The Eagles made significant moves in their personnel department Thursday, most notably making Catherine Raîche the highest-ranking female personnel executive in NFL History and also bringing in former Jacksonville general manager Dave Caldwell to bolster the department.
Raîche is taking over the role Andrew Berry had before he left the organization to become the General Manager of the Cleveland Browns as Vice President of Football Operations.
She had been the Eagles’ Football Operations/Player Personnel Coordinator for the past two seasons and Raiche’s new role will involve her in all areas of football operations and player personnel, including pro and college scouting, contract management, player/staff development, and football research.
Before joining the Eagles, Raîche spent five years in the Canadian Football League working for the Toronto Argonauts and the Montreal Alouettes, including holding the title of Assistant General Manager for the Alouettes.
A native of Montreal, Raîche has a law degree at the Universite de Sherbrooke and also earned a master’s degree in tax law. She practiced corporate and tax law for three years before making her transition to professional sports in 2015.
Caldwell served as the GM for the Jags from 2013 through 2020 and most recently served as a consultant for the Baltimore Ravens in the lead-up to the 2021 NFL Draft.
In his role as a Personnel Executive, Caldwell will contribute to the evaluation of the Eagles team, while also assisting with both the pro and college scouting process. Prior to joining the Jags, Caldwell was the Director of Player Personnel (2012) and Director of College Scouting (2008-11) for the Atlanta Falcons.
Ian Cunningham and Brandon Brown were both promoted to co-Director of Player Personnel.
Cunningham is coming off a two-year run as the Assistant Director of Player Personnel and recently interviewed for the GM job in Carolina. He first joined the Eagles as the Director of College Scouting from 2017-2018.
In his new role, Cunningham will oversee the college scouting department, while also doing crossover work on the pro scouting side working collaboratively with Brown.
Prior to joining the Eagles, Cunningham spent the first nine years of his NFL career with the Baltimore Ravens, where he served as a Player Personnel Assistant (2008-12) and an Area Scout (2013-2016).
Brown was also promoted to the co-Director of Player Personnel role after serving as Eagles Director of Pro Scouting for the past two seasons. He originally joined the Eagles as the Assistant Director of Pro Scouting in 2017. Prior to that Brown was a Scouting Assistant (2015) and an Advance Scout (2016) with the Indianapolis Colts.
Bryce Johnston was promoted to Senior Director of Football Transactions after stints as a Football Administration Coordinator (2017-19) and as the team’s Director of Football Administration (2019-20).
In his new role, Johnston’s responsibilities will include the planning and execution of salary cap management, player contract negotiation and structuring, football resource allocation, and other aspects of roster transactions and CBA compliance.
On the scouting front, Jeff Scott was named the Eagles’ Senior Pro Scout after a nine-year stint with the Washington Football Team, and Ameena Soliman was promoted to Pro Scout after originally joining the organization as a Player Personnel Intern in 2018 and serving as the team’s Player Personnel Coordinator from 2019-20.
Om the college front Phil Bhaya, who joined the Eagles in 2014 as a Scouting Assistant and has also served as the team’s NFS Scout (2016-19) and Northeast Area Scout (2020), was named the Southeast Area Scout for 2021, a key role with the talent in the SEC.
Matt Holland takes over as the Northeast Area Scout after previously serving as a Pro Scout from 2017-18 and a Senior Pro Scout from 2019-20. Prior to his time with the Eagles, Holland held positions in Washington’s (2012-13) and Cleveland’s (2014-15) player personnel departments.
Evan Pritt was also named a scouting assistant.