The NFL says it wants to empower Black coaches and scouts. Here’s a great way to prove it: One of the handful of teams that will hold an NFL general manager search this cycle should give serious thought to hiring Cincinnati Bengals senior personnel executive Trey Brown, one of the brightest young minds in personnel.
Trey Brown a Name To Know in NFL General Manager Search
Brown is one of 32 diverse general manager candidates scheduled to attend the NFL Front Office Accelerator Tuesday and Wednesday at the December League Meeting in Dallas.
The event was established this year to “provide rising people of color and women front office prospects with the opportunity to strengthen relationships with club ownership and executives,” the NFL said.
“Additionally, the League has curated content sessions with football operations experts and business and academic leaders to further drive participants’ success in future front-office opportunities.”
Brown will join the likes of Miami Dolphins assistant general manager Marvin Allen, Buffalo Bills director of player personnel Terrance Gray, and Rams senior personnel executive Ray Farmer in Dallas.
The hope is one or more of these diverse candidates will add to the ranks of Black general managers, a club that as of 2022 had a membership of seven: Ryan Poles (Bears), Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (Vikings), Brad Holmes (Lions), Martin Mayhew (Commanders), Terry Fontenot (Falcons), Andrew Berry (Browns), and Chris Grier (Dolphins).
Who Is Trey Brown?
Brown might not be a household name, but he’s well-known in NFL circles. His next general manager interview will be his fifth — and he’s still just 37 years old. Brown was up for the Bills’ and Raiders’ openings, among others, a testament to the success he’s had early in his career.
Granted, he got a head start on some of his peers. Brown was basically born into professional football. Brown’s father, Theotis Brown II, played six seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals, Seattle Seahawks, and Kansas City Chiefs before a heart attack cut short his football career at the age of 27.
The elder Brown then went to work in the Chiefs’ front office, holding roles in community relations and ticketing. That access helped his son to learn the ways of the NFL at a very early age. Among Trey’s first mentors? Chiefs GM Carl Peterson.
“I’ve had the chance to be molded by a lot of different people,” Brown told the Bengals’ website in 2021.
MORE: List of Current NFL General Managers
Like his dad, Trey Brown played at UCLA, where he got on the radar of then-Patriots personnel chief (and current Texans general manager) Nick Caserio. After a very brief professional playing career, Brown broke into personnel with the New England Patriots as scouting assistant in 2010 before quickly moving up to area scout.
In 2013, the Eagles hired him as a scout, but within three years, he was running the team’s college scouting department. He helped assemble the roster that won the Super Bowl in the 2018 NFL season.
Eager to run his own personnel department, Brown then spent a year with the St. Louis Battlehawks of the XFL and the Birmingham Iron of the AAF.
But after both of those leagues went kaput, he returned to the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals, first as a scout and most recently as an executive.
He helped build a roster that reached the Super Bowl in his first season and is all but a lock to return to the playoffs in his second. He’s smart. He’s accomplished. He just needs someone to believe he’s ready.
“Trey brings a lot of experience in a lot of different roles. He has a great database of players and he expands our coverage in so many different areas,” Duke Tobin, the Bengals director of player personnel, said after hiring Brown. “Our scouts here play a lot of different roles and they scout in a lot of different areas and they’re relied on to provide opinions both on the pro side and college side and Trey fits that mold to a tee and he comes in ready made to contribute.”