Earning the title of Director of College Scouting for an NFL team is undeniable proof that you’ve “arrived” as a member of pro football’s intelligence community. But what else does it mean? Does it have the resonance that it once had?

We looked at all 27 today at Inside the League (the Bears, Bengals, Cardinals, Chargers, Rams and Saints don’t have one, while the Chiefs have two) and it was interesting to see the sweep of backgrounds, ages and terms of service. Here are a few observations.

  • In previous eras when becoming a GM was a more ordered process, it was probably more commonplace that being a college director was a prerequisite to running the front office, but that’s not true anymore. Would you believe that 22 of the 32 NFL GMs were never Directors of College Scouting? That really surprised me, but it’s a reminder that a growing number of GMs have pro scouting backgrounds (like Minnesota’s Nolan Teasley), come from more of a business side (Buffalo’s Brandon Beane and Pittsburgh’s Omar Khan), or just hopped the line altogether (San Francisco’s John Lynch, for example).
  • It’s become an amazingly volatile job, or maybe “transient” would be the right word. Would you believe that the longest-tenured college director is Minnesota’s Mike Sholiton, who’s been on the job since 2021? Eight of the 27 are in their first year in the role. For a job that includes coordinating and sorting out the information coming in from all over the country, that’s a pretty steep learning curve when you’re not gonna be in the job more than 3-4 years.
  • No “big school” experience is necessary in your background. Matter of fact, it might be a disadvantage to have come from a football power, looking at the current lineup. The only current college directors who got their respective undergrad degrees at P4 schools are Dallas’ Mitch LaPoint (Kansas), Carolina’s Jared Kirksey (UCF), Houston’s Mozique McCurtis (USC), San Francisco’s Dom DeCicco (Pitt), Denver’s Bryan Chesin (Arizona), Tampa Bay’s Tony Hardie (Notre Dame), New England’s Tony Kinkela (Washington State), Washington’s Ryan Kessenich (Wisconsin), Atlanta’s Shawn Heinlen (Florida) and the Giants’ Jon Ritcher (NC State).
  • In fact, if you aspire to being a college director, you might want to transfer to a MAC school. Buffalo (Kansas City’s David Hinson, UMass (KC’s Pat Sperduto), Miami (Ohio) Pittsburgh’s Dan Colbert), Ball State (Seattle’s Jason Barnes) and Ohio (Tennessee’s Mike Boni) are all represented.
  • As with most jobs in scouting today, more college directors have been “imported” than have those who rose through the ranks. Only nine of 27 have only worked for the team that employs them now.
  • There’s a pretty vast age range, from 30 to 59. More (12) are in their 40s than any other age. Also, there are more in their 30s (eight) than in their 50s (seven).
  • Though you don’t have to be any certain age to do the job, you do have to be seasoned. Of the 27 college directors, 17 have been working in the league at least since the 2009 season. You’re looking at almost two decades of service before you’re considered for the job. That makes sense.

For someone like me, it’s a little sobering that so many dues-paying executives — like the people who make up the college director community — aren’t seeing a direct path to the GM seat, but I suppose that’s just part of the times we live in. The profile now, mostly, is a scout in his 40s who’s got 15-17 years working in the league and, more often than not, arrived with the current GM.

I hoped — I wished — the results were more of an affirmation of the value of experience in NFL front offices, especially as it relates to who gets the GM jobs. Unfortunately, I just don’t see that in the numbers.