Meet the Giants' "Football Solutions Guy"

Assistant general manager Brandon Brown spoke to the media for the first time since his hire and described his role as such.

New York Giants assistant general manager Brandon Brown is many things within the organization.

He is a scout. A sounding board for general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll. A confidante.

His biggest role of all? 

"The biggest word I use is ‘football solutions’ where it’s overseeing pro personnel department, the college scouting department and also just being the checks and balances with Joe (Schoen) on the football operations side," Brown said last week in his introductory press conference with the media. 

"So, for me, it’s just creating synergy through all of our supporting departments and our primary scouting departments."

That role, one which Brown takes pride in, includes picking up a little extra slack in the personnel department, at least for the time being. The Giants did not hire a college scouting director, which seems significant as most teams look to build their rosters and help manage their cap spending by adding talent through the draft. 

The lack of a college scouting director has meant more work for Brown and Assistant Director of Player Personnel Dennis Hickey, but Brown is completely on board with however Schoen wants to proceed.

"I think with us, our biggest thing was people, process, culture," Brown said. "We had an extensive interview process, and we like what we came together with. Between (Director of Player Personnel) Tim McDonnel, who’s already been here, Dennis Hickey, who we brought in, and (Director of Pro Scouting) Chris Rossetti on the pro side, we figured we had the right department heads in place to get what we needed to get done just from a B to Y standpoint of process, process, process through it and also just putting the scouting process together the way we want it to be done. So, there are different ways to skin a cat, and that’s the way we wanted to put it together."

Brown joined the Giants after spending five years with the Philadelphia Eagles, where he worked his way up through the ranks to the director of player personnel in 2021. He sees a lot of similarities between his role with New York and his former role with the Eagles.

"There’s a lot of carry over. I think the biggest difference here is no scouting department is the same," he said. "Working with Joe is going to be different than working with (Philadelphia Eagles General Manager) Howie (Roseman) or any other general manager. So, I think just being a checks and balances to what he needs on the daily, that’s the biggest difference."

Right now, the main job for Brown and everybody in his office is searching all corners of the earn for talent, especially the NFL, which in a little more than a week will mandate all teams cut their rosters down to 53 men. That gives Brown a chance to see if they can improve the roster by adding talent that falls through the cracks in other organizations.

"I’m knee-deep in it right now. I think between the AFC and NFC, getting the first week of games done and obviously, you have the Hall of Fame Game, which gives you a double dip there," he said. 

"And then getting to week two kicked off, really week three kicked off last night, and then getting to that final week, it’s an ever-evolving process where every stone has to be (turned). You want to make sure that you’re dotting your ‘Is’ crossing your ‘Ts,’ whether it’s position need, whether it’s creating competition at all levels, you got to know what the marketplace is. Whether we’re looking or not, you got to know what’s out there. So, that’s what I’m doing."

When looking for talent, every organization has its philosophy. That philosophy is something that is derived from the general manager and his staff, the head coach, and even the owner. So when one brings in a new front office, getting everybody on the same page could be an issue.

Except it wasn't as far as Brown is concerned.  

"That was the beauty of coming here. That’s something that Joe, Dabs, myself, we’ve been aligned on. Now, you put that into a “tag” of smart, tough, dependable aligns. But in terms of talking about process, how to build a roster, those are all the things that we primarily agreed on before I even came here."

Brown was asked why he felt so in sync with Schoen and if there was anythingthat he felt they were not on the same page with. He spoke about his admiration for the general manager going back years before they had the chance to work together.

"He’s someone that I’ve always admired from afar. We’ve been on the road together in the past, just knowing how he’s a tireless worker. He beats every bush for information. He goes the extra mile in terms of evaluating the players. 

"I see a lot of his traits in myself; that’s why we’ve always gotten along with not being in the same building but being in the league or being on school calls or being at college games. Just seeing how each other works, it’s always been admiration from afar. So, that’s something that drew me to him."

Brown is excited by his opportunity here in New York to build a championship-caliber team for such a storied franchise. 

"I think the history of this franchise is something I’ve always respected. I think that the platform that’s here; if you’re a true competitor, you want to be in the most high-pressure situations," he said. 

"That’s what this organization is. And I’ve always had high respect for ownership. And then knowing that Dabs and Joe were here, guys that I’ve respected from afar and know their work ethic and their pedigree, it made it something that was very attractive. And I just think there are a lot of tools in place to do great things here. We’ve just got to keep working and keep progressing."

---

Join the Giants Country Community

• Sign up for our FREE digest newsletter
• Follow and like us on Facebook
• Submit your questions for our mailbag
• Check out the new Giants Country YouTube Channel.
• Listen and subscribe to the daily LockedOn Giants podcast.
• Subscribe and like the LockedOn Giants YouTube Channel
• Sign up for our FREE message board forums