George Kokinis has spent his entire career with the Browns, then the Ravens (which were the relocated Browns), then the Browns (which were the expansion Browns), then the Ravens.
Entering his thirty-fourth NFL season, Kokinis has been promoted to V.P. of player personnel with the Ravens.
He had been the director of player personnel from 2019 through 2023 and, before that, a senior personnel assistant.
In 2009, Kokinis left the Ravens to become the G.M. of the Browns. He was fired during his only season on the job, and he was reportedly escorted out of the building by security.
The problem (based on reporting at the time) was that the Browns gave Kokinis final say over the draft and the roster in his contract, in order to be able to hire him from the Ravens. Then, when he got to Cleveland, coach Eric Mangini was running the show. Kokinis’s fate possibly was sealed by trying to actually use the contractual authority he had been given.
“George has been a stalwart of scouting since the beginning of the Ravens,” Ravens G.M. Eric DeCosta said in a statement. “He’s a tireless worker, an elite evaluator, and he’s adept at building relationships with coaches, players and agents in our industry. He will oversee all player personnel matters related to scouting.”
The development potentially puts Kokinis in line for something that rarely happens in the NFL — a fired G.M. getting another chance to be a G.M. again.