Eagles Chip Kelly Should Not Have Total Control Of The Roster

Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Chip Kelly, Philadelphia Eagles head coach, appears to want complete control over the Eagles roster. The Eagles firing of vice president of player personnel Tom Gamble, who had a tight relationship and shared similar views with Kelly, seemingly indicates a power shift back to the Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman.

It looks like Kelly wants Roseman to control the Eagles cap and let him decide on who plays for the Eagles.

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Many Eagles fans are very disappointed with the firing of Gamble as they worry about whether Kelly will want to stay as the Eagles head coach for a long time if he does not have the final say on player personnel. I think this concern is real and I worry about whether Kelly will be the coach here for a long time now.

However, the Eagles made the correct decision in my opinion by giving Roseman his power back. Chip Kelly is an exceptional head coach. I do not trust him with personnel decisions though, he has no right to command power over Roseman. Roseman was the General Manager for the Eagles best draft class for a number of years in 2012, that cannot be ignored.

This does not mean Kelly or Roseman cannot work together, they both should have a say in who the Eagles draft and who they sign. Kelly has strict philosophies on what he looks for in a player and not all of them have worked out. Someone like Roseman is needed to go against what Kelly wants at times and state his case if there is a great player available that does not fit Kelly’s philosophy. Last years draft class looks like a class that Kelly had a lot of control over and right now it doesn’t look like a good draft. You could also look at DeSean Jackson as a move that Chip Kelly forced through that may have backfired.

Looking back at the two draft classes since Kelly has been here, we can definitely attribute some of the bad picks to Chip Kelly. On the defensive side of the ball, Kelly appears to value athletes higher than intelligent football players as he believes he can coach them and get the best from their athletic ability. How did that work out with Marcus Smith II? The great athlete who can’t even see the field and doesn’t even have a position right now.

Kelly admitted that he wanted to take Oregon defensive end Taylor Hart in the fourth round, Roseman persuaded him to wait until the fifth round. Roseman clearly got that one right as Hart didn’t even play last year and he was available in the fifth round. We can assume that Roseman wasn’t Hart’s biggest fan.

The previous year, the Eagles drafted Matt Barkley in the fourth round who has looked awful ever since the Eagles drafted him. Barkley played great against Kelly’s Oregon Ducks when they played each other in College. Do you think Kelly might have had a large say in the drafting of Barkley? I’d say he probably did.

Looking at the great draft before Kelly arrived in 2012. Would Kelly have taken Mychal Kendricks, an undersized linebacker, maybe not. Would he have drafted defensive end Vinny Curry, a player who he clearly believes doesn’t fit his system at all. Remember Curry was inactive the first few weeks of last season. Curry has played a major role in the Eagles front 7 defensive success this season.

One player I am almost certain that Kelly would not draft is cornerback Brandon Boykin. Look at the success he has had. Kelly wants his cornerbacks to have good size and length, how did that work this year? Boykin clearly should have started on the outside this this season but didn’t because Bradley Fletcher is 2 inches taller. I cannot stand Chip Kelly and Billy Davis’ philosophy on tall cornerbacks, good cornerbacks can be smaller in size too.

Tight end Zach Ertz is another interesting example. At the time, we all assumed it was a Chip Kelly ‘matchup nightmare’ type of pick. But now we realise that Chip seems to value tight end blocking extremely high, causing Ertz to be behind Brent Celek in the depth chart. Ertz was a terrible blocker coming out of college, would Chip Kelly have really wanted him? Yet, when given playing time, Ertz has proved that he was a great pick.

I am not saying Chip Kelly should have no say in personnel whatsoever because he should. However, Roseman has earned the right to take back some of his power as he has proven himself to be a great General Manager. The best thing for the Eagles is Kelly and Roseman working together to build a great roster. Kelly needs to learn to get along with Roseman, this isn’t college anymore Chip.