Bengals personnel executive declines his former team's interview request for de facto GM position
Former NFL player Trey Brown has been a key member of the Cincinnati Bengals' personnel department for years, and that's not changing anytime soon. Per NFL Media's Tom Pelissero, Brown declined the New England Patriots' request to interview for their de facto general manager vacancy. Brown has been with the Bengals since their magical 2021 […]
Former NFL player Trey Brown has been a key member of the Cincinnati Bengals' personnel department for years, and that's not changing anytime soon.
Per NFL Media's Tom Pelissero, Brown declined the New England Patriots' request to interview for their de facto general manager vacancy.
Brown has been with the Bengals since their magical 2021 season. He was hired on to be a scout that year, and was promoted to senior personnel executive the very next year. 2024 will be his third season holding the position within the Bengals' tight-knit personnel department.
Before Brown made his way to Cincinnati, he was a former undrafted free agent cornerback out of UCLA who spent time on the Chicago Bears' practice squad in 2008.
After one final year of playing at the UFL level for the New York Sentinels, Brown made the switch to the administrative side of the game and got his first gig with, you guessed it, the Patriots.
Brown spent the 2010 season as a scouting assistant for New England and worked as an area scout the following two years. He later went on to work with the Philadelphia Eagles where he went on to become their director of college scouting from 2016-18, and even became the director of player personnel for the XFL's St. Louis Battlehawks in 2020.
The timing of the reported request is unique considering it immediately follows the NFL Draft. New England opted not to begin searching for a new GM to pair with head coach Jerod Mayo before or right after his hiring. Eliot Wolf has been the team's de facto GM since the team parted ways with Bill Belichick at the beginning of the offseason.
Brown, whom was reported as a target for the Patriots back in January, would've been a candidate to take over that spot for good, and considering the Pats have already employed him over a decade ago and wanted him to come back, it speaks a lot about how they view him.
And how valuable the Bengals should view him.
Like the Patriots, the Bengals don't technically employ a general manager by title, though director of player personnel Duke Tobin handles a general manager's responsibilities.
There's only so far Brown can climb within the Bengals' front office, so he's going to continue garnering interest from other clubs in need of a GM.
The Bengals should be lucky he's with them for now.
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