Boyd: Eagles Were Wise To Give Control To Chip Kelly
By Ray Boyd
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- When the Eagles "parted ways," with Tom Gamble, it seemed like things could have gone one of two ways.
Either Chip Kelly was going to be so livid with losing his closest front office ally that he would walk away from the Eagles, or Jeffrey Lurie would be forced to side with Kelly for fear of losing him and relieve his trusted executive, Howie Roseman, of his duties.
Neither happened, but the end result was closer to the latter.
On Friday evening, after we waded through the speculation and dooms day scenarios, the Eagles announced that they were restructuring their front office. The new configuration gives Roseman a "promotion" to Executive VP of Football Operations, but strips him of his role as the Eagles' top judge of player talent.
In Kelly's end of the year press conference he praised Roseman for his expertise when it comes to the numbers, but stopped short of praising his ability when it comes to judging talent. Now Roseman's job title, fits his strength.
He will still handle contract negotiations and the cap, but Kelly will now lead up the player personnel department and for a lot of reasons, that is the way it should be.
Kelly's system on both sides of the football is unique. For all the skills that Roseman has picked up along the way in terms of evaluating talent, he has never been tasked with judging players for a system quite like Kelly's.
Roseman is often praised for his role in picking the players from the 2012 draft, which is regarded as one of the best Eagles draft classes in quite some time. The problem is, those players were drafted for a completely different scheme and luckily have translated well into Kelly's scheme.
Fletcher Cox, Mychal Kendricks, Vinny Curry, Nick Foles and Brandon Boykin were the first five players taken in that draft and all still play key roles on this team.
However, we all know that in between Curry and Foles, the Seahawks selected Russell Wilson.
Had the Eagles been drafting specifically for Kelly's system in 2012, would they have placed a higher premium on getting Wilson who reportedly was very interested in becoming an Eagle?
Kelly needs control of this process for the simple fact that no one knows what would be better for his system than he does. Kelly's unique offense may very well need a specific type of quarterback, despite Kelly's insistence on not revealing to the world what type of quarterback that is.
With him heading up the player personnel department, he can be fully responsible for finding that perfect fit.
The Eagles also are giving Kelly the power to hire a new personnel executive - a general manager essentially - that will answer directly to him. It is unclear of whether this new structure was in motion before or after the Gamble departure, but either way Kelly now can pick a football mind that he trusts and aligns with. It appears obvious that Roseman was not that mind.
What should be most encouraging to Eagles fans is that this all seems to be taking place with winning in the greatest interest. Power struggles have to be put aside. Allegiances to long term employees have to be put aside.
The main focus is now putting the best players on the field to fit the system that is in place.
This move is an outright endorsement of Kelly and now it's all on him. He seems like the type of boss that would want it that way. Why?
Well, as we all remember, Kelly is all about logistics. Now he isn't just outlining the game plan for Sunday. He is outlining the game plan for the entire operation.
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