After defeating the San Francisco 49ers, the Philadelphia Eagles are heading to the Super Bowl LVII to face the winner of the AFC Championship Game. The Eagles’ organization has a few former Pittsburgh Steelers, namely defensive tackle Javon Hargrave and director of scouting Brandon Hunt, who was formerly with the team’s front office for twelve years.
Following the Steelers’ vacancy at the general manager position upon longtime GM Kevin Colbert’s retirement, Hunt was one of six candidates to be invited for a second interview. Instead, the Steelers chose Omar Khan to be the general manager, and former Eagles’ front office member Andy Weidl to be the assistant general manager.
This was essentially a defacto trade between the two teams, as the Steelers hired Weidl while the Eagles hired Hunt. After the Eagles’ Super Bowl berth on Sunday, Hunt tweeted his appreciation for being in his current position as the Eagles’ Director of Scouting.
Hunt was born in California, but grew up in Pittsburgh. He began his career as a scouting intern with the Steelers, and rejoined them in 2010 to replace Doug Whaley as the team’s Pro Scouting Coordinator after two years with the Houston Texans.
It’s difficult to imagine that Hunt was not upset with being passed over for the GM and assistant GM roles, especially given his many years with the organization. Indeed, he had a lot of what the organization looks for from an in-house hire, and Steelers’ owner Art Rooney II endorsed his canidacy for the role early in the hiring process.
After being hired by the Eagles, Hunt took to Twitter to express his gratitude for his time in Pittsburgh.
The Steelers instead chose to go with Khan, who is more of a cap expert, rather than someone with a scouting background in Hunt. Meanwhile, the Eagles are slated for a Super Bowl berth, and have two first round picks that their scouting team will work on.
All in all, Hunt certainly seems to be happy with the way his career turned out and now gets a chance to add a Super Bowl to his impressive resume overall working in NFL front offices.
