Report: Eric Stokes joining Washington as Director of Pro Scouting

Ron Rivera is bringing over another former Carolina Panthers scout to the Washington front office.

The Washington Redskins have had a bit of a turbulent week. From announcing that they were going to change their name to parting with Alex Santos and Richard Mann II, a lot has been going on behind the scenes in Ashburn.

The departures of Santos and Mann, the team’s Director of Player Personnel and top assistant, was a big shakeup to the Pro Personnel department. And it came as a surprise considering that training camp was two and a half weeks away. But alas, the decision was made and perhaps more will be known about it in the coming week.

Until then, Washington is focusing on adding new members to their front office and scouting department. On Monday, the team added former Redskins tight end Donnie Warren to the mix to take over Mann’s position. And now, it looks like they have a replacement for at least part of Santos’ duties.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Washington is bringing in Eric Stokes to be their new Director of Pro Scouting.

Stokes had previously spent four years as a member of the Carolina Panthers. He worked his way up from the Southwest Area Scout role before being named a regional director of college scouting.

Stokes also played in the NFL for two seasons and is set to enter his 19th year working in personnel. So needless to say, he is experienced and qualified for the job.

Given that the team needed a quick fix for their departures landing someone like Stokes is a sensible choice. He is familiar with Rivera and the two should be able to work collaboratively as they look around the league to gameplan, scout free agents, and perform other necessary activities at the front office level. It will be interesting to see how Stokes meshes with Kyle Smith, but so long as there’s open communication, things should work out just fine.

We’ll see what Stokes ends up doing in Washington. But at this point in the offseason, the team wasn’t likely to find a better fit than Stokes, so props to Rivera and Co. for being able to bring him on board.