By all accounts, Jeffrey Lurie is a smart man and a successful man. Which makes his decisions on the front office front all the more curious. You look at the Eagles and wonder what exactly they’re doing in terms of management and direction, but that’s an old question and we’ve been waiting for a good answer for years now.



The last half decade or so has been truly bizarre. Lurie bounced Joe Banner and installed Howie Roseman as the team’s general manager following the 2009 season. That was really quite something. Lurie moved his buddy out to make room for a guy who was groomed in-house as a pet project. Roseman went from intern to salary cap specialist to director of football administration to vice president of player personnel to general manager. That’s quite the career arc.



Roseman reigned until he helped Lurie hire Chip Kelly, then Kelly orchestrated a coup and took control of the NovaCare palace. Lurie let it happen. Roseman was exiled to the other side of the building, but not before he got a salary bump and yet another job description: executive vice president of football operations. The guy has titles on titles on titles.



Kelly was in power for less than a year when Lurie hit the eject button and jettisoned him to the unemployment line. In the process, Roseman – who was rattling around the NovaCare Complex, unseen – re-emerged. But as what, exactly? The Roseman who was literally and figuratively cornered by the media last week didn’t seem like a confident executive who just got the G.M. gig back. He spoke softly and took responsibility for all the missteps on his watch, up to and including Marcus Smith. He was either humbled by his temporary timeout or beaten by it. Or both.



If Roseman is once again the grand personnel poobah, Lurie isn’t saying. The owner isn’t saying much of anything about the front office structure, except that the Eagles are looking for a “player personnel head.” Add that to the long list of front office titles. No one is sure whether the player personnel head will report to the executive vice president of football operations (Roseman) or the other way around. And who reports to the senior director of player personnel (Tom Donahoe)? And who does the senior director of player personnel report to? It’s a circus, alright, but no one can identify the ring master.



That’s a problem, because the Eagles are facing some major decisions this offseason. How do they make a call on Sam Bradford and how much to pay him or not pay him when they haven’t identified who’s really in charge of mapping out the present, let alone the future? Meanwhile, the nebulous front office decision making cabal signed Zach Ertz to a five-year extension. Hard to argue with that, though it makes you wonder why they’re looking for a new personnel head while simultaneously doing the work that a new personnel head would ostensibly undertake.



Lurie raised his hand the other day and said he’s ultimately in charge, but he’s not making the gritty, necessary football decisions. He’s the guy who picks the guy – or guys – to do that. But Lurie has reshuffled the front office deck so often that it’s hard to trust him to deal the Eagles a good hand this time.



Last week at Doug Pederson’s press conference, the question of organizational hierarchy was rightly broached. The exchange between Lurie and Inquirer reporter Jeff McLane was fascinating and worrisome and well worth revisiting. Lurie dodged questions about whether the new player personnel head will report to Roseman or whether the reverse will be true. Lurie said he wouldn’t reveal any details until after the search because “it would impact our ability to find the right people that we have designated in the search.” He also refused to elaborate on whether the new hire will have final say over the rapidly approaching and important draft -- a draft, it should be noted, where the Eagles will be without a second-round pick because the current head coach of the San Francisco 49ers traded it away last offseason with Lurie’s consent.



After lots of questions by McLane and lots of evasion by Lurie, the volley ended with exasperation on both sides.

McLane: "I just think the fans really want to know exactly who is making decisions for the team in the draft room when you guys are on the clock and when you guys are making decisions about free agency. "



Lurie: "Right. It doesn't quite ever work out that way, it's very collaborative. But trust me, as soon as we finish this search, accountability will be 100 percent."



It was all so strange. What’s the upside to stonewalling on whether the new guy will report to Roseman or vice versa? And insisting that the new guy will be held “100 percent” accountable by the owner is fine on its face, until it makes you wonder why it even had to be said. Did he previously hold employees to something south of 100 percent accountability?



And on it goes. At Lurie’s insistence, the Eagles are remodeling their front office. Again. It’s happened so many times recently that the floor plan is starting to feel like something sketched by MC Escher.