Report: Jimmy Raye likely to be hired as Texans’ player personnel director

Shortly after the NFL Draft, Colts GM Chris Ballard made a few changes to his scouting and personnel staff, and perhaps the most significant move was firing VP of Football Operations Jimmy Raye III.

Raye was a candidate for the Colts’ GM job this offseason and has been in the consideration for other GM jobs in recent years too, and he’s a respected guy around the league - so it wasn’t expected to take him long to find a new home. According to Sporting News’ Alex Marvez, Raye will likely become the Player Personnel Director for the Houston Texans.

The Buffalo Bills recently hired Gaine as their VP of Player Personnel, so the Texans need to fill his spot. It sounds like they’ll be hiring a guy who’s familiar with the AFC South to do just that.

Raye spent the last four years with the Colts and was Ryan Grigson’s right-hand man for much of that time, as he was involved in a number of areas of building the roster, including heading up the undrafted free agent process. This offseason, he essentially filled in as the interim GM after Grigson was fired while Jim Irsay went on his GM search, and Raye was a candidate. Irsay seemed to be very high on Raye and has spoken very highly of him, but Chris Ballard was the obvious choice for the job.

It doesn’t sound like the Colts and Raye split on bad terms, however, as at the time Raye’s firing was reported NFL Media’s Albert Breer noted that it “was amicable as it could be.” It was simply a matter of Chris Ballard wanting to bring in his own guys.

So it’s good to see Raye find another job pretty quickly, and he’ll now be tasked with helping build a team that will face the Colts twice a season.