Who is David Blackburn, the college scouting director Washington is targeting?

With recent rumors swirling that Washington is targeting the Ravens Director of College Scouting, David Blackburn, for its own front office, I wanted to do a deeper dive into Blackburn’s background and expertise.

Blackburn has been with the Ravens for 17 years, having started there as a player personnel assistant in 2007. He later spent seven years as a West area scout, before being promoted to national scout for two years before his current role. Late last year, he participated in the NFL’s Front Office & General Manager Accelerator Program, aimed building the league’s pipeline of minority talent.

Presumably, Blackburn would be an option to fill the Senior Director of Player Personnel position recently vacated by Eric Stokes. The Ravens Director of Player Personnel position is currently occupied by George Kokinis.

From what I’ve come across this morning, Blackburn is well-regarded in the league, and seems like a thoughtful student of the game and its evolution.

In the piece above, Blackburn talks about changes to the way wide receivers have been evaluated over the course of the past 10-15 years and a philosophy that ultimately led the Ravens to taking Zay Flowers in the first round of the 2023 draft:

“What makes [Flowers] unique is even though he’s a shorter guy, he doesn’t play small. He plays physical, he can go up and tack at the high point, he can play through contact, he can break tackles. And the thing that separates him, and again, you can include Steve [Smith] in this category, especially, is that guys that are smaller that are number ones, or big time play-makers, have that mentality. They have that play-maker mentality, that dog mentality, and how we describe it, that Raven mentality, where “I want the ball, I want to make plays, and I’m that guy,” because they’ve been doing it all their lives. You can’t fake that.”

The Ravens did draft Flowers last year, and he ended up having the third most productive rookie season in his wide receiver class – despite being 5’9”, 182 lbs.

Before the 2024 draft, Blackburn sat down with an interviewer at WMAR and was asked about a topic that many Washington fans were interested in as well:

Interviewer: How would you rate the corners and offensive line in this year’s draft?

I think probably both positions, particularly at tackle and the corners, there are some good prospects early on. As the draft progresses, in the middle parts, with the corners, maybe not as deep as some other positions. OL, in the first two days, it’s a week stocked position. Again, as you get later on, it’s not going to be as thick, with regard to the quality of prospects. Once you get to those points, it’s really all about scheme fit, need, depth, those types of things. Those are two positions you are going to see some quality players come off the board.

One interesting connection that Blackburn already has with Washington is cornerback Kyu Blue Kelly, who the Ravens drafted in the 5th round in 2023, but waived before last season. Washington picked him up off waivers (after he had subsequently been waived by the Seahawks and Packers) in mid-December.