New York Giants Name Marc Ross Director of College Scouting; Shuffle Scouting Department Titles: The Giants announced yesterday that 34-year old Marc Ross is the team’s new Director of College Scouting. Ross had been a national scout with the Buffalo Bills for the past three years. The team also announced that it has eliminated the position of Director of Player Personnel, which had been held by Jerry Reese before and after he had been promoted to General Manager in January. Jerry Shay had been the team’s Director of College Scouting for 30 years; he now is the Assistant Director of College Scouting.
In effect, it looks like the Giants have shuffled some titles, making Ross’ new title much more job descriptive since both the old Director of Player Personnel and now the new Director of College Scouting was/is in charge of the scouting department and running the team’s draft. Shay never really ran the draft but served more like a head scout, a role that will apparently continue.
Lastly, the Giants promoted scouts Joe Collins, Jeremiah Davis, and Steve Verderosa to the position of “executive scouts” with greater, publicly unidentified responsibilities.
Ross was one of six known candidates for the job. The other five were Ken Sternfeld (Assistant Director of Pro Personnel for the Giants), Greg Gabriel (College Scouting Director for the Chicago Bears), Marvin Allen (Scout for the New England Patriots), Lionel Vital (Scout for the Baltimore Ravens), and Brian Gardner (Scout for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers).
Ross was the Eagles’ eastern regional scout from 1997-2000. In 2000, he became Philadelphia’s new college scouting director. At 27 years old, he was the youngest college scouting director in the NFL. The Eagles fired Ross in 2004, along with three other scouts. They had all been hired by Tom Modrak, when he was the Eagles’ director of football operations. Modrak was the loser of an internal power struggle with Eagles’ Head Coach Andy Reid and let go. Ross reconnected with Modrak, who was now in Buffalo as assistant general manager, and joined the Bills as a national college scout soon after the Eagles fired him.
“We liked Marc’s skill set,” said General Manager Jerry Reese. “He has been a college scouting director. He was the youngest college director in the league when he was with the Philadelphia Eagles. So he understands the management and the dynamics of the department. Marc is an outstanding scout himself. We like that about him. All of the references that we called were very high on him. We think he is going to be a perfect fit for us.”
“You never want to get stagnant in any department, including the personnel department,” Reese said. “So we look forward to Marc’s new ideas. He has some new ideas and energy. He impressed us with some things that he talked about in the interview process. So we are all looking forward to some new ideas. I don’t want Marc to come in and try to reinvent the wheel. I think we can implement some of our old things that we do well along with some of the new things that he brings to the table for us so we can move forward. We don’t want to get stagnant and sitting still.”
“I think that is why Jerry hired me, to get a different point of view and a different perspective,” Ross said. “I have been in a couple of places that do things entirely different. This is a traditional organization, but I think it is still progressive. I hope to add a different point of view and enhance everything that’s going on.”
“I’m extremely excited about the opportunity to work with this organization and also work with Jerry,” Ross said. “I hope I can be a part of getting this organization back to the Super Bowl.”
New York Giants Interested in DT Sam Rayburn?: According to ESPN.com, the Giants are interested in unrestricted free agent DT Sam Rayburn, who was released by the Philadelphia Eagles on May 11. Rayburn has already met with the Bills and ESPN.com says he will meet with the Giants in the middle of next week. The 49ers are also said to be interested.
Looking Ahead: The first of nine Organized Team Activity (OTA) days – which are on-field, voluntary practices will be held next week.
The veteran offseason program will end with the conclusion of the mandatory veteran mini-camp (June 13-15). The rookies will stay for another week after the mini-camp ends. Then everyone will be off until the start of training camp practices in Albany on July 27.