The Eagles took significant steps in their HR department on Thursday, notably making Catherine Raîche the highest-ranking female HR director in NFL history and also enlisting former Jacksonville general manager Dave Caldwell to strengthen the department.
Raîche will take on the role Andrew Berry had before he left the organization to become general manager of the Cleveland Browns as Vice President of Football Operations.
She has been the Eagles’ Football Operations / Player Staff Coordinator for the past two seasons, and Raiche’s new role will involve her in all areas of football operations and player staff, including pro and college scouting, contract management, player / staff development and soccer research.
Before joining the Eagles, Raîche worked five years in the Canadian Football League for the Toronto Argonauts and the Montreal Alouettes, including as Deputy General Manager for the Alouettes.
Originally from Montreal, Raîche holds a law degree from Universite de Sherbrooke and a Masters degree in tax law. She worked in corporate and tax law for three years before moving to professional sports in 2015.
Caldwell was GM for the Jags from 2013 to 2020 and most recently as a consultant for the Baltimore Ravens in the run-up to the 2021 NFL draft.
In his role as Human Resources Director, Caldwell will be instrumental in evaluating the Eagles team while assisting with both the pro and college scouting processes. Prior to joining the Jags, Caldwell was Director of Player Personnel (2012) and Director of College Scouting (2008-11) for the Atlanta Falcons.
Ian Cunningham and Brandon Brown have both been promoted to Co-Director of Player Personnel.
Cunningham served a two-year tenure as assistant director of player staff and was recently interviewed for the GM job in Carolina. From 2017 to 2018 he moved to the Eagles for the first time as Director of College Scouting.
In his new role, Cunningham will oversee the college’s scouting department and, in collaboration with Brown, carry out crossover work on the pro-scouting side.
Prior to joining the Eagles, Cunningham spent the first nine years of his NFL career with the Baltimore Ravens, serving as player staff assistant (2008-12) and area scout (2013-2016).
Brown was also promoted to Co-Director of Player Personnel after serving as Eagles Director of Pro Scouting for the past two seasons. He originally joined the Eagles in 2017 as the Associate Director of Pro Scouting. Brown previously served as Assistant Scouting (2015) and Advance Scout (2016) with the Indianapolis Colts.
Bryce Johnston has been promoted to Senior Director of Football Transactions after serving as Football Administration Coordinator (2017-19) and Director of Football Administration for the team (2019-20).
In his new role, Johnston will include planning and executing salary cap management, negotiating and structuring player contracts, allocating football resources and other aspects of duty roster transactions and compliance with CBAs.
On the scouting side, Jeff Scott was named Senior Pro Scout for the Eagles after nine years with the Washington Football Team, and Ameena Soliman was promoted to Pro Scout after joining the organization in 2018 as a Player Personnel Intern and as the Player Personnel Coordinator of the team from 2019-20.
From the college front, Phil Bhaya, who joined the Eagles in 2014 as a scouting assistant and 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 talent in the SEC.
Matt Holland takes over the position of Northeast Area Scout after previously serving as Pro Scout from 2017-18 and Senior Pro Scout from 2019-2020. Prior to the Eagles, Holland held positions in player HR in Washington (2012-13) and Cleveland (2014-15).
Evan Pritt has also been appointed scouting assistant.