With Chip Kelly, ‘Scouts had no say,’ Report Says

There have been constant stories about the way the Eagles operated under Chip Kelly, each one more telling than the next. Whatever your opinion is and whoever you believe should be at fault, it's clear the Eagles were a mess with Kelly and the balance of power was non-existent.

That could not be more true in this latest story surrounding Kelly and the Eagles. According to a report from NJ.com's Matt Lombardo, the Eagles scouts had worked throughout the offseason to set the Draft board. And when Chip Kelly got a hold of it, he removed all players he was not interested in, throwing some of the scouts hard work in the trash.

"Right before that draft, the scouts set the board," an Eagles source said to NJ.com on Tuesday. "Then Chip got a hold of it and totally turned it around. Scouts had no say at all in that draft. Anybody that Chip didn't want, that player's card got removed from the board and thrown in the trash. Those guys were never even in the discussion."

Naturally, this can create some animosity within the organization. At that point, scouts for the Eagles were wondering what their job really was or if the work mattered.

"Almost immediately, you had a lot of scouts looking around and wondering, 'Why am I even working? Why the hell are we even here?' We put all of this work in, put the information in and Chip changed everything and took whoever he wanted to take," the source said.

The Eagles used their first-round pick in 2014 to select linebacker Marcus Smith, who has been a bust since. Last season, they selected wide receiver Nelson Agholor and that produced underwhelming results in his rookie year, partially due to high tensions surrounding the team.

This unorthodox approach to the Draft from Chip Kelly is what really created the separation in the front office over the three seasons that Kelly was head coach.

Upon Chip Kelly's hiring, Tom Gamble was brought in as vice president of player personnel. That essentially pushed Howie Roseman to the side. In trying to work with a collaborative effort, the relationship started to sour over Kelly's affinity to Gamble and his team over Roseman's input.

Gamble was fired after the 2014 season, but that didn't solve any of the problems in the front office. The source explained further.

"The Eagles brought in some of Tom's guys to make some changes in the scouting department, and Howie's guys were kind of pushed aside a little bit. Howie really wasn't listened to. Chip would listen to Gamble, but he wouldn't listen to Howie. It just wasn't a good relationship.

Everything hit the fan after that season. Chip left town almost immediately. Howie fired Gamble and then Chip gets hold of it, comes right back to the building and put his foot down.

I knew right there it was the beginning of the end for Chip. He did everything he wanted. He had to win and win big to hold onto his job after that season. Meanwhile, Howie was away from personnel decisions, preparing to be back in charge, if that chance ever came."

And sure enough, the Eagles went 7-9, Kelly was fired, Roseman was back in the driver's seat with personnel decisions and so far, things are looking up for the Eagles, who managed to rid themselves of the controlling coach/GM and get back to collaborative front office that had them pursuing success.

So far, so good this offseason, but the Draft is still yet to come. Either way, the Eagles made what has clearly proven to be a necessary move in moving on from Chip Kelly, because with each passing story, it turns into more of a soap opera than a football story.

Kevin Durso is managing editor for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.