Eagles fans deserve more than silence from front office

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What makes Jeff Lurie think Chip Kelly can handle complete control of personnel just two years after getting his very first NFL job?

Why did Lurie reassign Howie Roseman and pay him nearly $2 million to not be involved in personnel?

And what exactly will Roseman do on a daily basis to earn that roughly $33,000 he’s earning per week?

What makes 30-year-old Ed Marynowitz the right guy to be Kelly’s top personnel assistant?

Where did things go wrong with Tom Gamble? And if Kelly had been given complete personnel control a few days earlier, would Gamble still be here?

Why was Kelly so adamant about creating a front office where Roseman, the Eagles’ GM for five years, was no longer involved in evaluating and selecting players?

What involvement, if any, will Roseman have on draft day?

So many questions. So many questions Eagles fans deserve to have answered.

Yet here we are, more than six weeks after the Eagles’ dramatic front office restructure and still not a peep from Kelly, from Lurie, from anybody in the Eagles’ organization explaining why this happened and what it means.

We’re not talking about signing a free agent or firing a regional scout or placing an injured player on IR.

We’re talking about a historic shakeup of the Eagles’ front office that fundamentally changes the way the team will select players and gives the coach unprecedented powers for his level of experience and accomplishment.

And nothing but silence from the NovaCare Complex.

The NFL Scouting Combine starts Wednesday morning at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, and representatives from 29 teams will be available for interviews to talk about the draft, to talk about their needs, to talk about the future. Some 19 teams will have both their coach and a GM or personnel exec available.

They don't have to be there. But those franchises believe it's important for their fans to know what they're thinking.

Guess who won’t be anywhere to be seen. Saints, Patriots and Eagles.

Two teams that have won a Super Bowl in the past few years, and one team that drafted Marcus Smith in the first round.

This isn’t about disgruntled media not having access to the owner or coach. We’ll find other stories to write. We’ll find other people to talk to. We’ll still be able to do our jobs just fine.

It’s not about us. It’s about you.

It’s about a football team that charges about $100 per average ticket, ninth-highest in the NFL, but refuses to explain its thinking to its loyal and die-hard fans, many of whom have supported the team during its half century without a championship.

The Eagles don’t believe it’s important to communicate with you and your friends and family, and that’s their right, but it’s a real slap in the face to fans who spend thousands of dollars a year in tickets, parking, jerseys, food and merchandise a year to support their team.

Last time Lurie spoke, minutes after the season-ending win over the Giants, he told a group of writers in the visiting locker room at MetLife Stadium that Roseman would remain as general manager, and he mocked writers who asked about Roseman’s future.

Last time Kelly spoke, he said he had a good relationship with Roseman and wouldn’t address rumors of a fractured front office.

That was six weeks ago.

Since then, Lurie and Kelly have hidden behind a couple prepared statements, electing to explain one of the most significant front office changes in franchise history through the PR department instead of fielding questions that all Eagles fans need to have answered.

Lurie did what he once said he would never do again, giving a coach complete control. Kelly’s role changed, adding player evaluation to his coaching duties before he even won a playoff game. Roseman’s role changed, with a raise and a vague new role. Gamble left, Marynowitz got a promotion.

And not a word from anybody involved.

When the Eagles want the media to hear about stadium improvements, they make sure somebody is available to tell us all about it.

When they announce their mural arts program, they make sure somebody from the front office is available to tell us all about it.

When they announce “new food and beverage concepts” at the Linc, they make sure somebody from the front office is available to discuss the long-term ramifications.

But reconfigure the front office so dramatically that it will affect the franchise for the next 10 years or more?

Silence.

Kelly is required to speak with the media at the owner’s meetings, which is in late March. By then it will have been nearly three months since the front-office shakeup.

Lurie isn’t required to speak at all, but he more than anybody owes it to the fans to take a few minutes out of his schedule to share his drastically altered vision for the franchise and explain why he believes this unusual structure will work.

When we last heard from Lurie, he was openly mocking a reporter for asking if Roseman would be back in 2015 as general manager.

“Is that a question?”

Yeah. It is a question. A good one. And lately, that’s all we have. Lots and lots of questions. And absolutely no answers.

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