The Baltimore Ravens have seen a lot of turnover with their coaching staff and front office this offseason. The most recent loss was David Blackburn, the team’s director of college scouting, leaving to take the director of player personnel job with the Washington Commanders. The team also lost Joe Hortiz earlier this offseason to take the Los Angeles Chargers general manager job. On the coaching side, the team lost a number of defensive coaches, including defensive coordinator Mike MacDonald, who became the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. Yesterday, the team announced a front office reshuffle, which included seven promotions, with the most notable being George Kokinis being promoted to vice president of player personnel.
The team also promoted Mark Azevedo to director of player personnel, David McDonald to vice president of research and development, Andrew Raphael to director of college scouting, Derrick Yam to director of data and decision science, Joey Cleary to assistant director of college scouting, and Corey Frazier to assistant director of pro personnel.
Kokinis is entering his 34th season in the NFL, beginning his career with the Browns in 1991 before they moved to Baltimore. He was the team’s director of player personnel from 2019-2023 and served as a senior personnel assistant from 2010-2018. His previous role as director of player personnel will be filled by Azevedo. Azevedo previously served as the team’s assistant director of player personnel for the past two years. Prior to that, he spent six years as a Northeast scout for the team.
This much turnover by one organization in one offseason is usually only seen when there’s a head coach or general manager change, of which the Ravens had neither. It makes sense that they’d opt for in-house replacements rather than go outside the organization. They relied on an internal hire to replace Macdonald, hiring Zach Orr as their defensive coordinator, and they’re staying in-house to fill some of their front office vacancies.
It’s a testament to how well-respected the Ravens organization is throughout the league that so many people within the organization have been considered for promotions and also to their hiring process that they have so many capable in-house replacements. Similar to the Steelers, the Ravens pride themselves on their stability, and they’re sticking to it with their recent wave of promotions.
