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A.J. Highsmith

Titans Add A.J. Highsmith, Keenan Agnew To Front Office; Team Interviewed Josh Scobey

May 14th, 2024 at 12:57pm CST by Sam Robinson

May regularly brings change in teams’ scouting departments, as staffs are often kept intact ahead of the draft for continuity purposes. The Titans are one of the teams making changes shortly after the draft.

Second-year Titans GM Ran Carthon is hiring A.J. Highsmith as the team’s scouting director, according to InsidetheLeague.com’s Neil Stratton. This will mark a reunion for the two second-generation NFLers. Carthon and Highsmith worked together with the 49ers during the late 2010s.

The son of NFL personnel vet Alonzo Highsmith, A.J. spent the past five years with the Bills and finished that tenure as a national scout. A defensive back at Miami from 2009-13, A.J. Highsmith worked his way up from an area scouting post in Buffalo. Alonzo also reentered the NFL this offseason, moving back from a role with the Hurricanes to work under Eliot Wolf in the reshaped New England front office. A.J. Highsmith will hold both pro and college scouting duties in Tennessee, Stratton adds.

Staying on the subject of veteran execs’ sons, Keenan Agnew is also joining Carthon in Tennessee. The son of Lions assistant GM Ray Agnew, Keenan is coming aboard as a scouting assistant, Stratton adds. Keenan will become the second of Ray Agnew’s sons to land in an NFL front office; Ray Agnew III is part of Joe Douglas‘ Jets scouting staff.

The Titans have also spent some time with other candidates to join their scouting department. Josh Scobey, who separated from the Cardinals after 12 years recently, interviewed for a Titans position, according to veteran Titans reporter Paul Kuharsky. Scobey, a former NFL running back, finished his Arizona tenure as the team’s college scouting director. Scobey’s separation from the Cardinals comes in ex-Titans exec Monti Ossenfort‘s second offseason as GM.

Also part of the recent Titans interviews: Eagles pro scouting director Max Gruder, per Kuharsky. The Eagles promoted Gruder during the 2022 offseason. The Titans had most recently employed Jon Salge as their college scouting director and Brian Gardner as their pro scouting director. While it is unclear where that duo will stand going forward, Carthon’s second offseason in charge is bringing some changes beyond the coaching staff.

East Rumors: Ansah, Bills, Scherff, Cowboys

May 8th, 2019 at 5:28pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Bills do not appear ready to concede they are losing the Ziggy Ansah race. It is unclear what terms have been exchanged between Ansah and the teams pursuing him, but Brandon Beane does not believe the Seahawks are the favorites to land the defensive end.

“We’re still in talks with him and his agent,” Beane said during an interview with 1270 The Fan (via Mike Rodak of ESPN.com, on Twitter). “Everything has been very good. All I’ll say about reports (regarding Seattle is emerging as favorite) is I don’t buy into that garbage, especially when I consider where some of the sourcing comes from.”

While the Seahawks have a more immediate need for edge rushers, the Bills recently declined perpetual trade candidate Shaq Lawson‘s fifth-year option and have Jerry Hughes in a contract year. Ansah visited the Bills in March, but the rehabbing lineman was not expected to sign until at least April. It appears the finish line is near for the soon-to-be 30-year-old sack artist’s decision.

Here is the latest news coming out of the Eastern divisions:

  • A torn pectoral muscle ended Brandon Scherff‘s fourth season, but there do not appear to be any complications in his return. Scherff expects to be ready for Redskins training camp. The fifth-year guard said (via Redskins.com) he was at around 90 percent when the Redskins started their offseason program late last month. In February, we heard Washington and its top guard began discussing an extension. But nothing has emerged on that front since. Scherff is entering his fifth-year option season.
  • Elsewhere in the NFC East, the Cowboys have a host of extension candidates. While Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper have emerged as the clubhouse leaders to be signed first, Cowboys executive VP Stephen Jones included Ezekiel Elliott in that conversation. Jones called Elliott “every bit as important,” per Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News (on Twitter). It still looks like Elliott, under contract through 2020, will take a backseat to Cooper and Prescott for the time being. The Cowboys have a history of overworking running backs as their rookie deals wind down, as DeMarco Murray‘s final Dallas season showed, but Jones is saying the right things regarding the team wanting Elliott in the fold long-term.
  • Jones also mentioned Jaylon Smith, La’el Collins and Byron Jones as players the team would like to address. “I feel very good that we’re going to strategically work through getting guys like Dak and Amari and Zeke done. And I think we can still do others,” Jones said (via Machota, on Twitter). Each is going into a contract year, with Collins having already signed two NFL deals despite entering the league at the same time as Cooper and Jones. But it will be difficult for the Cowboys to retain all three members of this section of their extension queue, given how much Prescott, Cooper and Elliott will cost.
  • The Bills reshuffled their scouting department recently. Former Dolphins GM Dennis Hickey, in his fourth year in Buffalo, is now a senior national scout with the Bills. Buffalo also hired A.J. Highsmith and Mike Szabo as area scouts. A.J. Highsmith, a 49ers staffer over the past five years, is the son of Browns executive Alonzo Highsmith. The Bills also announced Asil Mulbah received a promotion, becoming a pro scout, and that R.J. Webb is now on board as a scouting assistant.