Jeff Lurie isn't completely blind to Howie Roseman's weak spot

Jeff Lurie may have a blindspot when it comes to Howie Roseman … but he’s not completely blind.

Let’s take it back to January of 2016. The Eagles had just hired Doug Pederson as their new head coach and Lurie explained that the hiring process wasn’t quite over just yet.

Here’s Lurie from nearly five years ago:

"We're about to do a search for a player personnel head," Lurie said. "That will really be an important search that we are all participating in, starting this week.

"Given that search and given the competitive nature of that search, what I'd like to do is really talk to you more about structure and the exact nature of those once the search is over, because I don't want to sort of telegraph anything we're doing."

Eventually, the Eagles hired Joe Douglas as their vice president of player personnel and charged him with running the scouting department. Douglas, who has since moved on to become the Jets’ general manager, was a highly regarded guy from the scouting world who came up under Ozzie Newsome in Baltimore.

If there was one thing the Ravens were known for under Newsome, it was their ability to consistently stock their teams with homegrown talent.

The Eagles knew that. Lurie knew that.

And he also knew that as talented a front office executive as Roseman was in many ways, he also came with a spotty background when it came to player evaluation. One of the main points Lurie made when he put Roseman back in power was that the Eagles were also going to hire that all-important personnel head. One seemed almost contingent on the other.

If Lurie saw the weak spot then, you can bet he still sees it now.

The real question is: What is he going to do about it?

The last time Lurie recognized that weakness, he hired two guys he hoped would make a major impact. In May of 2016, the Eagles hired Douglas as well as Andy Weidl, who had served with Douglas in Baltimore.

“With the additions of Joe Douglas and Andy Weidl, along with the other changes we have made,” Lurie said that May, “we all feel that we will have a strong department of talent evaluators that will work well with all facets of football operations to make the best decisions for our franchise and for our fans.”

You can certainly question the effectiveness of those two hires. It’s not like the Eagles’ draft record got any better with Douglas at the helm or in the two years since Weidl took over for him.

And it’s really hard to judge Douglas or Weidl or anyone else as long as Roseman still has final say. Because someone can get all the right advice and still make the wrong move. Or he can get all the wrong advice and follow it. We don’t exactly know what’s been going on with the Eagles in recent seasons.

But the fact that the Eagles made those hires in 2016 in the first place tells you that Lurie recognized a weak spot in Roseman’s game.

What we know now is that the Eagles’ drafts haven’t been very good in recent seasons — they have drafted 36 players since 2016 and one of them has become a Pro Bowler: Carson Wentz in 2016 — and neither have their free agent acquisitions.

It’s a big reason why the team is 4-10-1 and finishing off one of the worst seasons in franchise history.

This season, the Eagles brought in former NFL GM John Dorsey as a consultant. Maybe the Eagles give him a bigger role. Maybe they find someone else. But it seems clear that the Birds need a shakeup in their front office. No one expects Roseman to be fired but they can’t go on like this, can they? Roseman needs help with this part of his job and if he isn’t willing to accept it, the Eagles should move on.

At the 2016 owners meetings in Boca Raton, Florida — before Douglas was brought in and the Eagles were already making offseason moves — Lurie was asked if Roseman would be held accountable for his decisions.

"Yes. Without question," Lurie said. "And he will be held responsible for how the player personnel does in the future. He will be held responsible for the quality of that department."

So when Roseman won the Super Bowl and was named Executive of the Year, Lurie rewarded him with a contract extension.

But now it’s time to hold him accountable for failures too. Lurie knows where the Eagles have been lacking. Now he just has to figure out how to fix it.

Subscribe to the Eagle Eye podcast:

Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | Watch on YouTube