Andy Weidl’s career as a scout has been building toward him running the Eagles’ draft

Andy Weidl’s career as an NFL scout began, in some way, at Veterans Stadium.

Weidl had played football at nearby Villanova, but his career was over by the time he found himself on the sidelines before the Eagles hosted the Steelers on Nov. 23, 1997.

It wasn’t by happenstance that he struck up a conversation with then-Pittsburgh general manager Tom Donahoe. Andy’s father, George, was friends with Donahoe, a former high school classmate, and the Weidls were his guests.

Weidl had known Donahoe for years and had been a participant and counselor at his summer scouting camps in Pittsburgh. But he wanted something more than just the opportunity to see his beloved hometown team up close. He wanted to be a scout, and he knew the Steelers had an internship program.

“Tom asked me, ‘So what are you doing?’” Weidl said. “And I was like, ‘I’m finishing up my master’s degree.’ We talked briefly, and he said, ‘Stay in touch.’ And I did.”

That conversation would set in motion not only a 22-year career in the NFL, one in which Weidl incrementally worked his way up the scouting chain, but also a lasting relationship with Donahoe that would eventually bring them full circle in Philadelphia, this time with the Eagles.

“Andy’s a guy that started at the bottom, started as an intern, he went and became a combine scout, which is one of the worst jobs in America,” said Donahoe, now the Eagles’ senior football adviser. “Then he was an area scout. And then we brought him to Philly, and his role has increased. … I certainly thought he was a natural, and I’m glad [Eagles GM] Howie [Roseman] did, too.”

Donahoe has probably been the closest to a mentor, but Weidl’s path to becoming the Eagles’ vice president of player personnel has a crowded field of scouts, GMs, and coaches who have helped influence his philosophy and implementation of player evaluation.

In two formative years with the Steelers, he learned from Donahoe about the difference between measured speed and strength and “playing speed and strength,” and from esteemed scout Bill Nunn, the importance of toughness, both physical and mental.

As a national combine scout for the Saints, Weidl spent three years doing grunt work, often alone, but the experience laid the foundation for his tenure as an area scout.

His 11 years with the Ravens, though, would form the bones of his team-building beliefs. In Baltimore, he learned how to develop relationships on the road and dig for details on college prospects. He learned the significance of culture and of finding those who match those characteristics. And he learned how to fervently advocate for players that he felt could be future Ravens.

“It really took off in Baltimore with Ozzie Newsome, and Eric [DeCosta], and John Harbaugh … in learning about the locker room and the fit,” Weidl said of the Ravens’ former GM and their current GM and coach, respectively. “We used to talk about this guy’s a Raven, this guy has Raven DNA. That was set by the Ray Lewises, the Ed Reeds, the [Terrell] Suggses.

“It’s not so much about acquiring talent. It’s building a team. You just can’t bring anybody into the locker room. It’s got to be a certain type of fit to the culture that your team’s about.”

If Weidl’s credo sounds vaguely familiar it’s because his predecessor, Joe Douglas, was raised in the same environment. Weidl didn’t necessarily follow his former Ravens colleague to Philly, but they were both hired after the 2016 draft and would bring a similar viewpoint in player evaluation to the Eagles.

“Andy is one of the most passionate guys in the league,” Douglas said. “I would say an Andy player better love football, better have a strong passion of the game, and better be smart. Our shared vision is guys better love this game if you’re going to stand on the table for them.”

Weidl and Douglas have more in common than their backgrounds and scouting philosophies. They’re both viewed around the NFL as genuine football guys, straight shooters who can relate to players. But that doesn’t mean they are clones either.

Douglas’ three drafts before he left in May to become the New York Jets’ GM have produced a mixed bag of players. Roseman has final say, but he was responsible for crafting the board. Weidl certainly had his fingerprints on some selections, and the Eagles have kept Douglas’ blueprint for grading prospects.

But Weidl, in assuming control of the draft, will have his own approach, according to Daniel Jeremiah. The former Ravens and Eagles scout and current NFL Network draft analyst said the greatest difference between his former colleagues is that Weild is more dogmatic when it comes to player makeup.

“He has hard rules,” Jeremiah said. “If you don’t match with the makeup, you’re done. He’s a lot more demanding, I’d say, from that standpoint. … From the personal character standpoint, he wants to make sure that football is the most-important thing and there are no distractions.”

All drafts are important, but the Eagles have hit a pivotal juncture. They have started the process of getting younger, but they still have 11 projected starters who will be 30 or older by the end of the season. They need to start hitting on more picks – they will have eight next week – if they are to remain competitive as quarterback Carson Wentz’s contract increases.

And Weidl, the Pittsburgh-born, former undersized center, who loves nothing more than talking ’ball, will be at the wheel for the first time in his career. In some way, his whole life has been building toward this moment.

Weidl can remember the first time he was impacted by football. His father took him to Steelers training camp at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. These were the “Steel Curtain” Steelers, and seeing two of the greats in person left an indelible mark.

“I remember seeing Jack Lambert and Joe Greene as a kid come down the hill,” Weidl said. “They had a huge hill that they walk down. And those guys struck me as larger than life. I just fell in love with football there.”

He started playing in fifth grade, and by high school he would participate in the Metro Index camps run by Joe Butler. He ran the 40-yard dash, the change of direction, and the shuttle, and later, when he was in college, he’d come back as a counselor and help direct those drills.

Weidl played tight end and linebacker at Mt. Lebanon High, but Villanova recruited him to play interior offensive line. He didn’t have ideal size for the position, but he compensated and started nearly three seasons at center.

“Andy was a Pittsburgh kid. They take football pretty seriously,” former Villanova coach Andy Talley said. “He was undersized, but I liked his grit. When you watched him on film, he finished every play, and then some. He was aggressive, and you want that in an offensive lineman.”

Weidl said he also used film study to make up for what he lacked in size. He had a keen eye, and when he bumped into Doug Whaley, another Pittsburgh native, who was scouting Villanova for the Seahawks during Weidl’s senior season, he was told the Steelers had an internship program.

Donahoe said he received a cover letter and resume shortly after their conversation at the Vet, but he handed it over to Charles Bailey, one of his personnel lieutenants. Bailey set up a phone interview, liked what he heard, and Donahoe brought him in for a formal meeting.

Weidl aced it, and it didn’t take long for Donahoe to realize he’d made a good hire. Weidl initially handled menial tasks, but his initative led to more-traditional scouting opportunities. He was a facility rat, and Donahoe said Weidl was often at the building before and after even he was on site.

“A lot of these kids, they apply for these intern jobs because they want to come to the games on Sunday, put on a coat and tie, and act like they’re the owner,” Donahoe said. “They don’t understand the grunt work that’s involved in scouting. That’s the important thing that we always try to evaluate with a kid.

"Who wants to pay the price? Who’s willing to do the work? And who has the discipline that it takes to be a good road scout, because it’s not an easy job.”

Pittsburgh was the perfect laboratory for a young, thirsty scout. Legendary coach Chuck Noll was gone, but Donahoe was an acolyte. Noll emphasized two things to his scouts: learn as much as you can about prospects, because you’ll never truly know them until you live with them, and don’t get hung up on measurables.

“There have been a lot of guys in this league that haven’t run great 40s and they haven’t been the strongest guy in the weight room, but they ended up being great players,” Donahoe said. “Coach Noll was always talking about that. He said, ‘We need to spend more time talking about playing speed and playing strength.’”

Nunn was a trailblazer. He was the sports editor at the Pittsburgh Courier, an African American newspaper that gave extensive coverage to sports at black colleges. Nunn had become frustrated that NFL teams weren’t drafting more of the players his paper honored, and he voiced his feelings to Steelers.

They hired him full time in 1969, the year Noll became coach, and he would help guide Pittsburgh to draft some of the players who would star on four Super Bowl-winning teams: John Stallworth, Mel Blount, and L.C. Greenwood, among others from black colleges.

“Mr. Nunn was awesome -- the two years I’d come in, he’d just watch film in the back of Three Rivers Stadium and talk about toughness,” Weidl said. “One of the biggest things he’d talk about, and I think it’s still true, is how do players handle criticism?”

When his two-year internship ended, Weidl took a job with the Saints, doing “everything from soup to nuts,” he said. A national combine scout travels to colleges in his area and takes measurements, administers the Wonderlic cognitive test, times the 40, and does film evaluation for draft prospects. He grades each player and gives a formal presentation to 17 or 18 other NFL teams.

“You find out about yourself being by yourself on the road,” Weidl said. “That’s a tough job. I’m so glad I did it for three years, because it provides a great foundation, the basics of scouting.”

Weidl eventually became an area scout for the Saints, and while attending a practice at Massachusetts, he met Douglas. The former Division I AA offensive linemen hit it off immediately, and when the Ravens were looking for an experienced scout to cover the West Coast, Douglas suggested Weidl.

Jeremiah was also a West Coast scout for the Ravens at the time, and when Newsome or DeCosta conducted draft meetings, no scout had a dossier as thick as Weidl’s.

“He would go into a meeting, and I would think, ‘OK, I know this guy inside and out. I’ve talked to these four people,’ ” Jeremiah said. “And he would be, ‘I talked to 10 different sources.’ And I’d be like, ‘Who the heck are you talking to, Andy? Geez, how long did you stay at Oregon to get all this information?’ ”

Oregon’s Haloti Ngata would be one of Weidl’s early success stories with the Ravens. Many teams were high on the nose tackle, but some had questioned his effort because his motor didn’t always run hot on defense. But Weidl argued, per Douglas, that Ngata had been playing on special teams at his own expense.

Weidl planted himself in Eugene and talked to as many people associated with Ngata as he could.

“People gravitate toward Andy. He can relate to anybody,” Douglas said. “He can relate to the coaches, he can relate to the trainers, and he can get information. He’s a very outgoing guy when it comes to going to a school and introducing himself, and just has a personality that disarms people.”

The Ravens chose Ngata with the 12th overall pick in the 2006 draft, and he would go on to play in five Pro Bowls and win one Super Bowl.

Weidl remained close with Donahoe. When he was still with the Saints, he put the then Bills-GM on cornerback Terrence McGee, who played nearby at Northwestern State, La. Donahoe chose McGee in the fourth round, and he would play 10 seasons in Buffalo.

“Andy – he actually kept tabs on me. … We talked a lot,” Donahoe said. “He was always trying to get better as a combine scout, then as an area scout. At some point in Baltimore, I would tell him, ‘Andy, you got a Hall of Fame general manager right down the hallway. I think maybe you should spend more time talking to him than you do talking to me.’”

Newsome was more of a mentor to Douglas, but Weidl became as immersed in the Raven way. That meant advocating, almost to the point of extreme prejudice, for the prospects you favored. Weidl said Harbaugh once said at a draft meeting, “Let’s get players we’re excited about,” and it became a mantra for the process.

The Ravens’ scouts would argue their cases, which sometimes meant locking horns, respectfully. Weidl could be among the most animated – he still is, colleagues said – with his voice rising and his hands motioning.

“You kind of go at it but have a respectful debate and put your ego aside,” Douglas said. “Eric used to enjoy it when me and Andy would have a difference of opinion, because it didn’t happen often. But when it did, we’d just go back and forth, and Andy, with any argument he had, it was backed up.”

Weidl, who had moved back to the East, was high on players like Rutgers’ Devin McCourty or Connecticut’s Byron Jones, according to Jeremiah. The Ravens didn’t draft either – McCourty would be gone by the time they selected, and Jones was chosen a pick after they took Breshad Perriman – but Baltimore did take Weidl favorite Torrey Smith in 2011.

“I know he did his research. That’s just based on what I heard from our people at Maryland,” Smith said. “He was well-respected there by the staff. He knew stuff about me from back in high school, and it was pretty crazy to learn that. … Everything matters, because I didn’t know that until that point.”

Weidl remembered having to travel to Marshall in West Virginia for a pro day in that same year, when the program wasn’t exactly teeming with top-of-the-draft talent. He turned it into a challenge.

“Let’s go down and see if we can find somebody down here,” Weidl said. “ ‘You’re not paid to go on vacations,’ Tom would say, ‘you’re paid to go find players.’ ”

It was a hot, sticky day, and linebacker Albert McClellen ran through two positional drills for more than 30 minutes. Marshall had a kicking prospect, and Weidl stayed till the end – so did McClellen.

“He stuck around and fielded kicks for the kicker. And I was like, ‘Man, this guy is a real team guy,’ ” Weidl said. “A little thing like that. And we ended up signing him after the draft and, shoot, he’s still playing.”

Douglas left the Ravens in 2015 for a promotion with the Bears, but Weidl stayed as the Ravens’ East regional scout. Donahoe surmised that he might have felt pigeonholed in Baltimore, but Weidl said the opportunity with the Eagles was the impetus for leaving, and with his contract set to expire in 2016, he took the job in Philly.

Roseman was also eyeing Douglas, but for a senior role to run the scouting department. When Chicago eventually let Douglas out of his contract and he agreed to the job, Roseman asked whether he had a good relationship with Weidl, since they had worked together with the Ravens.

“And it was just like, ‘Are you serious? He’s one of my closest friends,’ ” Douglas said. “I think Andy was going to come regardless. But through the process, when I talked to Howie and he brought up Andy, it was a no-brainer. This is perfect. And it ended up working out that way.”

Roseman, an admirer of Newsome, allowed Douglas and Weidl to institute the Ravens’ draft-grading formula. The system, derived from the old Browns model, is a streamlined approach in which emphasis is placed on a prospect’s specific value to a team’s schemes.

Players aren’t graded by round, but rather by a sliding number scale, and are placed among five-tiers: Day 1 starter, starting-caliber player with limitations, role player, low-level roster and/or practice squad player, and training camp/preseason roster filler.

Before their first draft, however, Roseman was receptive to some of their evaluations in free agency and would sign players with prior histories with the scouts. Receiver Alshon Jeffery had spent a year in Chicago with Douglas. Defensive tackle Tim Jernigan was drafted by the Ravens in 2014. And Smith would be reunited with Douglas and Weidl.

“If Joe and Andy weren’t in Philly,” Smith said, “I would have gone back to Baltimore.”

The Eagles had an existing roster that was already strong, but those additions, along with low-cost free-agent signings such as Chris Long, Patrick Robinson, and LeGarrette Blount would help lead the franchise to its first Super Bowl title in 2017.

The three drafts since 2017 haven’t exactly stocked the cupboard. Among the top picks, tight end Dallas Goedert and running back Miles Sanders appear to be hits, cornerbacks Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas misses, and with defensive end Derek Barnett, tackle Andre Dillard, and receiver J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, the jury is still in recess.

Overall, there doesn’t appear to be a common thread on why the Eagles have done well with certain players vs. others. Sanders, a Pittsburgh native, had two Western Pennsylvania guys in his corner. Donahoe had seen him play at Woodland Hills High and had a long-standing relationship with his coach there, George Novak. Weidl had also scouted Penn State for years.

But they’ve had their disagreements – Donohoe said he’s a glass half-empty guy, while Weidl’s half-full -- as well.

“He’ll get hot at times, which is fine. I’ve seen a lot of that. It’s not something that I don’t respect,” Donahoe said. “But with Andy, he doesn’t just back himself into a corner or a box on a player. He does try to keep an open mind. He might, if you point something out to him, go back and watch more tape on the guy.”

Weidl recalled safety Eric Weddle, who would be voted to six Pro Bowls over a 13-year career, as a player he would circle back on and change his evaluation based on further study. But he has more of a leadership role now and needs to lean on his scouts for the details he used to be responsible for dredging up.

“There’s always that uncomfortable period when you come off the road. You’re used to a decade-plus of walking into a new building and every day is different,” Douglas said. “But he was quick to work through that. He’s able to have great relationships around the building because he’s genuine, he’s passionate, and he loves ball.”

Most personnel executives avoid the locker room during the work week, but Weidl is a frequent visitor and engages with the players. He may offer a word of praise after a strong practice, or an ear for complaints, or to further understand the team dynamic, or even in some cases to deliver constructive criticism or bad news. But he comes from an authentic place, Smith and others said.

“There’s a difference between someone walking in the locker room and you feeling like the principal of the school just walked in the class. Andy doesn’t give off that kind of energy,” Smith said. “Obviously, he has a job to do. But it’s genuine. You don’t get that same kind of feeling where there’s some people that walk around and you’re like, ‘What the hell is he doing here?’ ”

The same applies before and after games. In between, Weidl and other personnel executives sit in the press box. He sits next to Donahoe, and while there isn’t supposed to be cheering, they can get enthusiastic, especially at home at Lincoln Financial Field.

“We’ve had our moments there. I’m a little more excitable than Andy on game days,” Donahoe said. “I’m probably not the right guy to be around. We talk about the game. We talk about situations. We talk about players. That’s the one thing I’ve always respected about Andy – you can talk to him about anything.”

It’s likely the trait he saw in Weidl all those years ago at the Vet that made him open to giving a Pittsburgh kid a chance to become an NFL scout.