The Philadelphia Eagles took the NFL world by surprise today when they announced that they would be parting ways with Vice President of Player Personnel, Tom Gamble.
Gamble, along with GM Howie Roseman and head coach Chip Kelly, was supposed to have comprised a trifecta of highly skilled talent evaluators and football executives who would lead the Eagles back into the conversation for the league's truly elite teams.
Now, it seems that Roseman and Kelly are all the organization has left.
"We thank Tom for his service over the past two seasons and wish him and his family the best as they move forward. I appreciate all Tom has done for our scouting department and our team," Roseman said in a press release today on the team's website.
Gamble, a 25-year veteran of the scouting community, was brought on board in 2013 after eight seasons with the San Francisco 49ers.
There were reports going back to November that the relationship between Kelly and Roseman had "cooled" and Gamble, who was very close with Kelly - the two often took scouting trips together - may have gotten caught in the middle.
"I think Tom does an outstanding job," Kelly said last week, according to Sheil Kapadia of PhillyMag.com. "And if he has the opportunity to [be a GM somewhere else], then I would support him in anything. And if I can give him any help in that situation I would. But he's a heck of a football guy."
Shortly thereafter, Kelly said that Roseman, who has spent the last five years as a GM working to establish himself as a more of a "football guy" and less of a business man, "does an outstanding job" with his management of the salary cap.
"That's not my strength," Kelly said, according to Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I understand it, but that's really what [Roseman] does an outstanding job of. I think since I've been here, one of the attractive things about this job, there are not cap issues. You don't look at it and go, 'Oh, my God. We're going to have to cut 12 players because we're going to be $40 million over the cap.'
"He does an outstanding job of that. That's his training."
It takes a bit of reading between the lines there, but it seems that Kelly values Roseman more for his cap skills than his personnel decisions, while Roseman, who directed the 2012 draft that netted the team Fletcher Cox, Mychal Kendricks, Nick Foles, Brandon Boykin, Vinny Curry and Bryce Brown, would seem to prefer being a vocal part of the player-acquisition phase of team-building.
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie told the media during his season post-mortem press conference that it wasn't ever a question in his mind if Roseman would return as GM.
With Gamble gone, it seems that Roseman's power may have actually increased. It remains to be seen what effect that has on his (and the team's) relationship with Kelly, along with their drafting, trading and free agency future.
