Influence of Robinson's New England 'Teammates' Grows

Titans general manager is one of 15 former Patriots scouts who are now high-ranking executives across the league.

NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Titans were not the first – or the last – NFL team to try and tap into the New England Patriots’ formula for success.

Sports Illustrated senior NFL reporter Albert Breer noted Monday in his latest MMQB column that 15 former Patriots scouts, including Titans general manager Jon Robinson, currently hold positions of director or higher for other franchises or the league. Another is an NFL head coach (Miami’s Brian Flores) while one more is an offensive coordinator for a Power Five college program (Iowa’s Brian Ferentz).

The Titans got a second member of that group recently when they hired Monti Ossenfort to be their director of player personnel.

“Looking at the teammates there – and I’d refer to them as teammates of mine in the scouting world – one thing that all of us that came through that program had, we were empowered to give opinions on players and we had a system in place that worked,” Robinson told Breer. “Now you get here, and it’s our people, our own method to the madness—and yet, we’ve tried to find players that fit the system and culture the same way.”

The big bang, so to speak, that began the massive spread of these scouts throughout the league was 2007, when New England went 16-0 and ultimately advanced to the Super Bowl. Of the former scouts who are now high-ranking team executives, 11 were with the Patriots at that time working under Scott Pioli, then the VP of player personnel.

“(Pioli) was looking for football guys, guys that worked hard, guys you could count on, guys that could handle a lot, that were going to find football players, not just the testers, or the best locker room guys,” Robinson said. “I mean, you want good guys, you want good athletes, but Scott always reminded us that they had to be good at football, too.”

In four seasons as the Titans GM, he has done more than just try to instill the Patriots’ way of scouting into the plan.

Among other things, he hired a head coach with ties to New England (Mike Vrabel), signed a handful a free agents from that franchise (most notably Logan Ryan, Malcolm Butler and Dion Lewis) and chose a defensive coordinator who had served in the same capacity under Bill Belichick (the recently retired Dean Pees). Now he has added Ossenfort to the front office.

“I simply hired people that love football and have specific traits,” Pioli said. “Then we provided them with opportunity and mentorship.”

Before long, a lot of other teams have hired many of them away.