Eagles executive named among “general manager candidates to watch”

The Philadelphia Eagles lost a significant front office executive earlier this year when Joe Douglas was hired away to become general manager of the New York Jets. 2020 might mark the second straight year where an Eagles exec leaves Philly to become a GM.

NFL Network recently reported that Eagles vice president of football operations Andrew Berry is among general manager candidates to watch this offseason.

JIM TROTTER: “We know all the names that have been out there, but let’s choose a name that we may not have heard much about. And that name is Andrew Berry, who’s an executive with the Philadelphia Eagles. Everyone I talk to about Andrew tells me he is sharp, bright, he knows what he is doing, and they believe he it is a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’ he becomes a general manager. So, that is somebody to keep an eye on as we go forward.

IAN RAPOPORT: “Yeah, Andrew Berry is certainly a hot, new name.”

The Eagles only hired Berry — who previously served as the Cleveland Browns’ vice president of player personnel — back in February. Here’s what we wrote about him at the time:

Geoff Mosher reports Berry will specifically oversee Philly’s analytics department.

Berry originally joined the Browns back in 2016 after spending seven seasons with the Indianapolis Colts’ scouting department. During his time with Indy, Berry worked under former Eagles executive and Howie Roseman ally Ryan Grigson, who used to be the Colts’ general manager.

Berry is only 31 years old so he’s clearly viewed by some as an up-and-coming talent in the league. He has an impressive resume as he graduated cum laude at Harvard in addition to playing cornerback for the Crimson.

Teams are always going to look to hire head coaches and general managers from teams that experience success and the Eagles are one more win away from going to the playoffs three years in a row. With this in mind, it’s not a shock that Berry is garnering some interest.

Then again, it’s not like the Eagles’ front office really nailed their personnel moves this year. There have been some big hits — such as drafting Miles Sanders — but there have been a fair share of flops as well.

The Eagles can block teams from interviewing Berry for general manager vacancies as long as their season is still going. Once it’s over, he’s free game. The guess here is that it’ll take at least another year (if not more) for Berry to get hired away.