This week, the Texans dismissed Head Coach/GM Bill O'Brien after an 0-4 start. While the team acted quickly to make Assistant Head Coach Romeo Crennel the interim head coach, the GM position was not so easily filled. For now, the team's Executive Vice President of Football Operations, Jack Easterby, will take over.
It's been a meteoric rise for Easterby, 35, who has no football playing experience and has never scouted, coached or played the
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Jack Easterby is calling the shots in Houston, at least through the end of the season.
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game on the collegiate or pro level. He immediately becomes the second-youngest GM in the NFL - Cleveland's Andrew Berry is 33. But is that all that makes him unique? We decided to take a look.
Today, we broke down all 32 NFL general managers to develop a thumbnail sketch of what level of experience makes a good candidate. We checked out the age and whether or not each one had experience as an NFL scout, a college or NFL coach, a player at the FBS level or a player at the NFL level. Here's what we found.
Age: Average age is 52, but that really doesn't tell the story. The median age is 49, the age of five GMs. More than half (18) are younger than 50 years old. Only seven are 60 or older. Most of the recent hires (New York's Joe Douglas, Cleveland's Berry, Kansas City's Brett Veach, Green Bay's Brian Gutekunst) are 50 or younger, some by a long shot.
Former scout?: It comes as no surprise that almost 60 percent of GMs (19 of 32) have experience as area scouts). For what it's worth, that's the exact number of GMs with scouting experience as when we looked in July 2017.
Former coach?: Only about a third of GMs (38 percent, 12 of 32) have been full-time coaches at one time. That's slightly fewer than in 2017, when 14 had been coaches. That's not a surprise; we've noticed a definite trend away from on-field experience and toward pedigrees and math backgrounds of late.
FBS player?: Successful GMs and head coaches don't need to have been former stars on the field, and that's evidenced by the results. Only 10 GMs (31 percent) played college football at the highest level.
NFL player?: This is even less important. Just six GMs are ex-NFL players.
So what do the numbers mean? At least based on recent hiring practices and the people doing the job right now, the people who interview for the Texans job will be somewhere in the mid-40s or younger (not likely to be 50 or older), and will have some scouting experience on their resume. They are far from a lock to have coaching on their resume at any level, and the same can be said of college or pro playing experience.
We'll be watching intently as the field is developed sometime in December and January. In the meantime, here's a look at what else we saw, heard, read and said in the business of college and pro football this week.
Twitter Poll results: By the way, today we asked the following question: After reviewing the scouting departments of 10 NFL teams (49ers, Bears, Bengals, Bills, Broncos, Browns, Bucs, Cards, Chargers, Chiefs), which group "birthed" the most NFL scouts? The options were MLB/NBA/NHL scouting; Arena Football player, scout or executive; NFL agent or assistant; or NFL Draft service or media (radio/TV). The results broke pretty evenly among all four options, with "Arena Player/Scout/Exec" holding a slim lead throughout the day. The correct answer is, however, the fourth option. We counted nine active scouts who worked for an NFL draft service - their own or someone else's - or spent time in the radio/TV media before getting a chance with a team. Six have AFL roots; four worked for a team from one of the other three "Big Four" sports; and two worked for agencies. We'll be interested to see how the numbers shake out as we work through the final 22 teams over the next month-plus. As always, if you're looking for ideas on how to break into the NFL scouting world, you could do worse than to study each team for new leads. Start with our Know Your Scouts series, which continues through the middle of November.
Catching up: John Beake turns 82 in December and claims he's "finally retired." He's probably earned it. After taking his first coaching job in 1962, Beake coached or scouted for more than 50 years, winning Super Bowls with the Chiefs and Broncos, running NFL Europe and even presiding over NFL Regional Combines, which ended just a few years ago. We touched base with him recently.
- Where are you living and what are you doing now?: "Winter Park, Colo. And now I'm totally retired. I'm in my 80s, so I've seen it all."
- Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?: "People. I enjoyed being around people. We can sit and talk and have a mission, we know what our mission is, we work together on it,
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and it's really satisfying when you see what you're being asked to do, from a coaching standpoint or in scouting and evaluation of players. In my time, some were really good at running drills and doing that, and then on the other side, there's the scout standing there and he's the evaluator, and he has to be able to say he can play or can't play, the pluses or minuses." - Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: "Oh yeah. A lot of from my coaching days, though the numbers are getting smaller. I stay in touch with a fellow coach from Kansas City, Tom Pratt, and he and I visit all the time, and there's only one other coach still with us, Walt Corey . . . But I stay close to the coaches that were here when I was here with the Broncos, whether I was in pro personnel or as GM. Also, a lot of the guys I knew from Germany, when I was in NFL Europe, a lot of the coaches I still stay in contact with from there."
- Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?: "Well, when I moved back to Colorado, (Broncos owner) Mr. (Pat) Bowlen and the Broncos are very nice, and my wife and I for the last 10 years have sat in the owner's box for every home game."
- Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game?: "It's a great story. I'm in Denver, and the Broncos, their kicker, we had him in our regional combine back in probably 2018. The kicker came over from Temple, and we were doing our regional combine, then next thing I know, he came to the super regional combine, and then came up to Denver. So every time I see him, I say, 'how you doing?' He's a very good kicker. Brandon McManus, he's good. We always see each other and I give him a big hug and wish him well."
Rep Rumblings: This week, we had three reports. Monday, we looked at the Browns, who are aggressive about (a) hiring scouting assistants and (b) giving them roles in their scouting department once they've proven themselves. We also looked at agents on the move, updated our NFL Coaches and Agents board with the termination of Houston's Bill O'Brien, and tracked recruiting buzz. Tuesday, we looked at the Texans' GM job and considered several possibilities to be the O'Brien's successor in the front office. Finally, on Wednesday, we looked at a scouting promotion and prospects from two Texas teams who have family links to agents, agencies or former NFL players. If you'd like to get a look at all our reports this year, click here.
The Fourth Quarter: As we roll into the last three months of the year, we're working on ways to finish up strong. The plan includes Zoom sessions with some of the bigger names in scouting and player representation, and with the economy struggling, we'll be holding the cost at $10 per person. With travel limited and communication more restricted than ever due to the reaction to the virus, we see it as the best way to educate our clients while keeping the price reasonable. We're finalizing the schedule and the speakers and we'll have details soon. If you're interested in learning more about how the game works, and what you need to know to succeed in football, stay tuned.
Next week: We're getting closer to all major conferences playing on Saturdays, and despite a few hiccups along the way, the NFL is rolling along as normal. We are, too. Next week, as we wait patiently for word on whether or not there will be an NFL agent exam this year, we'll adhere to our normal routine. We'll have at least one post in our Succeed in Footballblog; we'll have four Rep Rumblings reports; and we'll have daily looks at the scouting departments of all 32 NFL teams in our Know Your Scouts series. We'll also continue helping people pursue their lifelong football goals either by helping to explain the world of football scouting, by coaching parents on how to handle the draft process with their sons, or providing the best exam prep materials on the market for aspiring NFL agents. We'll also be on the lookout for any changes in scouting departments across the NFL and updating our Scouting Changes Grid, and we'll also scour the college football landscape for players opting out, then track their agent choice and training destination for our Signings Grid. Got a former NFL scout you'd like us to check in on? Let us know by emaiing us, or just respond to this email. Got a topic you'd like to see researched in our Friday Wrap? Hit us up, same way. In the meantime, we're here for you. Let us know how we can help you accomplish your gridiron goals. We'd be especially appreciative if you'd be here for us, as well.
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Neil Stratton
