UPDATE 8/19: ESPN announced several hires ahead of Week 3 of the NFL preseason including the assignments of their current divisional bloggers. As of this moment 24 of the 32 teams have their position filled. Since they don't have a representative yet, I'm throwing my hat into the ring to be ESPN's New Orleans Saints beat writer. Hey, someone's got to do it, right? Full updated list below.
ESPN.com editor Rob King confirmed to the Poynter Institute that the online conglomo was hiring a dedicated beat writer to cover all 32 NFL teams. ESPN launched its NFL blog network a year ago, bringing 8 writers on board as bloggers to cover each respective NFL division. Now that project is expanding even further, showing the insane desire for NFL related content. Poynter includes a note that 31 of the 32 NFL teams are in ESPN's Top 100 most searched for teams. Apparently Jaguars fans must go to Pro Football Talk for their news. (That's a joke by the way.)
King told Poynter ESPN planned 19 hires to complete the project. Keep in mind that ESPN already has quite the foundation for this project with their 8 divisional bloggers already board and staffs from regional sites like ESPNNewYork.com and ESPNChicago.com. One imagines those writers would be reassigned to the NFL beats, which would be steps in line with the possible larger changes in store for ESPN.com we touched on earlier this summer.
Several of the new hires have already been reported or announced already by the writers themselves. We'll do our best to keep an updated list of all the hires so you know who's going to be covering your NFL team at ESPN this fall. If you hear of any other hires, please drop us a note at our tips email or on Twitter.
AFC East
Buffalo Bills – Mike Rodak, ESPNBoston.com (APSE)
New England Patriots – currently Mike Reiss & Field Yates at ESPNBoston.com
New York Jets – currently Rich Cimini & Jane McManus at ESPNNewYork.com
Miami Dolphins – James Walker (ESPN AFC East blogger)
AFC North
Baltimore Ravens – Jamison Hensley (ESPN AFC North blogger)
Cincinnati Bengals – Coley Harvey (Orlando Sentinel)
Cleveland Browns – none
Pittsburgh Steelers – Scott Brown (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
AFC South
Houston Texans – Tania Ganguli, Houston Chronicle
Jacksonville Jaguars – none
Indianapolis Colts – Mike Wells, Indianapolis Star
Tennessee Titans – Paul Kuharsky (ESPN AFC South blogger)
AFC West
Denver Broncos – Jeff Legwold, Denver Post
Kansas City Chiefs – Adam Teicher, Kansas City Star (8/23)
Oakland Raiders – Paul Gutierrez (CSNBayArea.com)
San Diego Chargers – none
NFC East
Dallas Cowboys – Todd Archer (ESPNDallas.com)
New York Giants – Dan Graziano (ESPN NFC East blogger)
Philadelphia Eagles – Phil Sheridan (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Washington Redskins – John Keim, Washington Post (Post story)
NFC North
Chicago Bears – Michael C. Wright (ESPNChicago.com)
Detroit Lions – none
Green Bay Packers – Rob Demovsky, Green Bay Press-Gazette
Minnesota Vikings – Ben Goessling (St. Paul Pioneer Press)
NFC South
Atlanta Falcons – none
Carolina Panthers – David Newton (ESPN NASCAR writer)
New Orleans Saints – none
Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Pat Yasinskas (ESPN NFC South blogger)
NFC West
Arizona Cardinals – none
San Francisco 49ers – Bill Williamson (ESPN AFC West blogger)
Seattle Seahawks – Terry Blount (ESPN NASCAR writer)
St. Louis Rams – Nick Wagoner, Rams official website
Other
ESPN Insider National Columnist – Mike Sando (ESPN NFC West blogger)
NFL Nation national writer – Kevin Seifert (ESPN NFC North blogger)