HEADLINES

Shawn Heinlen

NFL Staff Notes: Steelers, Browns, Broncos, Bears, Panthers, Buccaneers

May 27th, 2022 at 8:26pm CST by Ely Allen

The Steelers recently promoted former vice president of football & business administration Omar Khan to replace former general manager Kevin Colbert. We also knew that Khan was bringing in Eagles former vice president of player personnel Andy Weidl and Commanders former college scout Sheldon White. We now know that Weidl will serve as assistant general manager and White will be in the role of director of pro scouting.

Additionally, according to Brooke Pryor of ESPN, Khan has promoted existing staffer Dan Colbert, the son of the former general manager. The younger Colbert had served as a veteran college and pro scout and will now be elevated to a senior-level position.

Pryor also provides an additional note that Khan will continue the Steelers’ player personnel tradition of not conducting contract negotiations during the NFL season.

Here are a few other staff hires from around the NFL, starting with another hire in the AFC North:

  • The Browns have also made an addition to the player personnel staff, according to Neil Stratton of Inside the League. Cleveland will bring in Eagles scout Shawn Heinlen. Heinlen was assigned by Philadelphia to cover the Southwest area for the last four seasons and is expected to play a similar role in Cleveland. Before his time with the Eagles, Heinlen spent 16 years in Buffalo.
  • Denver announced some title changes to existing staff in their scouting department. 16-year Broncos staffer Eugene Armstrong will go from Southwest area scout to covering the Southeast area in his 17th season in Denver. Area scout Deon Randall will change areas, too, going from the Northeast area to the Southwest area in his sixth season with the Broncos. Chaz McKenzie spent last season as a Nunn-Wooten Scouting Fellow for the Broncos and will take over for Randall as the Northeast area scout.
  • The Bears are adding a former NFL player and scout in Reese Hicks, according the Stratton of Inside the League. After playing offensive line for the Texans, Bengals, Broncos, and Chargers, Hicks branched out into the scouting world. He has spent the last three seasons as a pro scout for the Falcons. Hicks will serve as the Bears West Coast area scout.
  • Carolina is also adding a former NFL player, hiring Michael Coe to become their New England area scout, according to Stratton once again. Coe spent seven seasons in the NFL as a cornerback for the Cowboys, Jaguars, Dolphins, Giants, and Colts. Since his time in the NFL, Coe has worked in the role of Director of Football Operations for the Senior Bowl.
  • According to Greg Auman of The Athletic, Tampa Bay has added two new scouting assistants. Emmett Clifford is joining the Buccaneers after spending the last two years as a film analyst in Cleveland. The other new scouting assistant, Korey Finnie, was last a student manager and assistant with Tulane football.

Eagles, Tom Donahoe To Part Ways

May 7th, 2022 at 3:02pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Eagles will have several new faces in their personnel department before the 2022 season begins. Another notable name is out of the picture post-draft.

Ten-year Philadelphia executive Tom Donahoe will part ways with the team, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane, who notes the sides decided not to work out another contract. A post-draft meeting led to this conclusion, and Donahoe will follow several execs out the door in Philly this offseason.

A Pittsburgh native, Donahoe led the Steelers front office for most of the 1990s, working alongside Bill Cowher to help the team become a perennial contender again. After his 2000 ouster, Donahoe took over as the Bills’ general manager in 2001. That tenure did not go as well, and the Bills moved on after the 2005 season. Donahoe, however, established a longtime partnership with the Eagles, one that began in 2012. It is unclear if the 75-year-old decision-maker plans to retire.

Although the Donahoe-Howie Roseman fist bump-failure moment went viral during Day 2 of the 2021 draft, the veteran exec stayed on for another year and had been with the Eagles through four head-coaching regimes. Donahoe oversaw the team’s scouting department for a stretch in 2016, when Roseman had regained power after Chip Kelly‘s short but memorable stretch at the helm.

Donahoe’s departure is the latest of several exits. Scouting director Casey Weidl, brother of Eagles player personnel VP Andy Weidl, is out. The Eagles also moved on from southwest area scout Shawn Heinlen, according to InsidetheBirds.com’s Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan (on Twitter), and exec T.J. McCreight, per McLane. These moves follow VP of football operations Catherine Raiche‘s exit for Cleveland, director of player personnel Brandon Brown‘s move to the Giants and senior scout Ian Cunningham‘s Bears hire. Both Brown and Cunningham are now in assistant GM roles, with Raiche’s Browns job believed to be on that level as well. Roseman will have a few hires to make in the coming weeks.