An eye for talent

Every young football player dreams of going to the NFL.

By the time he was a senior at Carroll College, Anthony Patch knew he wouldn’t be on the gridiron on Sundays, so the 1996 Ronan High graduate found a different way into the league.

Former St. Ignatius principal Steve Picard, a Carroll grad, put him in touch with fellow Carroll alum Bryan Wiedmeier—the assistant general manager with the Miami Dolphins at the time—and Patch landed an internship in Miami.

He moved on to the role of college scouting coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2002.

Patch climbed the ladder in the Eagles’ college scouting department, eventually becoming the team’s primary scout on the West Coast before his promotion to director of college scouting last January.

“It’s a unique job,” Patch said. “I’m fortunate. I knew I wanted to do something in sports, and I’m thankful that I have a great job. ... It’s been a good thing.”

Patch has been a good thing for the Eagles, too, according to General Manager Howie Roseman.

“He has non-stop determination and work ethic,” Roseman said. “It’s unmatched. He combines that with his talent as a leader and player evaluator. I couldn’t do this job without him.”

It’s Patch’s work ethic that allowed him to climb the ladder, said Roseman, who became the team’s GM in 2010.

“He basically slept under his desk,” Roseman said. “… One of the first moves for me [as general manager] was making sure that he stayed a part of our staff.”

Today, Patch leads a team of five area scouts who scour the country’s top college programs for the next wave of NFL talent.

“You’re at a different school every day in the fall looking at their senior prospects, working to put together a list of players for the draft,” he said. ““I love it. It’s something different every day.”

Patch lives in Spokane, Wash. with his wife, Rikki (also from Ronan) and their three daughters, Samantha, Addison and Breann. He said he spends roughly a third of the year on the road, either scouting or in Philadelphia for meetings, but that a lot of his work is done remotely.

“Most of the work has to be done on the tape,” Patch said. He and his team work closely with Roseman and the Eagles coaching staff after the end of their season.

“It’s all about working together and being on the same page,” he said.

He said that his team basically knows who they’re interested in prior to the NFL’s annual scouting combine each February.

“We’ve got the whole background,” he said. “That’s all checks and balances. It does kind of weed some people out.”

There’s no doubt that Patch’s work is evident on the field on Sundays. The Eagles, currently 7-5 and tied with Dallas atop the NFC East, are powered by youngsters scouted by Patch and his team.

“The last few years, we feel like our drafts have panned out really well,” he said.

Quarterback Nick Foles perhaps has been the most impressive of the recent Eagles draftees. Foles, a second-year player who took over for injured All-Pro quarterback Michael Vick on Oct. 6, leads the NFL in quarterback rating and touchdown-to-interception ratio (19-0) this season.

“Nick’s played well,” Patch said. “[We like] having a quarterback in the back wing. ... [Injuries are] kind of a thing that’s happened the past few years with [Vick].”

Another complication Patch’s staff has navigated is Philadelphia’s coaching change after a disappointing 2012 season. Former Oregon coach Chip Kelly took over for Andy Reid.

“The biggest change we’re seeing is on the defensive side of the ball,” Patch said. “Both Chip and Andy are great listeners to the personnel staff. We just have to find playmakers and pull them through.”

They have, and the Eagles defense has jumped from 29th in the league in points allowed last year to 16th in 2013 thanks to recent draft choices like Fletcher Cox and Brandon Boykin coming of age.

Patch sees these young players as the building blocks to pull the Eagles back to the dominant form that saw them in the postseason in nine of 11 seasons between 2000 and 2010.

“We always stress building competition on the roster and building consistency,” Patch said. “We had a great run, and we’re just trying to get back to there.”