Now that the dust has settled on a dizzying day of terminations and quotes and rumors and reports, it’s time to search through the wreckage of quotes to look for hints at what may have happened in the past -- and what could happen next.
In Philadelphia, comments from owner Jeffrey Lurie suggest that the termination of coach Andy Reid was preceded by a determination that G.M. Howie Roseman would or should have more authority over the construction of the roster.
Officially, Reid has had “final say” since the day he was hired, in 1999. Unofficially, Roseman acquired more influence in 2012, based on Lurie’s explanation regarding the manner in which Roseman’s role in a 1-11 collapse over the final three fourths of the season will be assessed.
“I keep voluminous notes on talent evaluation on not just who we draft, but who is valued in each draft by each person that is in the organization that’s working here,” Lurie said. “I came to the conclusion that the person that was providing by far the best talent evaluation in the building was Howie Roseman. I decided to streamline the whole decision-making process for the 2012 draft and offseason and that’s the first draft and offseason I hold Howie completely accountable for. The mistakes that were made in the 2011 draft have little or nothing to do with Howie’s evaluations and I think it was important for me to own up to the mistakes that were made and understand where they were coming from and it was awfully clear.”
In other words, Roseman was trying to get Reid to make other decisions in past years, and hindsight was proving Roseman to be right. And so if Roseman is accountable only for the 2012 draft, it means that Reid, was wisely deferring to the guy whom hindsight was proving to be right.
It doesn’t mean that Roseman will now be in charge of the team. “The way I’ve operated is the way I’m going to operate and that is the new head coach, whoever that is, will report directly to me and that’s the only structure that I insist upon,” Lurie said. “As we go through the process, we have the flexibility to finalize personnel decisions and everything else that goes with the coach-G.M. relationship. But my goal is to have the coach and the General Manager work hand-in-hand and work collaboratively and work in a very, very terrific way together.”
In other words, the next coach of the Eagles may not be running the show the way Reid was for 14 years. Or, possibly, for the first 13 of them.