Yesterday evening, ESPN's Adam Caplan did his weekly radio appearance on 97.5 the Fanatic with Joe DeCamera, and Caplan did his best to clear up exactly what he thinks the Eagles will be looking for when they hire their new 'personnel chief'.
It's basically going to be similar to the job that Ed Marynowitz had, but Marynowitz had no control.
I think that they might be willing to give some control to the new personnel director, but until you sit down with this guy, and you hear what he's thinking, and looking what the Eagles want, I think they might be willing to do something like that. Not full control, but partial.
(Editor's note: Caplan was careful to point out that this was his educated belief, not necessarily a report.)
Caplan went on to explain that if an executive has control of the 90 man roster and a coach has final say on the 53-man roster, that's a version of partial control that rarely leads to any clashing. He said where things can go wrong under that set-up is during the NFL Draft, when the two sides can't agree on who to select.
The belief — and this is my thought, not Caplan's — is that the Eagles had issues like that during the 2014 NFL Draft, when there seemed to be a power struggle in the war-room between Howie Roseman and Chip Kelly/Tom Gamble. The team ended up selecting Marcus Smith in the first-round that year and Josh Huff over Jarvis Landry and Martavis Bryant.
He also noted that the 'collaborative process' that owner Jeffrey Lurie has alluded to between the new personnel chief and Roseman can't be forced. He says it was forced between Chip Kelly and Roseman, and correctly pointed out that it was a disaster.
The full podcast, as it is every week, is a must-listen. Caplan predicted that the personnel chief will be hired in the next two weeks, which may be just the first of many hires to help the replenish a front-office that has been depleted by firings in the last year.
