HEADLINES

John Ritcher

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 South Notes: Mosley, Jaguars, Texans

May 7th, 2019 at 8:18pm CST by Sam Robinson

While the Colts have shown considerable restraint in free agency during Chris Ballard‘s three offseasons as GM, continuing this year despite the team’s league-high cap space figure, they did identify a position they wanted. They just didn’t fill it until the draft. Previously mentioned as one of C.J. Mosley‘s many suitors, the Colts made a “serious” run at the inside linebacker in March, Albert Breer of SI.com notes. Clearly, Ballard was not prepared to go as high as the Jets did — $17MM AAV — for the sixth-year linebacker. The Colts were not mentioned as a finalist for Mosley, with the Ravens increasing their offer before Mosley opted for New York.

Indianapolis wanted a three-down linebacker to pair with Darius Leonard and is encouraged by third-round pick Bobby Okereke‘s outlook early, Breer adds. Known more (at this point) for Pat McAfee’s announcement of his Colts arrival, Okereke being longer and bigger than Devin White or Devin Bush (though not by much at 6-foot-1, 239 pounds) was important to Ballard’s staff — just as Leonard’s frame appealed to the Colts last year.

Here is the latest news coming out of the AFC South:

  • Continuing with the Colts, the team’s decision to trade out of the first round and pick up a 2020 second-rounder in the process earned praise by multiple NFL executives as the best move of the draft, Mike Sando of ESPN.com writes (ESPN+ link). The Colts acquiring the Redskins’ 2020 second-rounder strikes the anonymous execs as a value move, given that Washington’s picks are likely to be higher than Indianapolis’ next year, and labeled moving out of a late first-round spot this year was savvy given the top-heavy makeup of the 2019 class. The Colts chose Rock Ya-Sin, Ben Banogu and Parris Campbell in the second round.
  • The Jaguars‘ Josh Allen pick will protect them in the event prospective negotiations with Yannick Ngakoue escalate to an undesirable price point, offers another exec (via Sando). Ngakoue left Jaguars workouts in a likely contract-related maneuver. The defensive end became extension-eligible this year, but talks are not believed to have begun yet. The Jaguars already have Calais Campbell making $15MM per year, but given the new deals handed to Frank Clark and DeMarcus Lawrence, Ngakoue will likely aim higher than Campbell’s pact when the time comes. Allen is locked into his rookie contract until 2022. Conversely, an exec from a team in need of a pass rusher said his team did not have Allen graded particularly high. Said exec viewed the Kentucky product may end up as an off-ball linebacker at some point.
  • A year ago, the Texans hired John Ritcher from the Jets to be their southeast area scout. They have now promoted him to a national scout, Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle notes. Ritcher joins Mozique McCurtis as the Texans’ national scouts.

Texans Hire Jets Exec As Player Personnel Director

May 5th, 2018 at 5:00pm CST by Sam Robinson

After firing several members of their scouting department earlier this week, the Texans are quickly assembling their new-look scouting branch.

The franchise will bring aboard Matt Bazirgan from the Jets, and Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle reports he will serve as the Texans’ director of player personnel. The Jets granted Bazirgan permission to speak with the Texans.

Bazirgan joins former Patriots exec James Liipfert as new Texans hires, with the latter now in place as Houston’s director of college scouting. The Texans will also bring aboard former Cardinals scout John Ritcher, Wilson reports. Ritcher will become Houston’s southeast regional scout, per Wilson, after spending six years with the Cards.

Bazirgan, who looks set to assume some of former interim GM and VP of player personnel Jimmy Raye III‘s responsibilities, served as the Jets’ director of pro personnel for the past three years. Wilson adds Bazirgan has a strong reputation as a talent evaluator in NFL circles. He spent 14 years with the Jets.