‘Does He Want To Stay?”

The front office and scouting shuffle continued for the Eagles over the weekend, with more departures and expected promotions.

On the latest Inside the Birds podcast, Adam Caplan and Geoff Mosher discussed the latest changes, future potential hiring candidates, and more Eagles news.

ITB photo: Andy Weidl, left, remains part of a changing Eagles scouting department, for now.

Tom Donahoe

Adam Caplan: “Everybody knows that Howie Roseman brought him in many years ago and he was a mentor to so many people. Great wisdom. Some people are speculating he’s going to retire. He may, but it’s not definite, I was told.”

Movin’ Up

Caplan: “We’re told by multiple sources that Alan Wolking, the senior director of college scouting, is getting promoted. We don’t know what the title will be and what his responsibility will be, but he got a promotion a couple of years ago to senior director of college scouting. Dave Caldwell, who’s a personnel executive – everybody knows he came from Jacksonville as their GM – the question is what would you promote him to? Obviously, he has massive experience on the pro and college side. We heard Ryan Myers, the West Coast area scout, is getting a promotion. He does have some pro scouting experience early in his career. Phil Bhaya, their Southeast area scout, is expected to get some sort of promotion.”

Andy Weidl

Caplan: “We were told flat-out he’s not getting fired. The question is from Andy’s standpoint: Does he want to still stay there? We haven’t heard that he wants to leave, but we’ll see. There’s a saying in the National Football League that you don’t try to leave a job until you know you have another job lined up. He’s their VP of Player Personnel. They pay him very well. He’s very well respected by the organization. They want him to stay. Unless he wants to leave, we expect him to be there.”

Scouting Changes

Geoff Mosher: “What I’m commonly hearing is that you are seeing an intentional change to get younger. Some of the guys who are not with organization anymore have been scouts for quite a while. We know diversity is important to this staff. Some of the people they’re interviewing will bring diversity to the staff if they’re hired. We know that’s important to Jeffery Lurie and Howie Roseman. A common theme I’m hearing is their view of the scouting and personnel process is evolving. Someone said to me it’s a more forward-thinking approach to scouting and personnel. I would love to do a little more homework to find out exactly what that means…I know Howie and Jeffery in general have always spoken about wanting to have a really clean, fluid process where there’s great communication and everybody’s on the same page.”

Brandon Hunt

Mosher: “He’s been on the Eagles’ radar for over five years now. As we understand it, they really like this guy.”

Caplan: “From what we understand, their plan is to have at least two personnel directors. He’s a guy they have targeted in their restructuring here. They’re going to interview some other guys. They want to talk to Ran Carthon, who’s the director of player personnel for the 49ers. They want to talk to Morocco Brown, who’s the Colts’ college scouting director. Both guys are really highly respected. Hunt’s right up there as the top guy they want to get. He’s very well-liked and respected. He’s probably going to be a GM someday. Everyone is telling me he’s a stud.”

Rookie Camp

Caplan: “You want to see retention from the drafted players after they get their playbook. There’s no real competition for jobs here. That will come in the mandatory camp and then training camp, but you want to see athletic movement, if they can retain. You want to watch the communication between everybody.”

Britain Covey

Mosher: “He’s got a lot of twitch. He’s a return specialist. It’s not surprising because we’ve been reporting for a while how they’ve been looking for one. They went after Richie James from the 49ers in free agency; he signed with the Giants. They had some interest in Andre Roberts, who ended up signing with the Panthers. This is a kid who has an opportunity to make the club as a return specialist.”

3-4 Defense

Mosher: “They were an odd-front defense for a lot last year: four defensive linemen and a strong-side linebacker on the line of scrimmage. When they rushed the passer, they went into their traditional 4-3. To me, I don’t see them being a pure 3-4 team because they still don’t have all of the personnel elements of that. Usually in a 3-4 team, you have two outside linebackers who are long and lengthy, where both can rush. They only have one and that’s Haason Reddick.”

– Benjamin Paul is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com

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