After a week in which reports surfaced that Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman and coach Chip Kelly were not seeing eye to eye, the team has tried to clarify the roles of both men.
In a Friday evening statement, the Eagles announced that Roseman has been elevated to Executive Vice President of Football Operations. The Eagles also said Kelly will oversee the player personnel department and lead efforts to hire a new personnel executive.
“We are a good football team and we believe these steps will help make us a great team,” Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said in a statement.
It’s unclear exactly what Roseman’s responsibilities as Executive Vice President of Football Operations will be, but the fact that Kelly has been given control of the player personnel department seems to indicate that Kelly is going to be doing what he wants to do, and that’s running the football team. Roseman is getting a nice new title that surely comes with a corner office and a good parking space, but the early indications are that to the extent that there are disagreements between Kelly and Roseman, it will be Kelly who gets final say on anything that affects the team on the field.
So if this was a power struggle with a winner and a loser, Kelly would have to be viewed as the winner. But that’s contingent on Kelly’s team winning on the field. If the Eagles falter with Kelly calling the shots, Executive V.P. Roseman will be helping Lurie find a new coach.