Derrick Yam - Pro Football Rumors

Ravens Announce Several Front Office Promotions

May 24th, 2024 at 8:29pm CST by Ely Allen

Much like their roster and coaching staff, the 2023 Ravens saw their front office fall victim to departures for bigger jobs around the league, as well. Executive vice president and general manager Eric DeCosta announced seven promotions this week to help fill some of the new vacancies.

George Kokinis was the first staffer mentioned to take the next step up in his career. After spending the past five years as director of player personnel, Kokinis has been promoted to the title of vice president of player personnel. He is one of the longest-tenured staffers in Baltimore’s player personnel department and has worked in the NFL for 33 years. His tenure with the team technically dates back to when he was a scouting intern in Cleveland in 1991. He was invited by former owner Art Modell to join in the franchise’s move to Baltimore in 1996.

In 2023, the team had two directors of player personnel: Kokinis and new Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz. With Hortiz gone and Kokinis receiving a title bump, former assistant director of player personnel Mark Azevedo will step up into the role the former two once shared. Azevedo is another long-term staffer, joining the team as a player personnel assistant in 2005. In the past 19 years, Azevedo has worked his way up through the scouting department.

Former director of college scouting David Blackburn crossed the beltway to work with the Commanders, leaving the door open for former national scout Andrew Raphael to step up into the role. Raphael has been with the team for 10 years, joining as a player personnel intern in 2013. He will be joined atop the college scouting department by Joey Cleary, a nine-year Ravens staffer who served as a Southeast area scout for the past three seasons.

On the pro scouting side of things, Corey Frazier has been promoted to assistant director of pro personnel. Joining the team as a player personnel assistant in 2017, Frazier spent two years as a pro scout before working the past three seasons as the team’s West Coast area scout.

The team also named a couple of promotions in their analytics departments. DeCosta announced that David McDonald would be named vice president of research and development. McDonald has been in Baltimore for nine years, leading all software and data development aspects of the player personnel department as director of research and development since 2019.

Lastly, Derrick Yam was promoted to director of data and decision science after serving the past two seasons as manager of data and decision science. Yam joined the Ravens as a quantitative analyst in 2019 after earning a master’s degree in biostatistics from Brown University.

AFC Staff Notes: Ravens, Bengals, Steelers

June 3rd, 2022 at 8:31pm CST by Ely Allen

The Ravens saw David Blackburn get promoted into their director of college scouting position recently. According to Ravens staff writer Ryan Mink, Blackburn was not alone in his promotion. This week, Baltimore announced promotions for Mark Azevedo, Houegnon Attenoukon, Patrick McDonough, and Derrick Yam, as well.

Azevedo was promoted to assistant director of player personnel in his 18th year with the team, assisting the Ravens’ two directors of player personnel, Joe Hortiz and George Kokinis. Attenoukon, known in the clubhouse as “Q,” is entering his sixth year with the team and was promoted to a full-time role as an area scout. The area he will cover has not yet been determined. McDonough is becoming the team’s northeast area scout. Yam was promoted from his role of quantitative analyst into the position of manager of data and decision science. Yam conducts data-based player evaluations for both college and professional players. He builds statistical models from a variety of data sources designed to assess player value, performance, and development.

Here are a few other notes concerning staff moves in the AFC North, starting with the reigning division champions:

ESPN’s Ben Baby reports that Bengals scout Trey Brown has been promoted to senior personnel executive. Brown drew lots of hiring interest in the most recent job cycle, including an interview for the Raiders’ open general manager position, so the promotion is likely a preventative maneuver to keep him in-house.
The Steelers recently lost pro scouting coordinator Brandon Hunt to the Eagles, and, according to Mark Kaboly of The Athletic, the team will also be without college scouting coordinator Rick Reiprish in the upcoming season. Ed Bouchette, also of The Athletic, added that long-time scout Bruce McNorton will no longer be with the Steelers either. McNorton had been a part of the Pittsburgh franchise for 22 years. The mass exodus is not a huge surprise as Omar Khan replaces Kevin Colbert as general manager. Khan recently hired Sheldon White to replace Hunt, so he’ll likely be looking for candidates to fill in the vacancies left by Reiprish and McNorton, as well.