Jeff Lurie met with the media today and addressed the firing of Chip Kelly and the plan for the Eagles moving forward. He had a lot of interesting things to say. You can watch the PC here at PE.com.

Reuben Frank asked Kelly if he would be hiring a GM to come in and run the show. Lurie said that will not be happening. Instead, Lurie wants a collaborative approach. Howie Roseman will be in charge of football operations. Tom Donahoe will run the personnel department on a day-to-day basis. The new coach will obviously be the third prong in this collaborative effort to run the team.

I have mixed feelings on this. Let’s start with Roseman, a highly polarizing figure. He isn’t as bad as his harshest critics like to make him out to be. At the same time, Roseman’s track record is mixed. There are some things he’s great at. He does a great job with negotiating contracts. He has an excellent feel for the draft…where players will go and how to move up and down the draft board.

In terms of player acquisitions, things are more uneven. Roseman drafted Fletcher Cox, but also Marcus Smith. Roseman signed flops like Nnamdi Asomugha and Patrick Chung, but also made terrific additions with Evan Mathis, Connor Barwin and DeMeco Ryans.

I would say Roseman learned from some earlier mistakes and overall did a solid job in the 2012-2014 drafts. The one big exception is Smith, and it is possible a new coaching staff will be able to save his career. Right now Smith looks like a big time bust.

Donahoe is an old school personnel guy. He was a high school football coach that went to work for BLESTO and Jack Butler. He became one of BLESTO’s top scouts and that led to a job with the Steelers. He ran their football ops for almost a decade and had a lot of success. Donahoe then lost a power struggle to Bill Cowher.

Donahoe moved on to Buffalo and was the GM up there from 2001-2005. They had one 9-7 season, but never made the playoffs. Those 5 years were mostly disappointing. Donahoe’s time in Pittsburgh was marked by a lot of stability. Buffalo was all about change. Different coaches, QBs, schemes, etc. Donahoe didn’t help matters, but that environment also didn’t bring out the best in him.

Since then Donahoe has bounced between media gigs and part time roles. He got a job with the Eagles in the spring of 2012.

Lurie is very comfortable with Roseman. He also must trust Donahoe. Maybe most importantly, Lurie must feel that Roseman and Donahoe can work together. Obviously the new coach is an unknown variable.

If things go ideally, you’ll have Roseman being the big picture guy, Donahoe as the senior scout and the coach offering his perspective. They would bring three different backgrounds and three different perspectives to each situation. There wouldn’t be any knee-jerk decisions. The group would arrive at a consensus and base moves/strategy on that.

That kind of situation can work. The Cardinals have Steve Keim and Bruce Arians working together. Neither one of them had a glowing track record prior to their collaboration. They were successful, but not so much that anyone thought their partnership would create a juggernaut team.

If the Cardinals aren’t the best team in the NFC, Carolina is. They have Ron Rivera and Dave Gettleman sharing control of that team, another duo that no one feared when they were put together.

There is logic to Lurie’s thinking and this set-up. You won’t be making decisions based on one person’s whim. If a person can’t sell the other two on the wisdom of the move, it doesn’t get made. That should eliminate some bad picks/signings. Not all, to be sure, but some.

The flip side is that there one potential flaw. While there is nothing wrong with a collaborative approach per se, you do need the right blend of personalities to make it work. Donahoe has worked for Roseman, but never been anything close to a peer with him. There is no telling how the new coach will fit in. He’ll say all the right things to get hired, but the real test is how things work when real situations come up.

Can all three men really put their egos aside and work together?

Maybe. Time will tell.

Roob doesn’t like this set-up at all. He rips Howie and Donahoe in a pretty big way.

I get Roob’s thinking. He’d like the team to hire an up and coming personnel guru to run things and work with the coach. New blood. Fresh ideas.

At the same time, plenty of up and coming personnel gurus fail. Scott Pioli was awful in KC. Ryan Grigson has had mixed results in Indy. Gene Smith did some awful things for the Jaguars. Ray Farmer hasn’t been successful in Cleveland.

The Skins brought in Scot McGloughan to run personnel matters for them and he’s a key reason for their turnaround this year. He’s not young. Rick Spielman has been with the Vikings since 2006. They have 4 winning records in that span. Rather than firing him, the Vikings have kept him around, thinking that he can be part of the solution. Right now that looks like a good decision since they’re 10-5 and have some quality young talent.

There really is no magic formula to building a winner. The key is to have the right combination of people. We need to find out who the new coach is before we can really know if the Eagles set-up can work.

There is one angle to this that is interesting. Roseman was kicked to the curb for a year. I’m sure that’s a feeling he doesn’t want to experience again. Donahoe has been out of power for a while. He’ll do whatever he can to make this work. The new coach will also want to make this work, so that he can win games and succeed. Maybe Lurie is more shrewd than we realize.

Roseman didn’t get his old job back. He got part of his old job. As much as Lurie likes him, I think Lurie wants to stay away from one person having too much power. Roseman worked well with Andy and Chip at times so he can be part of a collaborative process.

Donahoe isn’t a big picture guy. He is a good talent evaluator. You want him watching tape, visiting schools and grading players. You don’t want him running the whole organization.

This can work if the Eagles find the right coach. Jeff Lurie wants a leader and a communicator. Those skills will help the coach in his dealings with Roseman and Donahoe as well as the team itself. The coach needs to have the vision for the team. It is up to the personnel department to help that vision come to life.

I think the ideal set-up is a situation where you have a coach and a personnel guy who can work as partners. Pete Carroll technically has final say in Seattle, but he and John Schneider work together to make moves.

I certainly don’t hate this like Roob does, but I also don’t love it. Knowing who the coach is will help me to get more comfortable with it (or not if they make some bizarre hire).

*****

I’m getting a lot of questions about Matt Patricia as a coach candidate. He currently runs the defense in New England and has done a terrific job with that group.

He isn’t on my short list for now, but will be on a longer list that I put together. The knocks on him…never been a HC and he’s only worked for the Pats. I like a lot of what he’s done, but guys who have never been away from Bill Belichick scare me. He’s never had to deal with a losing season or having crappy players.

As I do more research, maybe I’ll fall in love with him. It helps to learn about a guy’s philosophies and some specific incidents in his background. He’s definitely worth taking a long look at.

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