Andrew Brandt Comments on Eagles New Front Office Structure

In the City of Brotherly love, there always seems to be a story surrounding the Eagles. In season, middle of season, off season - it's always something for one of the few teams left in the NFL that has never won a Super Bowl.

On Wednesday Jan. 31 Tom Gamble and the Eagles organization "parted ways", as it was described,  two days later head coach Chip Kelly was promoted, Howie Roseman was "promoted" and that story that always surrounds the Eagles began.

So what does all of this mean now?

Appearing on the Sports Bash on 97.3 ESPN,  Andrew Brandt a former front office consultant with the Eagles and Former Director of Player Finance in the NFL was asked about the roles of Kelly, Roseman and the new guy Ed Marynowitz.

"The way I look at it was, Chip Kelly and Howie Roseman are valuable members for Jeff Lurie and he didn't want to lose either" Former Eagles front office executive and current NFL business analyst Andrew Brandt to me on the Sports Bash last week.  "Marynowitz will now be the eyes and ears for Kelly through the season and present after the season what he sees as valuable prospects both college and pro to Kelly - yes, there are a lot of potential pitfalls with this scenario but that's the way we are."

There were a lot of names that the Eagles interviewed or had their eye on for this front office position, but the Eagles ended up hiring from within.  Could that be because this wasn't an attractive place to come work with Kelly so firmly planted in charge?

"It depends on what people had," Brandt explained. "If you had the opportunity to be a traditional general manager and to not have somebody above you, probably not."

So what about Roseman - what does this mean for him moving forward?  Does he still have any say when it comes to player personnel?

"No he doesn't," Brandt said about Roseman's new role.  "It's pretty clear that he doesn't."

Brandt knows the Eagles and Roseman well, he admitted during the interview that he was friends with Roseman and explained that he was brought into the Eagles organization as a consultant when Joe Banner moved Roseman from cap/financial side to player personnel side - Brandt essentially replaced Roseman for a short time.

"Now here we are four years later and he's moving back," Brandt said.  "I think that's the reality, he's moving back from where he was with a bigger title and more security."

But like him or not Eagles fans, Roseman is going to be in Philly, he's not going anywhere, not going to be a GM anywhere - he is part of this.  What about all the rumors that Chip Kelly and Roseman don't get along, how can this work if that's the case?

"I think it's a little lazy to say that," Brandt said.  "Not there are probably things between them in terms of functioning positions that they kind of overlapped and Chip said it's not the best system to have it that way.  In the end, Jeff Lurie did what he had to do he kept an extremely valuable member with institutional knowledge, who's been with the team 16 years in the role and he took care of what I call the special sauce of the Philadelphia Eagles - Chip Kelly."

So what about Marynowitz?  Was he handed this job?  Is it too much too soon? Is he ready?  Or will this start a new trend of younger minds and fresh ideas in NFL front offices.

"That's a good question," Brandt acknowledged. "I worked with a guy in Green Bay who has already been contacted by teams and he's staying in Green Bay, Eliot Wolf, he's 32. There are some hot rising stars around the league, Eliot is seen as one and Ed is seen as one.  People sense these guys are going up the ladder."

In terms of too much too soon?

"We just have to wait and see, I go back to Howie," Brandt stated. "I don't think anyone can make the argument that he has done a bad job, you look at some of these players brought in, Fletcher Cox, Mychal Kendricks, some of the draft picks this year, or Connor Barwin or Darren Sproles, Malcolm Jenkins - these are good signings.  I think it's just maybe a difference of structure and how Chip want's to handle it.

"There will be times, where you've got to go to Howie - to think these guys are going to operate on two separate sides of the building and never meeting - that's not going to happen."

Over the last few weeks, there have been reports that agents didn't know who to call and talk to in the Eagles front office Roseman or Kelly - will that guy now be Marynowitz?

"I think Ed's the guy to talk to if you have a free agent or draft pick you want to talk about and all that, but Howie is the guy signing him," Brandt explains. "So it does need to work itself all out."

I don't have hard answers, this needs to work itself out, now we have another piece of the puzzle.  In simplest terms Ed might be the go-between, between Chip and Howie but you just hope thats not the level of communication they have - you hope they don't don't need a go-between, that they talk."

Of course there has already been some reports that with Marynowitz being a Kelly guy, that he and Roseman don't have the best relationship.

"One thing I will say about Ed is, I say people say they have a high opinion of him, one of those people is Howie Roseman, he has spoken very highly of him." Brandt stated.