The Philadelphia Eagles have Chip Kelly now making the major personnel decisions and into 2015, the team could explore trade deals to get Marcus Mariota, Colin Kaepernick or RG3 over sticking with Nick Foles at quarterback, as the team has draft picks to play with and this comes as Jeremy Maclin is hitting free agency and LeSean McCoy needs a restructure of his contract.
The Eagles looked to be in a bit of a sticky situation when they let go of Tom Gamble from the front office, as many NFL writers labeled him a "Kelly ally" when it came to personnel. According to ESPN.com, after some initial issues, the team opted to promote Howie Roseman from his general manager job to executive vice president of football operations, while Kelly now will handle personnel. The team has some big issues coming up, as Jeremy Maclin is hitting the free agent market and may not return, while LeSean McCoy likely will have to take a contract restructuring to remain in Philly, according to Pro Football Talk.
The team released a statement about the moves and called Roseman's new title a promotion, but based on the way the front office worked last season, Mike Freeman at Bleacher Report called this move a "power play" from Kelly. According to ESPN.com sources, Kelly and Roseman did not always see eye to eye on personnel moves and Gamble was considered a "buffer" between the two. Now Kelly has the top spot and there are a number of things he could do to shake things up.
Kelly did not draft Nick Foles and reports from, last season had Kelly unsatisfied with his play before he went down with an injury that ended up keeping him out for the season. Foles threw 10 interceptions in eight games this past season after throwing just two in 13 games last year and he also completed less than 60 percent of his passes after being at 64 percent in 2013. Kelly likely wants an upgrade from Foles and he has options to look at on the trade and free agent market.
Kelly could look at moving up in a big trade in the draft to get Mariota, as he worked with the Heisman winner at Oregon and he would be a perfect fit for the offense. Mariota passed for over 40 touchdowns and less than five picks this season and he would be a good fit to run Kelly's offense in the NFL. Niners Nation has suggested that depending on who is hired by the 49ers the team could look at trading Colin Kaepernick and if that happens, Kelly could be interested. Kaepernick ran a similar offense to Kelly's at Nevada and his skill set would also be a good fit for the Eagles offense.
Adam Schefter at ESPN.com wrote that Gamble was more of a "Kelly guy" and was a buffer between Roseman and Kelly and owner Jeffery Lurie opted to change things up rather than keep Gamble in place. The offense was excellent once again this past season, but the defense was a mess and ranked 31st in passing yards allowed per game. Kelly needs to do better in the upcoming draft as well, as the first round pick for the team did not pan out great and Jordan Matthews was the only high impact player from this class.
