Eagles Lose Howie Roseman's Righthand Man To Raiders

Howie Roseman is the face of the Eagles’ front office, the one who talks to the media, who gets the credit and blame for any draft misstep or free-agent mistake. The buck starts and stops with the general manager, but dozens of others are in the shadows where the spotlight doesn’t always reach, who play extremely pivotal roles in the daily operation of the organization.

An executive, for instance, like Anthony Patch, who has been the Eagles’ senior director of scouting since 2016. Patch will no longer hold that title, nor will he be employed by the Eagles after accepting a position with the Las Vegas Raiders.

He will be the Raiders’ senior personnel executive and be reunited with Las Vegas GM John Spytek. Patch and Spytek worked together in Philadelphia for five years when Spytek was a scout with the Eagles from 2005-09.

His new role with the Raiders is viewed as a promotion.

Patch was one of the longest-tenured people in the Eagles’ front office, joining Philadelphia in 2001 under Tom Heckert. He worked his way up from a West Coast area scout to assistant college director of scouting to director of college scouting to personnel staff consultant and, finally, to senior director of college scouting, where he worked with the scouting staff in draft preparation and is responsible for evaluating top players across the entire country.

With Patch as the director of college scouting, the Eagles have had some terrific draft classes. His first class in 2016 laid the foundation for winning Super Bowl LII a year later, delivering Carson Wentz, Isac Seumalo, Wendell Smallwood, Halapoulivaati Vaitai, and Jalen Mills.

Behind the scenes, he helped get the Eagles to three Super Bowls, going 2-1 with him working as Roseman’s right-hand man. There are in-house candidates to replace Patch, but losing a valued employee of 23 years won’t be easy.