his fifth season with the Eagles. He was previously the team’s director of pro scouting before being promoted to his current position last May. Brown still oversees the team’s pro scouting department with some crossover work into the college scouting side.
It’s usually not easy to parse credit and blame when it comes to evaluating front office executives who rank below the top decision-maker (Howie Roseman for the Eagles). But Brown was said to have a key role in the Eagles claiming Travis Fulgham off waivers in 2020. Fulgham obviously didn’t last as long in Philly as everyone would’ve hoped but it was still a good pickup relative to expectation; he was the team’s leading receiver.
While it’s not necessarily a devastating blow moving forward, losing both Cunningham and Brown in the same offseason doesn’t seem ideal for the Eagles. Especially not ideal for the Eagles to be losing Brown to a division rival.
And the key losses might not stop there.
There’s some buzz that Eagles vice president of player personnel Andy Weidl could be a candidate for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ general manager vacancy. Longtime Steelers GM Kevin Colbert is stepping down after the 2022 NFL Draft and is expected to help find his successor. Weidl is a Pittsburgh native and he began his NFL career with the Steelers as a player personnel assistant in 1998.
Jeffrey Lurie has previously credited Roseman for stocking the Eagles’ front office pipeline. We’ll see if the team plans to promote from within — former Jacksonville Jaguars general manager Dave Caldwell stands out as a notable candidate — or goes outside the organization to make some new hires. Or perhaps a mix of both.
In other news, the Giants reportedly interviewed former Eagles defensive coordinator and current Tennessee Titans assistant Jim Schwartz for their DC vacancy. The Giants recently lost Patrick Graham to the Las Vegas Raiders so they’re looking for his replacement on Brian Daboll’s staff. Though his detractors would have you believe otherwise, Schwartz would be a good hire for the Giants. We’ll have to see if he gets the job or if it goes to someone else, such as Don “Wink” Martindale.