Last week Pro Football Weekly broke the news that the Kansas City Chiefs had hired former Atlanta Falcons director of college scouting Phil Emery. He replaces Chuck Cook who held the position for 12 of his 25 years with the Chiefs organization.
It's hard to say if Emery is more qualified or ready than Cook. Emery's hire isn't meant to be a knock on him. General manager Scott Pioli wanted someone he has known and trusted for 18 years.
Let's take a quick look at Emery's history with drafting at the various stops in his career.
Chicago Bears area scout 1998-2004
Emery was responsible for "final grading, statistical evaluation and chart design and point system creation for all athletic testing items" on all Bears draft prospects. From 2001-2004 he did the cross-check evaluation of all offensive tackles and tight ends.
Bernard Robertson is an OT drafted in the 6th round of the 2002 draft. He's not on the bears roster anymore. Mike Gandy, drafted in the third round of the 2002 draft, has started for six seasons at offensive tackle for three teams. Marc Columbo was drafted as a left tackle in round one. He started seven games for the Bears in three seasons before heading to Dallas where he's manned the right side for two consecutive seasons.
Tight end Bryan Fletcher was drafted in the sixth round and never made the Bears roster.
From 1998-2001, he was responsible for wide receivers. The Bears drafted one wide receiver in that time. 2001 first round pick David Terrell was a major bust in Chicago.
Atlanta Falcons director of college scouting 2004-2009
Emery was hired on May 18th, 2004 to head the college scouting department with the Falcons. We're going to take a look at the 2005 and 2006 drafts in Atlanta to see how his work fares.
He was hired in May of 2004 so he wasn't responsible for the 2004 draft. We will look at the 2005 and 2006 drafts because the rule of thumb is that you can't accurately judge a draft class until three years out.
The Falcons have had three players turn into regular starters from 2005-2006 (Go here to see the complete drafts).
- LB Michael Boley
- DE Jonathan Babineaux
- WR Roddy White
Not exactly awe-inspiring. Though neither were the Chiefs' drafts during that time. The Falcons drafts from 2005-2009 were better, but not great. They've yielded ten players who have started at least one season for the team.
Ultimately the decisions were made by GM Rich McKay but those decisions were largely based off the input of Emery's department.
Here is a complete list of his coaching stops throughout his career.
1981-82 Central Michigan - graduate assistant
1982-84 Western New Mexico - strength and conditioning, offensive line coach
1884-1985 Georgetown College - defensive line
1985-87 Saginaw Valley State - strength and conditioning, defensive line
1987-1991 University of Tennessee - assistant strength and conditioning
1991-1998 U.S. Naval Academy - director of strength and conditioning services and an associate professo
1998-2004 Chicago Bears - area scout
2004-2009 Atlanta Falcons - director of college scouting
2009-present Kansas City Chiefs - director of college scouting
Experience on both sides of the line and strength and conditioning are experience traits that would seem to resonate with Scott Pioli and his mantra of big, fast, physical football players.
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In related director of college scouting news, the Broncos hired Matt Russell formerly of the Patriots. Russell is credited with being the one that "found" Matt Cassel when others weren't even looking at a back up QB.
Per Peter King's Twitter:
Russell's the guy who 'found' Matt Cassel as USC when a lot of scouts wouldn't look at a backup QB who never played. Matt saw something...
Then Scott Pioli looked at Cassel, liked what he saw, and the rest is history. Russell lives in Boulder. It's a good sign for Broncos.
It's about time some good fortune happened to the Broncos (Actually, no, no it's not).