Ed Dodds - Pro Football Rumors

Colts Promote Ed Dodds To Assistant General Manager

June 14th, 2018 at 8:30pm CST by Ben Levine

Colts GM Chris Ballard‘s staff is rounding into form. The organization announced a number of changes to their football operations staff earlier today, including the promotion of Ed Dodds to assistant general manager.

Dodds has spent 16 years in the NFL, including a decade with the Seahawks, where he served as the team’s senior personnel executive. In this role, Dodds was responsible for scouting both college and professional players. The team earned five division titles and a Super Bowl title during his tenure. He was hired last season as Indy’s vice president of player personnel, and he’s also spent time with the Raiders organization.

The Colts front office has seen plenty of turnover this offseason. The team had fired former general manager Ryan Grigson back in January, and they quickly replaced him with Ballard, who previously served as the Chiefs’ director of football operations.

The Colts’ other notable personnel changes include:

Brian Decker promoted to director of player development
Jon Shaw promoted to assistant director of pro scouting
Mike Lacy promoted to player personnel scout

Colts To Add Front Office Staff Members

May 9th, 2017 at 6:51pm CST by Dallas Robinson

New Colts general manager Chris Ballard is initiating a revamp of the club’s front office by hiring former Jets senior director of college scouting Rex Hogan, according to Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com (Twitter link). Hogan and former Seahawks senior personnel executive Ed Dodds — who is also expected to be hired soon — will be named co-vice presidents of player personnel, per Breer. Kimberley A. Martin of Newsday (Twitter link) reported earlier today that Indianapolis would likely add Hogan and Dodds.

Indianapolis had been expected to make several changes to its personnel department, and those alterations began last week when the club parted ways with scouting director T.J. McCreight and several other members of that department. Given his title in New York, Hogan would seem to be a natural fit to take over McCreight’s duties, and he offers familiarity with Ballard, as well, as the pair previously worked together in Chicago.

Dodds, meanwhile, has been linked to the Colts since March, as Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com reported at the time that Ballard was interested in bringing Dodds to Indianapolis. He’d been expected to land a promotion over his current role in Seattle, and he could help fill the void left by former vice president of football operations Jimmy Raye III, who was let go earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the Colts have also hired Brian Decker, a former Green Beret, as player personnel strategist, tweets Seth Wickersham of ESPN.com. As Wickersham detailed in a fascinating piece last summer, Decker previously worked for the Browns’ front office, creating character assessments under former Cleveland decision-makers Joe Banner, Michael Lombardi, and Ray Farmer.

Colts To Make Personnel Changes

April 30th, 2017 at 5:30pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Colts made a change by ousting GM Ryan Grigson and bringing in Chris Ballard, but with Jim Irsay waiting until a few weeks had transpired in the offseason to fire Grigson and begin a search, the team did not make a sweeping staff overhaul immediately following Ballard’s arrival. After the draft, though, the franchise has more changes planned.

T.J. McCreight will not see a sixth season running the Colts’ scouting department, with ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter reporting (via Twitter) the Colts are moving on from their director of college scouting. Schefter adds that others within the department won’t be back under Ballard, who already has some new scouting staffers in mind, according to the Indianapolis Star’s Stephen Holder (on Twitter).

Holder adds that the changes to the franchise’s personnel department will be widespread (Twitter link), but considering Ballard’s late-January hire, letting the scouts continue through the draft isn’t exactly surprising. McCreight spent five seasons working under Grigson after arriving from the Cardinals, with whom he served as the director of pro personnel.

One new staffer the Colts are interested in: Seahawks senior personnel executive Ed Dodds. Both Holder and CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora report (Twitter links) that Dodds is a Ballard target. Dodds has been on the Colts’ radar for more than a month. Ballard decided to make this scouting pivot now rather than have scouts working in a largely lame-duck capacity going forward.

Front Office Rumors: Bills, 49ers, Colts

March 23rd, 2017 at 12:09pm CST by Zachary Links

Earlier today, Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com brought us news on the Redskins’ GM search. Further down in his column, he presented more front office news from around the NFL. Here’s a look at the highlights:

New Bills coach Sean McDermott could convince ownership to import front office guys with whom he has a relationship. JLC floats the name of Panthers director of player personnel Don Gregory and notes that there are “already rumblings that the marriage of McDermott and Bills GM Doug Whaley” will not last.
The 49ers are also looking to add to the front office. This makes sense given that new GM John Lynch is a front office neophyte.
New Colts GM Chris Ballard may want to shake up the scouting core, but league sources tell JLC that he may have to wait a year since the evaluators that are already there have more time to go on their contracts. Still, Ballard badly wants to poach Seahawks executive Ed Dodds. If Indy can land him, he’ll probably get a promotion over his current title. Jets director of college scouting Rex Hogan is also a Ballard target, but JLC hears that he still has a good amount of time left on his contract and might be harder to pry away.
Bears exec Morocco Brown, who has history with Ballard, could be a possible candidate for the Colts and 49ers. JLC notes that Brown had a solid relationship with new SF coach Kyle Shanahan in D.C.