Eagles suffer another huge loss to their personnel department

In what has become a theme of this offseason, the Eagles are losing yet another front office executive.

This one will hurt.

Eagles vice president of player personnel Andy Weidl is leaving the organization after six seasons to join the Pittsburgh Steelers as their assistant general manager, NBC Sports Philadelphia’s John Clark confirmed. CBS SportsNet’s Aditi Kinkhabwala first reported the news.

Weidl will serve as the assistant general manager under Omar Khan, who is being hired as the general manger in Pittsburgh, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported. Khan will replace longtime Pittsburgh general manager Kevin Colbert, who stepped down after the 2022 draft.

Weidl was in contention for the general manager job and even made the list of finalists, interviewing twice. Instead of getting the top job, he has accepted the assistant GM position, making him the latest front office executive to leave this offseason.

As a recap, here’s who the Eagles have lost in the last few months:

• Andy Weidl (VP of player personnel)
• Catherine Raîche (VP of football operations)
• Tom Donahoe (senior football advisor)
• Brandon Brown (director of player personnel)
• Ian Cunningham (director of player personnel)

And the hemorrhaging of front office talent dates back a few years to when they lost Joe Douglas, Andrew Berry and others.

Eagles general manager Howie Roseman addressed all this after the conclusion of the 2022 draft.

“Well, yeah, you talk about some of the things here that have happened since the end of the 2019 draft,” Roseman said just after the 2022 draft ended. “We've lost a lot of really good people and we still have a lot of really good people.

“Obviously, because of that, we're going to have to continue to make additions and continue to fortify that group. I think we have a good process for that. I think we're in a situation where we want to continue to grow talent in the building. We have good people in the building and, just like our football team, we're always looking to add good people, and I think you're only as good as your people. We have really good people and obviously Andy is one of them.”

The Eagles have been resistant to hand out an assistant general manager title and they’ve lost some talented people because of it. The Eagles are in the process of restructuring their front office this offseason and it will likely have a different format than the one they had this past season. They have been tinkering with ideas for the new structure.

Weidl was initially hired by the Eagles in 2016 as their assistant director of player personnel. In 2019, when Joe Douglas left for the Jets GM job, the Eagles promoted Weidl to the director of player personnel and eventually added a VP title next to his name. The Eagles have had promising drafts the last two years and Weidl was seemingly a big part of that.

“You know what, we always talk about, ‘Be where your feet are. Be where your feet are and focus on the task at hand.’ And that's what we did,” Weidl said just after the 2022 draft ended.

“I think our group as a whole, coaches, scouts, everybody, really locked in on this process, and I think you saw the results the last three days in the draft class that we brought in. So really fortunate to be part of it and love what we do, what we’re doing and where we're heading.”

Perhaps, though, the writing was on the wall earlier this offseason when the Eagles fired director of scouting operations Casey Weidl, the younger brother of Andy. Casey Weidl’s position is expected to be filled by an internal candidate.

Andy Weidl, a Pittsburgh native, is heading home for this new job opportunity. The Eagles are left in their continued quest to rebuild their front office.

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