NFL hires Rod Graves as senior Vice President of football administration

Former Arizona Cardinals and New York Jets general manager Rod Graves just got a major promotion. The NFL has hired Graves to be the senior Vice President of football administration.

Now that is a fancy title that doesn't really spell out what Graves will be doing, which is a shame since his job description is a lengthy and important one. Graves will "oversee all club and game-related initiatives concerning the Competition Committee, general managers, and head coaches" according to league sources. Graves will also "develop and implement new strategic programs within our Football Development Group". That group includes the Scouting Combine, the Regional Combine, high school initiatives and the Career Development Symposium.

Okay, so that doesn't really help out too much either does it? Well the scoop is that Graves will be the go-to guy for teams to complain to and handle it more quietly than has been done previously. He will also be looking to made the whole scouting process a lot more streamlined and interesting for the casual fan. We've seen the Scouting Combine become more of a circus show over the last few years as the NFL wants to give fans more insider access to the processes of their favorite teams. The hiring of Graves should allow the NFL to focus even more of that growth.

After the DeflateGate issue, the NFL undoubtedly wants someone in charge of handling the requests and complaints of head coaches and general managers so that public relations issues like the Patriots' scandal doesn't become a major talking point for media and on social media. The quieter that is handled, the easier it will be for the league as a whole to remain rather clean. As we've seen with Troy Vincent handing down punishments instead of commissioner Roger Goodell, the league is trying rather hard to keep it's higher ups clean of the dirty business of truly running the NFL.