HEADLINES

Jeremy Stabile

Staff Updates: Texans, Falcons, Colts, Jags

June 30th, 2023 at 9:49pm CST by Ely Allen

The Texans announced a slew of adjustments to their coaching and front office staffs for the 2023 season under new head coach DeMeco Ryans, according to Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2. The moves included confirmed new hires, promotions, and title additions throughout the staff.

On the coaching staff, Danny Barrett, who was confirmed to be sticking around as running backs coach as a holdover from last year’s staff back in February, has reportedly added the mantle of assistant head coach to his title. He’s been with the team for the past five years, providing Ryans with crucial insight into team dynamics. Wilson also announced that William Burnham has been hired as assistant special teams coordinator, replacing Sean Baker in the role. This is also news for Baker, as we were previously informed that he would be retained in the role for 2023 when the team finalized the coaching staff back in February.

In the personnel office, James Liipfert was promoted to executive director of player personnel after being promoted to assistant director of personnel/director of college scouting a year ago. John Ritcher joined Mozique McCurtis as a national scout for the team in 2019. Now the two are both moving up together into co-college scouting director jobs. Brad Matthews, a Midwest Area scout since 2018, will move into one of the open national scout roles. The team officially announced that Chris Blanco will rejoin the staff after two years in Minnesota. After reaching the role of director of pro personnel in his two years with the Vikings, Blanco will serve as assistant director of player personnel in Houston. Lastly in personnel, general manager Nick Caserio will add the title of executive vice president to his role.

Finally, in operations, Joe Vernon was officially announced as special advisor to football ops, leaving his job as an attorney at Miller Canfield in Michigan. The team also added Jeremy Stabile, who announced on Twitter that he would be leaving the Dolphins to accept the role of football data analyst in Houston.

Here are a few other staff updates from around the league, most of them coincidentally coming out of the AFC South, as well:

  • The only move not out of the AFC South, the Falcons hired Brian Zeches as their new player personnel coordinator. Zeches in the son of Jim Zeches, who was a scout in the NFL for 16 seasons. The younger Zeches has spent seven years in Washington and has experience with the Chiefs and the Senior Bowl, as well. He also has college experience, coaching at UTEP, Weber State, and New Mexico.
  • The Colts announced a number of promotions to their front office, as well, recently. In operations, Melainey Lowe has been named director of football operations after serving as a football operations intern in 2021 and the football operations assistant in 2022. In analytics, Nick Bayh was named strategic football analyst. He was previously a military intelligence officer for the US Army Reserve before serving as a personnel assistant in his first year with the Colts last year. In personnel, former scouting assistant Andrew Hoyle has been promoted to player personnel scout. He started with the team as an equipment intern in 2018 before moving his way through the ranks of the personnel department.
  • Lastly, the Jaguars made a couple of moves in their analytics department, according to ESPN’s Seth Walder. Previously under the title of director of coaching analytics, Ryan Paganetti‘s title has been changed to director of football analytics. Additionally, the team recently hired Avery Horvath as a data scientist.

AFC East Rumors: Carter, Scarlett, Armstead, Dolphins

July 20th, 2022 at 7:57pm CST by Ely Allen

In addition to three first-round picks, the Jets also selected the first running back of the 2022 NFL Draft, taking Iowa State’s Breece Hall in the second round at 36th overall. After New York finished the 2021 NFL season as a bottom-10 team in rushing yards, last year’s starter, Michael Carter, is expected to take a back seat to Hall in 2022, according to Mike Kaye of Pro Football Network.

After watching Tevin Coleman and Ty Johnson start in Weeks 1 and 2, respectively, Carter got his turn in Week 3 and held on to become the team’s leading rusher. The fourth-round rookie carried the ball 147 times (63 more times than the next closest back) for 639 yards and 4 touchdowns.

With Hall expected to take over as the starter, Carter is “likely to be the change-of-pace back” for the Jets. Coleman and Johnson return and will compete with La’Mical Perine and undrafted rookie Zonovan Knight for the remaining roster spots behind Hall and Carter.

Here are a few more rumors from the AFC East, all hailing from South Beach:

  • After spending his first season in Miami working with the linebackers, former Texan Brennan Scarlett has been working with the defensive ends more this offseason, according to the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson. This could open the door for a bit more playing time for Scarlett, as he returns to the role he had some success with in Houston. In his two most successful seasons with the Texans, Scarlett totaled 5.5 sacks and 9.0 tackles for loss to go along with 80 total tackles. The Dolphins would love to see that production return in 2022.
  • After only appearing in eight games last year with the Saints, offensive tackle Terron Armstead is not guaranteed to start the 2022 season healthy for the Dolphins, according to Adam H. Beasley of Pro Football Network. Armstead was shut down in mid-December with arm and knee injuries, undergoing surgery for his knees. Miami has been careful with Armstead, who’s dealt with plenty of health issues in his past, holding him out for all spring activities. Beasley points out that a healthy Armstead could be crucial for the development of young quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, considering “the Dolphins were last in pass-block win rate (47%) and 18th in sack rate (6.5%)” in the NFL last year.
  • The Dolphins added to their front office last week with the hire of new football analytics staff assistant Jeremy Stabile. He announced the hiring, himself, on his Twitter last Thursday. Stabile’s first job in football came with Syracuse University as a recruiting/analytics intern. He’s also spent time with football analytics websites working as an analyst with Pro Football Focus and PlayerProfiler.com. This is Stabile’s first job in the NFL.