Brian Dawkins Happy To Be Back With The Eagles
PHILADELPHIA, PA (CBS) — Brian Dawkins never really left the Eagles. Over recent years, the eight-time Pro Bowler and Eagles' Hall of Famer would find a way to pass along some advice and wisdom to Eagles' executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman.
The time felt right for both Dawkins, one of the most beloved Eagles in franchise history, and the team that still held him in high esteem to create a marriage of a new sorts on Saturday.
The Eagles announced that Dawkins will join the team's scouting department, as the franchise's inaugural recipient of the Nunn-Wooten Scouting Fellowship, a new program launched by the NFL aimed at introducing former players to the world of player personnel and the duties of an NFL scout.
"This is great, I'm very excited about this opportunity, I really am," said Dawkins, who will study and work closely with all phases of the scouting and football operations departments. "This is something that I have been thinking about for a while, and it's so happens it's something we talked about and got something done with it."
Dawkins had been consulting with Roseman sporadically.
But you get the impression, Dawkins foresees doing a little more than scouting. The feeling is one day Dawkins is aiming for a front-office position with an NFL team—possibly general manager.
"I've been having conversations off and on [with Roseman]," Dawkins said. "It's not just scouting. I'm trying to grasp the whole gambit of how a football operation is run. I'm learning about the scouting department of it, the terminology and all of those things, but sometimes you either have an eye [for talent] or you don't.
"I've been blessed to have an eye to be able to see talent. So if I can help in that respect, I'll do that, but I also want to learn everything possible about running a football team."
Dawkins left ESPN as an analyst and admits a position like this is something that he's been looking at for a while.
"I didn't know it would come to fruition this fast, but here it is," Dawkins said. "Sometimes, you have to step out of your comfort zone to really see what you can achieve. This is something I'm really looking forward to, and look to move to something even bigger."
Dawkins will still be based in Colorado, where he lives. He said he has to work out his travel schedule with the Eagles.
"We've been fortunate to talk to Brian about personnel and some of the things that we've been doing," Roseman said. "I've been giving him evaluations on guys the past three or four years, and listening to his thoughts on [defensive back] play when I was the GM, calling him and asking questions.
"I always tried to get him here, because he has such a bright future. He has a great football mind and great leadership abilities, which translate into the front office. I always think about [Baltimore Ravens' GM] Ozzie Newsome and how he made that transition. Talking to [Dawkins] during the coaching search, as we came into the off-season, he did more evaluations with the draft. We continued to try and find the right role he felt comfortable with.
When this opportunity came along, Roseman said, it was a perfect transition for Dawkins.
"We couldn't be more excited to have him back," Roseman said. "We don't want to limit it to scouting. He has an ability to communicate with the players, and his observations as a team as a whole. We're going to drop him into a bunch of areas, and drop different buckets that he's interested in, but it starts with the scouting department."
