Texans hire Patriots national scout James Liipfert
The Patriots lost a trusted member of their scouting department, James Liipfert, who was hired away by the Texans as their new director of college scouting, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Liipfert, who held the title of national scout with the Patriots, had been in the New England front office since 2009. The former Georgia State linebacker started as a scouting assistant, was promoted to area scout in 2010 and then to national scout in 2015.
It’s not the first time this year the Texans have shown interest in the Patriots personnel staff. They tried to interview both director of player personnel Nick Caserio and director of college scouting Monti Ossenfort in January for their then-vacant general manager position, but New England blocked both interviews. Houston eventually hired Brian Gaine.
The affinity for New England staffers comes from Texans head coach Bill O’Brien, formerly offensive coordinator for the Patriots. O’Brien was in New England from 2007-11, so he overlapped with Liipfert for three seasons.
The Texans apparently wanted to get through the draft with the scouting department that had been in place before making changes. Houston fired college scouting director Jon Carr, assistant GM Jimmy Raye III, and assistant director of college scouting Mike Martin the day after the draft.
