Things certainly are different around the Eagles these days. The Lombardi trophy proves that.
It wasn't that long ago, however, that the Eagles were being run by Chip Kelly, the controversial head coach who was fired prior to the 2016 season.
In a recent interview with The Athletic, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie admitted what fans have been yelling for years -- giving Kelly complete control of the football operations in 2015 was a mistake.
Per the article in The Athletic:
Asked for his biggest regret as owner, Lurie says there are many, but he has trouble identifying just one. He admits that stripping Roseman of his power and giving Kelly full control is one of them. At the time, Kelly was coming off of back-to-back 10-win seasons. As Lurie has explained in the past, he felt like expanding Kelly's reach was a necessary step to see what he had in the coach.
"I don't regret the hiring of him because it was done with a really good thought process," Lurie says.
"But, yes, I would say I regret giving him the kind of authority I gave him, yeah. That's an easy one."
Obviously, with how things worked out, the decision to remove Howie Roseman and give Kelly control in 2015 was a mistake. As Lurie notes, however, the thought process was a good one.
It is easy to forget, but in 2015, Roseman was not viewed in the same way he is now. Roseman had never won a playoff game as general manager and the Eagles had not won a playoff game since 2008. Kelly was coming off of back-to-back double-digit win seasons and appeared to be one of the brightest coaches in the NFL. With Roseman and Kelly not getting along -- to say the least -- Lurie had to pick one. Picking Kelly over Roseman made sense at the time.
Kelly's one year controlling the roster, however, did not go as planned. His decision to trade for quarterback Sam Bradford and sign running back DeMarco Murray did not work out. The team missed the playoffs and Kelly was fired with one game to go in the regular season.
Although the season was a disaster, it is clear that Lurie learned from it. The decision to hire Doug Pederson had plenty to do with Pederson's personality, something Lurie valued after working with Kelly. The year off that Roseman got clearly benefited him, as he came back a much improved general manager and has since become one of the top in the NFL.
So while it was a mistake, as Lurie admits, there is no denying that the Eagles are better off because of the decision to give Kelly control -- just not in the way Lurie expected.
You can reach Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!
