Eagles Adding Charles Walls to Scouting Department

The former Browns national scout is reportedly on his way to Philadelphia as director of player personnel
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PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles lost Catherine Raiche to Cleveland and now they are reportedly adding from the Browns' personnel department in the form of Charles Walls.

According to ESPN’s Kimberley Martin, the Eagles will be hiring Walls, a national scout under formed Eagles’ VP of football operations Andrew Berry in Cleveland, to their personnel department as director of player personnel.

Walls, an Old Dominion product who played offensive line at the school, is a former congressional intern and started his NFL ascent in Green Bay where he spent seven years topping out as a Southwest area scout before being plucked by the Browns in 2020 as a national scout.

There will be more dominos to fall in the Eagles' personnel department in the coming days as GM Howie Roseman is using the recent exodus at the top of his scouting department as an opportunity to remake the department for a more stable run, according to a team source.

One aspect of the department Roseman liked is the shared jobs Ian Cunningham and Brandon Brown deftly handled as co-directors of player personnel with one majoring in college scouting while keeping a hand in the pro end and vice versa, so Walls may or may not be sharing the job.

Philadelphia has suffered significant attrition in its well-regarded personnel department in recent years with things ramping up in 2022.

RELATED: Tom Donohoe is Latest Eagles Personnel Executive Departing

Since January, the Eagles have lost Cunningham and Brown to assistant GM jobs with Chicago and the New York Giants respectively, as well as Raiche, the former VP of football operations who will rejoin Berry with the Browns as his second in command, and long-time senior personnel advisor Tom Donahoe, whose contract is not being renewed.

Meanwhile, current VP of player personnel Andy Weidl is still in the running for the Pittsburgh Steelers GM job.

In recent years the Eagles have also lost Berry and Joe Douglas to GM jobs as well as national scout Patrick Stewart to a director of player personnel job in Carolina.

Like Walls, Douglas played on the offensive line in college, doing so for the University of Richmond.

There has been upheaval as well in the lower ranks of the Philadelphia personnel department in recent days, the most notable being director of scouting operations Casey Weidl, Andy's younger brother, being let go with a year left on his contract.

Player personnel executive TJ McCreight, Southwest area scout Shawn Heinlen, and scouting assistant Evan Pritt are also no longer with the team with the latter being a simple expiration in what was scheduled as a one-year rotation. The first two, however, were essentially let go.

There are expected to be more hires from outside the organization like Walls and promotions from within.

Casey Weidl's release for instance is because the Eagles want to promote a staffer to that position and were concerned if they did not act they could lose the employee to another organization. The belief, according to a league source, is that pro scout Ameena Soliman is earmarked for the promotion.

Others who could be promoted are the director of college scouting Alan Wolking and Southeast Area scout Phil Bhaya.

The Berry-Raiche position will likely go to someone outside the organization and the Eagles have already talked with Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy, a former longtime league scout, and will be discussing things with Pittsburgh pro scouting Coordinator Brandon Hunt, who previously interviewed for the VP of player personnel job in Philadelphia when it went to Douglas in 2016.

Hunt has already interviewed for the Steelers GM job as well.

Dave Caldwell, a former GM in Jacksonville and currently personnel executive with the Eagles, is expected to stay with the organization but not be in the running for perhaps a reimagined assistant GM-like role

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen


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John McMullen
JOHN MCMULLEN

John McMullen is a veteran reporter who has covered the NFL for over two decades. The current NFL insider for JAKIB Media, John is the former NFL Editor for The Sports Network where his syndicated column was featured in over 200 outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Miami Herald. He was also the national NFL columnist for Today's Pigskin as well as FanRag Sports. McMullen has covered the Eagles on a daily basis since 2016, first for ESPN South Jersey and now for Eagles Today on SI.com's FanNation. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube.com. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey and part of 6ABC.com's live postgame show after every Eagles game. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen