What was the process like of going from Alabama to the Arizona Cardinals?
I was getting ready to graduate with my master’s degree, and I sat down with Alabama’s associate director of recruiting operations, Ashleigh Kimble, and she told me that she could see me working in personnel. It had been in the back of my mind, but I didn’t know much about scouting and personnel, so the next step was exploring that. I ended up posting on LinkedIn that I was getting ready to graduate, and NFL vice president of player personnel Ken Fiore saw the post and reached out. He had an internship opportunity, so I went through the hiring process and ended up getting a “no” at the end. It was an opportunity that I truly wanted, but I was OK because it wasn’t my time. I stayed in contact with Ken throughout that summer, and he actually reached back out to me about a full-time player personnel coordinator position when I was still working some summer camps in Alabama. I went through the interview process again and got the position. I moved from Alabama to New York in about two weeks. I spent two years there and knew it was temporary, but that department was kind of a feeder to working with the clubs. There are a lot of people throughout the league who worked in the department I was in — the NFL management council — before going to work with clubs. I was connected with a lot of people, including Arizona Cardinals director of football administration Matt Harriss. I ended up interviewing with the entire personnel department for an opening as player personnel coordinator, and within a week, I was in Arizona.
I started this position right around training camp last year. Year 1 was me trying to craft this role into what I wanted it to be and how I could best support other departments.
And what does your role as player personnel coordinator entail?
The busiest time of the year is during the regular season. On Mondays and Tuesdays, we host tryouts for free agents, and I play a big role in planning those by talking to the players’ agents, getting the players flights and hotel accommodations and putting together itineraries. I am also talking to our coaches about what time works best to conduct these tryouts, talking to trainers if we need to do physicals, talking to the facilities department to make sure we have the space for the tryout. I am communicating with a lot of our personnel department, specifically our scouting assistants, to logistically make sure everyone is at the right place at the right time. Once the tryout is complete, our higher-ups will make the decision about signing the player. If we do sign a player, I make sure our player engagement department is ready for the next part of the on-boarding process.
Throughout the rest of the week, I help our pro personnel department with advanced scouting, which is when we look at our opponents and break down their rosters, player contracts and things of that nature.
I primarily work with our pro personnel department, but I do help our college department more when we finish the season and head into draft season. One aspect of college I do help with is our crosscheck weekends, which is when all our road scouts come to the facility. I will help with the logistics — hotel, travel, meetings or other events we have planned. During the offseason, I am booking travel for our staff when they go to the NFL Scouting Combine and NFL draft, which are big undertakings. During the combine, I help coordinate meetings with prospects and prepare itineraries and travel for future Top 30 visits.
During this time of the year, I am planning some free-agent workouts and attending OTAs, as well as putting in calls to agents about injured players to see where they are in their recovery process.
You certainly wear a lot of hats. When looking at your role, what would you say is the most challenging part about it?
I would say the communication aspect, because I have to make sure that everyone is on the same page. There are so many people in so many different departments who need to know what’s going on in the personnel process. I am someone who likes to overcommunicate to make sure everything is covered, because if one thing is off, it throws the entire schedule off.