NFL has its eyes on Colts staff, but Ed Dodds, Morocco Brown waiting for right opportunity

WESTFIELD — Ed Dodds has a Ted Thompson story he likes.

Dodds, the Colts’ assistant general manager, got it from Seattle general manager John Schneider, who built his NFL reputation while working for Thompson in Green Bay. Thompson liked to spend a lot of his time on the scouting trail, leaving Schneider in the office.

On one of those days, another NFL team made a bid for one of the Packers’ practice-squad players, forcing Green Bay into a decision: The Packers could promote the player to the active roster and keep him, or let him leave for opportunity on another team’s roster.

An increasingly edgy Schneider kept calling Thompson, trying to figure out what to do.

Finally, he got Thompson on the line.

“You know what we’re going to do, John?” Thompson told Schneider. “We’re going to do what I do best. We’re not going to do anything.”

The story always makes Dodds laugh.

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But it also carries a lesson for Chris Ballard’s right-hand man, and the lesson has guided him through three years of overtures and interviews with six other NFL teams interested in potentially making Dodds their general manager. Dodds pulled his name out of the running for three of those jobs after initial interest.

“Be patient,” Dodds said. “When you rush in, you’re not going to make a good decision.”

The philosophy is part of the reason Dodds works so well with Ballard, who has made patience one of his defining attributes in his six years in charge of Indianapolis, and it’s a driving force for Morocco Brown, the up-and-coming executive who was promoted to chief personnel executive this offseason after interviewing for general manager jobs with Atlanta, Chicago and Pittsburgh, as well as another promotion in Philadelphia.

“When you first start getting interviews, yeah, you’re excited. … We work in this industry to potentially get those jobs,” Brown said. “But just like they’re interviewing us, I kind of go into it where I’m interviewing them. I want to see how they answer some of the questions I have. How do they see the game? Does it match up with the way I see it? Do those things integrate together? Can we work together? As (Dodds) said, you can’t force it.”

The Colts are going to lose Dodds and Brown to general manager jobs at some point.

There is far too much interest in their abilities, far too much respect for the way Indianapolis runs its ship, for the Colts to hold onto both men forever. Ballard has been able to keep his front office together for the most part, but one of his top lieutenants, Rex Hogan, was hired by the Jets after Ballard’s second season in charge of the Colts, and the Giants hired away talented area scout Mike Derice last offseason.

But neither Dodds nor Brown is going to leave for any opportunity that comes down the pike, and one of the reasons is that they are in a good situation in Indianapolis.

One of the overlooked factors in NFL front office moves each year is stability. A less-than-perfect working situation makes it easier for a potential candidate’s eyes to wander.

“It helps to be patient when you’re here working with people like Chris and like Ed, this is the best staff I’ve ever worked with in 22 years,” Brown said. “You don’t have to rush it. When somebody wants you, and it’s your time, that’ll happen.”

In the meantime, the best way to land the right job is to get the Colts to where they want to be.

“A consistent, championship-caliber football team,” Dodds said.

Already more than half a decade into Ballard’s regime in Indianapolis, the job for both men has changed. A little for Dodds. A lot for Brown.

When Ballard and Dodds first took over the Colts, Dodds was far more hands-on, working hard to make sure new systems and processes were implemented the right way, course-correcting when it needed to be.

By now, the Colts front office knows how things should be run, and Dodds spends that part of his job evaluating how Indianapolis does things, taking ideas from the rest of the front office on how to make those systems better.

“We do that after every major muscle movement: Combine, All-Star, draft process,” Dodds said. “We sit down, what do we like, what do we not like, what would we change? You just don’t sit there and act like you have all the answers. You keep trying to get better.”

Going through interviews can help an executive get better.

Not so much from the interviews, which are centered on teams trying to find the right fit personally. As Brown puts it, general manager jobs come open so infrequently that almost anybody getting interviewed has established themselves as a scout; the trick is finding the right fit between team and candidate.

But preparing for those interviews can help an executive get better.

“You get a sense for how people might build differently or do things differently,” Dodds said.

Brown’s role is changing a little more significantly.

For five years, Brown has been the Colts’ director of college scouting, a job that has kept him on the road half the year. In his new role, Brown will be staying in the Indianapolis front office more of the time and doing more work on the pro scouting side, which is where he spent 14 years with Chicago, Washington and Cleveland before being hired by Ballard.

“My first 14 years in the league, I was in the office doing pro, so it shouldn’t be too difficult,” Brown said. “It’ll be like learning to ride a bike again.”

If the Colts live up to expectations, there will likely be interviews again for both men this winter, overtures from teams who want Dodds or Brown to take the biggest job in scouting.

For the moment, that can wait.

“It helps to be somewhere like here, where you enjoy it, you’re working with good people, you don’t have to start looking outside to see when you’re going to get interviewed,” Brown said. “When it happens, it happens.”

The right opportunity will come along.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: NFL has its eyes on Ed Dodds, Morocco Brown but they're waiting