A new chapter for the Commanders' personnel department
Paul Skansi and Chuck Cook, both long‑standing area scouts for the Washington Commanders, announced their retirement this week, ending tenures that together span six decades of scouting experience.
Skansi, who once played in the NFL and CFL before turning to collegiate coaching, and Cook, a former regional scout for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1984, leave behind a legacy of talent identification that helped shape the franchise’s recent drafts.
To fill the void, the club promoted Alberto de la Guardia and Miles Turner, who previously served as scouting assistants after stints with the San Francisco 49ers and as an investments analyst before joining Washington, while Toby Junker, who arrived from the Detroit Lions last year, steps into a scouting and R&D assistant role.
Bryan Porter, a longtime Carolina Panthers staffer who followed head coach Ron Rivera to Washington in 2021, was elevated to senior director of football operations, while Sam Walsh, Gayatri Namblar, and Preston Biro each received promotions that reflect the team’s growing emphasis on analytics and technology.
The moves come as the Commanders, anchored in the nation’s capital and connected to institutions such as Syracuse University and Presbyterian College, seek to blend traditional scouting wisdom with data‑driven innovation, a shift that could influence how the franchise builds its roster in the coming years.