Detroit Lions make two notable additions to their front office

After each year's draft is often a time for some turnover in NFL front office and personnel departments. The Detroit Lions notably lost senior director of player personnel Lance Newmark to the Washington Commanders this offseason, and director of college scouting Dave Sears left to become the Arizona Cardinals' assistant general manager in 2023.

The Lions have added to their front office, and notably so. First reported by Neil Stratton and since seemingly confirmed by Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press as well as some others, the Lions are hiring a couple well-regarded talent evaluators to yet-to-be confirmed roles: Tom Roth and Dwayne Joseph.

Detroit Lions make two notable additions to the front office

Roth has been an NFL scout for two decades, 14 years as a college scout with the Buffalo Bills and the last six as an area scout for the Tennessee Titans.

Joseph started his career in 1998, in player development with the Chicago Bears. He spent time as a scout for the Miami Dolphins, where he overlapped with Lions' head coach Dan Campbell from 2010-2011, before going back to the Bears as assistant director of pro scouting in 2012.

Joseph moved on to become director of pro personnel for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015. From there he became director of pro scouting for the Las Vegas Raiders in 2019, and he interviewed for the general manager post there in 2022. He stuck around under the candidate who was hired, Dave Ziegler, but another GM change in Las Vegas this offseason (former Chargers' general manager Tom Telesco) made it unlikely he'd be sticking around again.

Joseph reportedly, though not publicly confirmed by the team, interviewed for the Lions' general manager job at some point over the years. Maybe when it was last open, and Brad Holmes was hired.

The 51-year old Joseph has been mentioned on some watchlists for GM candidates lately. So he's clearly well-known in scouting and personnel circles, and along with Roth the Lions made a couple nice hires here.

Erik Schlitt of Pride of Detroit pointed out how Joseph could part of a plan to replace assistant general manager Ray Agnew if he gets a general manager job.