Friday’s bizarre vibe emanating from Philadelphia, prompting some to conclude that “something big” could be happening, resulted eventually in something big that was painted by the franchise as something good.
Ultimately, it could be something bad.
The power struggle between coach Chip Kelly and G.M. Howie Roseman has resulted in Kelly becoming the G.M. and Roseman moving to a position with a title that sounds like a promotion but that ultimately gives Roseman less authority and fewer responsibilities relevant to the crafting of a football roster.
“Howie Roseman will be elevated to the role of Executive Vice President of Football Operations and will continue directing contract negotiations, salary cap management, and NFL strategic matters, while overseeing the team’s medical staff, equipment staff and more,” the team said in a Friday evening statement. “Head coach Chip Kelly will now oversee the player personnel department. He will also lead efforts to hire a new personnel executive -- a process that will begin immediately.”
So, basically, Roseman will be running all aspects of the football operations, while having zero input in the selection of football players.
It’s demotion dressed up as a promotion. Roseman, who methodically worked his way up the ladder in Philadelphia over the last 15 years, ultimately morphed from cap-and-contracts to personnel. While he’s never had final say over the roster or the draft (coach Andy Reid had it before Kelly, and Kelly acquired it as soon as he was hired in 2013), Roseman had a key role in the evaluation of players. Now, he has none.
Owner Jeffrey Lurie can give Roseman whatever title Lurie wants. And Lurie can describe the move any way he wants. The bottom line is that Kelly and Roseman squared off, Kelly won, and the end result was intended to create the impression that they both won.
Instead, Lurie essentially clunked Kelly’s and Roseman’s heads together and tried to create a solution that makes them both happy. While they may be happy (or at least less unhappy) in the short term, they now have to co-exist. And even though the arrangement suggests that Lurie has sent them to separate corners of the building, there will be overlap.
Kelly, for example, will want to sign a given player, and then Roseman will be responsible for working out a deal with the player’s agent that complies with the team’s broader salary-cap plan. Roseman, who possibly won’t be able to resist the urge to keep studying tape and forming opinions about players, may decide that Kelly is wrong about that specific player, which would translate to a belief that the player’s agent wants too much money, or some other passive-aggressive position that could turn aggressive-aggressive before landing on the desk of Lurie.
Meanwhile, another personality will be tossed into the stew, with Kelly hiring a personnel executive who will have full allegiance to the coach, and none to Roseman.
And on game day, if/when the team is struggling, it will be Roseman not Kelly in the ear of Lurie, subtly critiquing the things Kelly has done wrong, in the hopes that Lurie will decide it’s time for a new coach to be hired, and for Roseman’s former duties to be restored.
So while Lurie came up with a plan that kept the Eagles from becoming the second team in less than a week to run off a winning coach, it feels like it’s just a matter of time before Kelly or Roseman will be former employees of the organization, voluntarily or otherwise.
