With the recent news from the Philadelphia Eagles regarding their addition of Brian Dawkins to their scouting department, the mind starts to wander in what sort of potential could lie within this hire. As many know, the 9x Pro Bowl safety spent his first 12 NFL years with Philly before capping off his career in a three-season stint with the Denver Broncos; compiling numerous accolades that only expands the thought of one of the NFL’s hardest-hitting safeties becoming a scouting member for the same team that drafted him.
At the moment, the only feasible results in scouting that Dawkins has experience in could simply be measured by his ability to uplift the secondaries that he’s been implemented in. Beginning with the early days of Andy Reid-headed Eagles consisting of Bobby Taylor, Troy Vincent, and then a tad later with Michael Lewis. Then that Birds secondary evolved into a core that included Sheldon Brown, Lito Shepherd, and Sean Considine before upgrading to Quintin Mikell.
His change of scenery then led him to secondaries composed of Champ Bailey and Andre Goodman, and Dawkins was still capable of holding together a defense that had to compensate for offenses led by Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow.
Knowing that he has always been admired by his peers within the football world and has also served as the veteran presence that helped unlock a certain degree of untapped potential to other defensive backs he has played with helps give a glimpse into how well Dawkins could potentially scan the nation in search of the leagues next series of Hall of Fame personnel.
Dawkins, as the inaugural recipient of the Eagles Nunn-Wooten Scouting Fellowship, begins a new career back in the city of Philadelphia, and his newest occupation will undoubtedly rekindle a relationship with the fans in a way that only could be envisioned to the same degree as had Ozzie Newsome stayed to become general manager of the Cleveland Browns.