John Dorsey joining Lions, won't end up full-time with Eagles after all

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John Dorsey won’t be joining the Eagles in a full-time capacity after all.

Dorsey, 60, is expected to join the Detroit Lions front office as a senior personnel executive, a league source confirmed to NBC Sports Philadelphia. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero first reported the news.

Dorsey, the former Chiefs and Browns GM, began quietly working as a consultant for the Eagles in 2020. He settled into a role as a consultant in college and pro scouting. But with the Lions he’ll have a bigger role and the Eagles weren’t going to prevent him from taking it.

During Jeff Lurie’s press conference on Jan. 11, Dorsey’s name came up when Lurie was asked a question about the Eagles’ talent evaluation under GM Howie Roseman. Lurie was asked if someone like Dorsey could end up with more say.

Lurie that Monday was defensive of the job Roseman has done in recent years.

“I think the best way to look at it is you've got to look at every aspect of drafting and talent acquisition, and if you're making short-term decisions or you have a veteran team or you're specifically focusing on one position or things like that, or a lower volume of picks, there's no reason to not look forward in having excellent success in this area. We've over the last ten, 15 years, had a lot of success, a lot of success winning divisions, being in NFC Championship Games. I think one-fourth of the time I've been owner in the last 20 years, we've appeared in an NFC Championship game. That's hard to do without really good talent.

“I would say, yeah, we can do better in every single aspect and I'm as critical as any fan -- trust me, I'm as critical as any fan and I look at it in a very complex way. It's in a data driven way, it's looking at what could have been, what should have been, but I will match our performance against most any organization and know that it's because of really good talent on the roster.

“There are other ways of looking at it but when you have a veteran roster, you're going to have many fewer starters coming from the Draft and elsewhere. But listen, your words are not unheard. They are heard by me and I feel like we've got an excellent football operations area and I would look forward to us having real success as we retool through talent acquisition and through coaching.”

On paper, it seemed like a Roseman-Dorsey relationship might have really helped the Eagles. They seem to have complementary skillsets. While Dorsey has been fired by two different teams, he has put together solid rosters and has a pretty good track record in the draft.

Meanwhile, Roseman is a master of the salary cap and trades but has really struggled when it comes to drafting. There have been too many misses in recent seasons.

And we even learned that Roseman brought Dorsey in as a consultant. So the thought that the Eagles brought Dorsey in as a potential replacement just isn’t true.

Dorsey was the Chiefs’ GM from 2013-16 and the Browns’ GM from 2017-19. He helped build two very good rosters in both spots. Now, he’ll get a chance to help turn around the Detroit Lions.

As the Eagles begin to rebuild their roster they’ll be leaning on Roseman, VP of player personnel Andy Weidl, director of player personnel Jeremiah Washburn and the rest of the scouting department.

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