The Philadelphia Eagles promoted Chip Kelly and general manager Howie Roseman heading into the 2015 offseason, giving the head coach more responsibilities with player personnel and moving forward he could try and target his former Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota with a trade if he wants to move on from Nick Foles and Mark Sanchez next season.
The Eagles created a bit of a stir earlier in the week with the departure of vice president of player personnel Tom Gamble from the front office, but they calmed the waters with the news about Kelly and Rosman. According to ESPN.com, the team put out a release on Friday announcing the new jobs, promoting Rosman from general manager to executive vice president of football operations and giving Kelly power over player personnel.
Gamble was considered to be the intermediary between Kelly and Rosman when it came to working on player personnel, but media reports have described Gamble as more of a "Kelly guy." The release says that Rosman will work on contract negotiations with players along with salary cap management and other staffing duties, while Kelly will be handling personnel while also finding an exec to take over for Gamble. Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie came out to say that there were no issues between Kelly and the front office and that there were no "threats" coming from Kelly about the moves.
Mike Freeman and other NFL reports have described Kelly making a "power move" and it working out, but Lurie tried to downplay that. Lurie said he made the moves after offseason meetings and now things change, as previously Rosman was the main exec handling player personnel for Kelly's roster. The moves come after the Eagles had a bit of a disappointing offseason in 2014, with the draft and free agency not working out quite as well as year one with Kelly.
While Jordan Matthews has turned out to be a very solid and productive player, first round pick Marcus Smith did not see much time at linebacker for the team. Michael Huff was up and down, while free agent signing Mark Sanchez was solid but not spectacular while coming in for an injured Nick Foles. Darren Sproles was a strong move for Kelly in a trade with the Saints, but that didn't get the team into the playoffs and the emergence of Chris Polk could push him down the depth chart a bit.
Earlier this season before Foles was injured, Pro Football Talk reported that Kelly was not completely sold on Foles as the long term starter and that could open the team up for moves in the future. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported last week that Kelly did not give Foles a "full endorsement" in his press conference and Kelly said he would evaluate everything this offseason. The team has Matt Barkley and may lose Sanchez in free agency. While it would be an extreme move, Kelly could try and trade for Mariota, as he was excellent in Kelly's system at Oregon.
The Eagles missed the playoffs this season despite winning 10 games and moving forward they are looking to get back into the top of the division standings after winning it last year. The team ended up second in the division behind the Cowboys and ahead of the Giants in the NFC East, while the Washington Redskins finished in last place again.
