January 19, 2016
Mel Evans/AP
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie speaks to the media as new head coach Doug Pederson looks on.
On the day Doug Pederson was introduced as the 23rd head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, owner Jeffrey Lurie revealed a bit of news that was vastly more interesting than anything the former Chiefs offensive coordinator had to say.
The Eagles will begin searching for a new head of player personnel, a job that most recently belonged to Ed Marynowitz until he was fired along with Chip Kelly in late December.
"We're about to do a search for a player personnel head," Lurie said when asked why he preferred a collaborative approach to personnel over having a traditional GM. "That will really be an important search that we are all participating in, starting this week.
"Given that search and given the competitive nature of that search, what I'd like to do is really talk to you more about structure and the exact nature of those once the search is over, because I don't want to sort of telegraph anything we're doing."
Following the dismissal of Kelly and Marynowitz, Tom Donahue was promoted to Senior Director of Player Personnel and was named as part of the three-person team -- along with Lurie and Vice President of Football Operations Howie Roseman -- leading the coaching search that officially concluded Tuesday afternoon at the NovaCare Complex in South Philly. And during this time, Donahue was essentially leading the personnel department.
But after Lurie's comments during Pederson's introductory news conference, it appears Donahue's days in charge will be short lived although there's no reason to believe he won't stay with team once the search is concluded.
Like many things about how this "collaborative" front office will work, that too remains a mystery. Lurie wasn't kidding when he said he didn't wan't reveal anything about this new power structure until after they made a hire.
Here's his exchange with Jeff McLane of The Inquirer when pressed on the subject of how much power this person will actually have:
Q. Will the new player personnel head report to Howie Roseman?
LURIE: All questions of structure will be determined after the search is complete.
Q. So you haven't made a decision on that yet?
LURIE: Can't reveal any decision on that because it would impact our ability to find the right people that we have designated in the search.
Q. In December, you had said that you gave Chip Kelly full control of personnel because you wanted to hold him accountable. How will you hold Howie Roseman accountable?
LURIE: No matter what structure and ability to have a great personnel head and player personnel department, accountability will be the No. 1 feature and that goes for everybody. It goes for Howie, it goes for the player personnel head and it goes for the head coach. My No. 1 priority going into this offseason is accountability.
Q. So how will you measure it?
LURIE: Will be completely accountable.
Q. By who?
LURIE: By myself.
Q. By the personnel decisions made in the offseason?
LURIE: By everything, managing everything. In terms of all of his responsibilities as they are revealed after the search, he'll be responsible.
Q. Will he have final say on the draft?
LURIE: You're going into questions that we will answer after the search.
Q. 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.
As for who has final say over the 53-man and 90-man rosters, a power that was pried away from Roseman and given to Kelly a year ago -- you guessed it -- "collaborative."
"I know this, it's a collaborative effort," Pederson said when asked who will have control of the roster. "It's Howie, myself, Tom Donahoe, there's a bunch of people but that's the nucleus of the group and we’ll make the best decisions for the football team."
Pederson was then asked who will break the tie, to which Lurie raised his hand and drew a few laughs.
But when it comes down to it, this next hire could be just as important as the guy they introduced today. If they don't play nice together -- and include Roseman in their fun -- we could be right back where we are now in another few years.
More to come as the "collaborative" search gets underway...
Follow Matt on Twitter: @matt_mullin
