Getting to Know the Redskins Front Office

[SmootSmack]

So this is designed to give everyone a better sense of the front office at Redskins Park from Cerrato on down. I’m sure I’m missing some people, but this should give everyone a general sense of who the major players are and what their roles are. I also threw in a little nugget about some prior experience.

EVP/General Manager Bruce Allen (2009)
Focus: Oversees all personnel (scouts, trainers, video editors, etc.), long-term strategist for draft and free agency
Experience: Senior Executive Oakland Raiders (1996-2003) General Manager Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2004-2008)

Director of Player Personnel: Scott Campbell (2008)
Focus: Oversees all scouting, leads preparation leading up to draft day (think of him sort of as an Offensive Coordinator of scouting). He’s the point person in the off-season.
Experience: Scout with the Falcons (1990-1997), Director of Pro Personnel with the Bears (2000) and Redskins (2001,2006-2007), Director of College Scouting with the Redskins (2002-2005)

Area Scout: Tim Gribble (2003)
Focus: Colleges in the Northeast (like all scouts, he's given a mission statement essentially, put together by the top executives including Zorn and his top assistants to find certain types of players and unearth hidden gems)
Experience: Pro Personnel assistant with the Redskins (i.e. paper pusher) (2002)

Area Scout: Shemy Schembechler (2001)
Focus: Colleges in the Midwest
Experience: Scouting assistant with the Chiefs and Bears (1996-2000)

Area Scout: Jim Zeches (2005)
Focus: Colleges in the West Coast
Experience: Area scout with the Niners (2001-2004)

Area Scout: Chip Flanagan (2008)
Focus: Colleges in the Southwest
Experience: Scouting assistant with the Redskins (2005-2007)

Area Scout: Bill Baker (2009)
Focus: Colleges in the Southeast
Experience: College Scouting Coordinator Pittsburgh Steelers (2000-2002); Southeast regional scout Miami Dolphins (2003-2008)

Director of Pro Personnel: Morocco Brown
Focus: Oversees practice squad personnel, pro player evaluation (including free agents and other leagues such as CFL), in charge of advanced scouting of next opponent. He’s the point person in the regular season.
Experience: Assistant Director of Pro Personnel Bears (2002-2007), assistant scout with the Redskins (2000-2001)

Pro Scout: Alex Santos (2009)
Focus: Assists Morocco Brown with advanced scouting and pro player evaluation
Experience: Pro Personnel assistant with the Redskins (2006-2008)

Pro Scout: Don Breaux (2008)
Focus: Just lending his eyes and ears and years of NFL experience
Experience: None in scouting

VP Football Administration: Eric Shaffer (2004)
Focus: Manage the money
Experience: Player agent with IMG

[celts32]

Good stuff Smoot

[MiraclesHappen07]

Good insight smoot, i like it

[Skins4L]

good thread/post Smoot

[sportscurmudgeon]

Three Questions:

1. Is Shemy Shembechler related to Bo Schembechler?

2. Does Scott Campbell do any scouting of players on his own?

3. Who does the "quality control" on the regional scouts? Do they pick the games they should see or does someone direct them to see specific games?

The reason I ask #2 and #3 is that I did some basketball scouting for an NBA team MANY years ago and watching a game live is very different from watching the same game on tape. You can assess skills better on tape because you can re-run and break down plays, but if you want to know if the guy is a "real player" you get that much better in person than on tape.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

Three Questions:

1. Is Shemy Shembechler related to Bo Schembechler?

2. Does Scott Campbell do any scouting of players on his own?

3. Who does the "quality control" on the regional scouts? Do they pick the games they should see or does someone direct them to see specific games?

The reason I ask #2 and #3 is that I did some basketball scouting for an NBA team MANY years ago and watching a game live is very different from watching the same game on tape. You can assess skills better on tape because you can re-run and break down plays, but if you want to know if the guy is a "real player" you get that much better in person than on tape.

1. Yes, it's his son

2. At this point, he's really more of a "second opinion" kind of guy. I don't think he does as much traveling

3. It's really up to the scout to know the schools and the players and go to the games from August through November. This is for the college scouts. They will generally go a school and watch film with the coaches and then watch the player actually practice. Pro scouts tend to do more film research than "live" research, as I understand it. At the end of the year, the pro scouts will present their findings to Cerrato and the position coaches present their review of their own players. And then Cerrato, Campbell, Brown, Zorn and I'm not sure who else will sit down and discuss and rank each player and determine if there are free agents they want to target or players on their own team they do or do not want to re-sign. Also, forgot to mention, before the meeting VC (or actually I think Campbell runs this now) will present the scouts' recommendations to the position coaches so they can review film of the players and see how they might fit in. Anyhow, once this list is finalized then it's given to Snyder.

College coaches face three big challenges 1.) the amount of days they are allowed to visit schools and players is restricted because of NCAA rules. 2.) More and more Juniors are entering the draft but they can't be scouted until they declare and 3) The scouts set their schedules based on what players they know will fit best in the head coach's system. But with us changing systems so often it's a crap shoot. You spend all fall scouting for the Fun and Gun and then suddenly Marty is hired. You focus on the Gibbs' offense and next thing you know we're going West Coast Offense

[SBXVII]

Now, someone needs to question them as to how often Vinny/Snyder listens to their input. If it's hardly ever then Vinny must go as all have said. If it's almost all the time....

Fire them all and start anew.

Someone sucks and it's either player eval or player aquisition. or both. We've kept maybe one or two players on the team every yr from the draft since 2000. Our two best yrs were 2007 and 2006. I guess you can count 2008....Moore, Kelly, Thomas, Davis, Horton, Tryon and Rob Jackson.

[dmek25]

Eric Shaffer is one of the best in the business. nice post

[NM Redskin]

this is why the warpath has no equal!

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by NM Redskin

this is why the warpath has no equal!

True dat... but I think there are probably lots of other reasons too

[44ever]

SmootSmack for GM Thanks man. I really had no idea who most of our scouts were. Who's Don Warren?

[BaltimoreSkins]

I noticed there is no area scout for the Southeast, do we not have one or was that an omission?

[44ever]

Originally Posted by BaltimoreSkins

I noticed there is no area scout for the Southeast, do we not have one or was that an omission?

everyone knows Florida teams have no talent

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by BaltimoreSkins

I noticed there is no area scout for the Southeast, do we not have one or was that an omission?

We must, I just don't remember who it is

[SBXVII]

^and yet we keep picking up Miami players. Go figure.