Jake Rosenberg

Commanders Add Brandon Sosna As SVP Of Football Operations

May 20th, 2024 at 9:08am CST by Ely Allen

MAY 20: Sosna’s title will be senior vice president of football operations, as first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter. His duties will remain similar to the ones he held in Detroit, and as such he will be a lead figure in areas related to contract negotiations, salary cap management and the team’s analytics department.

MAY 19: The Commanders are adding a hot, young name to their front office to go along with a host of other new hires. To go along with relatively new ownership and a new coaching staff, new general manager Adam Peters is adding a strong piece to his front office staff in Brandon Sosna, according to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network.

Sosna, at 31 years old, is a fast-rising executive in the football world. A graduate of UPenn, Sosna began his front office work at the collegiate level with the Bearcats of Cincinnati. Starting at his hometown school in 2013, it took only three years for Sosna to be named chief of staff of the athletic department, a role in which he was responsible for organizing the search process that led to the hiring of head coach Luke Fickell.

Sosna broke into the NFL back in 2017 as a football administration intern with the Browns. It wasn’t long before he worked his way up to salary cap & contract analyst the following season. After dipping his toe in the NFL, Sosna was lured back to the University of Cincinnati in 2019, where he was granted the title of senior associate athletic director/chief revenue officer.

The USC Trojans poached Sosna later that year, hiring him as executive senior associate athletic director/chief of staff. In Los Angeles, Sosna was considered the athletic director’s right-hand man. Once again, he played a crucial role in the search that landed Lincoln Riley as the Trojans’ new head coach and reportedly played a key role in the school’s big move to the Big Ten Conference.

Most recently, though, the call of the NFL was too grand, and Sosna accepted a job as senior director, football administration for the Lions. Per Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Sosna served as the point man in contract negotiations in Detroit. While his title in Washington has not yet been announced, his role will be “high-ranking” and will likely utilize his contract analyst talents.

Garafolo also reported that, whatever the job is, Sosna was not the only one to interview for the role. Eagles vice president of football administration Jake Rosenberg was also considered after the team allowed his contact to expire in Philadelphia so that he could pursue other opportunities. Rosenberg has been credited for his assistance in the Eagles’ unique strategy of utilizing void years on contracts to reduce current salary cap obligations, something the team has been regarded as ahead of the curve on for some time.

NFC Front Office Notes: Eagles, Rosenberg, Falcons, Giants, Panthers, Bears

May 16th, 2024 at 3:01pm CST by Sam Robinson

Jake Rosenberg‘s Eagles exit is now official. After a report earlier this offseason indicated Rosenberg would step down following a 12-year tenure with the team, the Eagles’ VP of football administration made the announcement (via PHLY.com’s Zach Berman). A friend of GM Howie Roseman‘s dating back to elementary school, Rosenberg assisted the Eagles on the salary cap front. The team has frequently been ahead of the curve in this area, as its 2024 offseason reinforced. It is not known where Rosenberg is headed, but this marks another key departure in the Eagles’ front office. Two years ago, four of Roseman’s lieutenants — Brandon Brown, Ian Cunningham, Catherine Raiche, Andy Weidl — left for assistant GM roles elsewhere. Another key piece will need to be replaced now.

Post-draft front office changes are common around the league. Here is the latest from the NFC:

Despite not being a Terry Fontenot hire, Tokunbo Abanikanda will rise to a key post in the Falcons‘ front office. The team is promoting the veteran scout to its college scouting director post, InsidetheLeague.com’s Neil Stratton tweets. Abanikanda has been with the Falcons since midway through Thomas Dimitroff‘s GM tenure, arriving in 2012. He will now take a pivotal role in the team’s draft preparation. Elsewhere in the Falcons’ front office, the team’s player personnel coordinator — Brian Zeches — is moving on, Stratton adds. Formerly an exec in Washington and Kansas City, Zeches was named to this post during the 2023 offseason.
In addition to adding Chris Snee to their scouting staff, the Giants are making multiple in-house promotions. They are bumping Nick La Testa to assistant director of pro scouting and naming Charles Tisch their football operations manager, The Athletic’s Dan Duggan tweets. Charles Tisch, who had been a football ops assistant, is the nephew of Giants co-owner Steve Tisch. With the Giants since 2017, La Testa had previously worked on the scouting level for the team.
A Carolina-to-Washington pipeline formed during Ron Rivera‘s NFC East stay, but the Commanders will now lose an exec to the Panthers. Carolina is hiring David Whittington for a college scouting role, according to Stratton. Whittington had been with Washington since 2009, holding several positions. Most recently, he worked as a national scout with the Commanders. The Panthers are also adding Eric Eager to their analytics department, per Stratton. Eager, a former Pro Football Focus staffer, worked most recently as the vice president of SumerSports, an analytics-based website that also employs Dimitroff presently.
The Bears are going through with a round of promotions as well. GM Ryan Poles is elevating Breck Ackley from assistant college scouting director to the director post, while Stratton notes national scout Francis St. Paul will become the assistant director. Area scouts Brendan Rehor and John Syty are also moving to national scouting roles.

NFC East Notes: Eagles, Foles, Cowboys

May 23rd, 2018 at 7:07pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The Eagles reworked backup quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles‘ contract earlier this year, adding incentives to the deal while also tacking on a mutual option for the 2019 season. Initial reports indicated Foles will collect $250K per start and an additional $250K per win if he serves as Philadelphia’s starting quarterback, but he can earn even more than that during the postseason, according to Tim McManus of ESPN.com. For every playoff game in which Foles plays 33% of the Eagles’ offensive snaps, he’ll take home $500K. If the Eagles win a postseason contest with Foles under center, another $500K goes in his pocket.

Here’s more from the NFC East:

While the terms of Foles’ deal could allow him to collect extra cash in 2018, Cowboys wide receiver Terrance Williams‘ contract language might enable Dallas to escape his pact with no financial penalty, as Clarence Hill of the Star-Telegram writes. Williams, of course, was arrested last week for public intoxication and leaving the scene of an accident, charges which Williams disputes. Nevertheless, if Williams is convicted for any sort of alcohol-related offense, he’ll almost certainly face a league-imposed suspension, and “all” Cowboys players have void provisions in their contracts related to bans, per Williams. At present, Williams is scheduled to earn a fully guaranteed $3.5MM base salary in 2018, and Dallas would take on $7.25MM in dead money by releasing him.
Head coach Doug Pederson would like the Eagles to re-sign safety Corey Graham “if it works out,” per Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). Graham will be 33 years old when the 2018 campaign gets underway, but PFR ranked him as one of the 10 best available safeties before the free agent market opened in March. Although Graham has yet to garner any known interest over the past several months, the safety market has been infamously slow to develop, so the lack of Graham suitors is perhaps unsurprising. Graham played 367 snaps in 2017 as Philadelphia’s third safety behind starters Rodney McLeod and Malcolm Jenkins.
The Eagles have announced a series of hirings and promotions within their front office. Of note, Jake Rosenberg was named vice president of football administration, Jon Ferrari was named director of football operations, Andy Weidl was named director of player personnel. Meanwhile, Trey Brown — whom you may remember from recent Microsoft Surface commercials and last year interviewed for the Bills’ general manager position — is no longer listed among Philadelphia’s front office roster, as Geoff Mosher of 97.5 The Fanatic tweets.