General Manager Mark Dominik and Head Coach Raheem Morris have a reworked player personnel department to support their team-building efforts
Not long after Raheem Morris and Mark Dominik ascended to head coach and general manager, respectively, of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in January, the team engineered some very significant changes.
New coordinators were hired (Jim Bates, Jeff Jagodzinski); attention-grabbing roster moves were made in February (Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn, etc.); trades and free agency maneuvers refueled the offense in March (Kellen Winslow, Derrick Ward, etc.); and a potential franchise quarterback was targeted in the draft in April (Josh Freeman).
Less publicly but with the same goal of franchise rejuvenation in mind, the Buccaneers also set about reworking certain areas of the football staff, most notably in the player personnel department. With the team now just a little over a month away from the start of training camp, those changes are complete and the staff is set.
Buccaneers.com previously reported the naming of Digger Daley as director of football administration in May. The team has also added four new scouts and personnel assistants and awarded new posts to two returning members of the personnel staff.
Joining the Buccaneers in 2009 are College Scout Brian Hudspeth, Combine Scout Tony Kinkela, Pro Personnel Assistant Victor Green and College Personnel Assistant Andre Forde. Byron Kiefer, who has worked in the team's player personnel department since 2005, most recently as its national football scout, will now take on the role of college scout. Richard Mann II, a personnel assistant the past two seasons, will assume the post of college personnel assistant.
For the purposes of college scouting, the Buccaneers will continue to divide the United States between five college scouts and National Scout Jim Abrams. Also returning as college scouts are Frank Dorazio, Tom Throckmorton and Seth Turner.
Shelton Quarles and Justin Sheridan remain as the team's pro scouts; earlier in the offseason, Doug Williams, previously a personnel executive, was named the Buccaneers' coordinator of pro scouting. Tampa Bay's player personnel staff now consists of:
| General Manager | Mark Dominik |
| Director of College Scouting | Dennis Hickey |
| Director of Football Administration | Digger Daley |
| Coordinator of Pro Scouting | Doug Williams |
| College Scout | Frank Dorazio |
| College Scout | Brian Hudspeth |
| College Scout | Byron Kiefer |
| College Scout | Tom Throckmorton |
| College Scout | Seth Turner |
| National Scout | Jim Abrams |
| Combine Scout | Tony Kinkela |
| College Personnel Assistant | Andre Forde |
| College Personnel Assistant | Richard Mann II |
| Pro Scout | Shelton Quarles |
| Pro Scout | Justin Sheridan |
| Pro Personnel Assistant | Victor Green |
In addition, the Buccaneers have named Dr. Kevin Elder as team physician. Elder replaces Dr. Joseph Diaco, who retired from the post in April after a 33-year run as the team physician.
Dr. Elder is currently Board Certified in Family Practice with Certificate of Added Qualifications in Sports Medicine and has been recognized with a Fellow designation by the American Academy of Family Physicians. He practices as a partner of the HealthPoint Medical Group in South Tampa.
Additionally, Dr. Elder is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Family Medicine for the University of South Florida, teaching medical students and residents while also serving as a voluntary faculty preceptor for the Bayfront Hospital and Morton Plant Mease Family Practice residencies' primary care sports medicine fellowship programs.
Forde, a former wide receiver at the University of Buffalo, played in the AFL and the now-defunct NFL Europa and also spent time with the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts. A perennial MAC Scholar Athlete, he most previously worked for Men of Valor Football and Speed Training, which provides individualized football training with the focus on speed and football development.
Like Quarles, Green brings the perspective of a playing career in the NFL to his new post in personnel. Green played 11 seasons in the league (1993-2003), most of it with the New York Jets, who recently named him to their All-Time Four Decades Team. Green finished his career ranked tied for third on the Jets' all-time interception list with 24 while leading New York in interceptions in 1999 and 2000. He also ranks third on the team's all-time tackles list with 846 career stops
Since concluding his career, Green has worked to expand the impact f the Victor Green Foundation, which strives to improve the lives of youth in the communities of Americus and Atlanta, Georgia. Because of his exceptional work in his hometown, Green was awarded the Key to the City of Americus and was also honored with former President Jimmy Carter in salute to Americus Greats.
Hudspeth, a veteran of eight NFL seasons, joins the Buccaneers after spending the previous five seasons with the Houston Texans. Prior to his appointment as a college scout with the Texans in 2006, he served as a pro and college scouting assistant with the team from 2004-2005. Hudspeth also previously worked for the Atlanta Falcons in player personnel from 2001-2004. He filled various roles for the Falcons, including player personnel/football systems analyst in 2003-2004, scouting assistant in 2002 and scouting intern in 2001.
Kinkela comes to the Buccaneers from the University of Tulsa, where he served as the director of football operations from 2006-08. He was previously the assistant director of football operations at Washington State in 2004-05. He was also a student assistant for the Cougars' football program for four years.
