Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly is down at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama right now, ostensibly to watch the best seniors in college football weigh-in, compete and get checked out medically.
But the Senior Bowl, the NFL's unofficial job market, where the unemployed and those seeking a promotion or new opportunity at a new NFL destination go to ply their wares, is also where Kelly is expected to sniff out and interview potential candidates for the Eagles' recently vacated GM position.
Kelly has said that he's not just looking for any warm body - he's trying to "find the right guy" and will make a hire when that person has been unearthed. Complicating matters is that the position, though it carries the GM title, does not, as the Eagles have admitted, carry the full weight and final say of a normal NFL GM.
With a handful of candidates already either being blocked from or choosing not to interview for the position, speculation has begun to build that this lack of power is leaving parties around the league mostly uninterested.
While that may be the case, there could be other factors keeping the unexpected vacancy, vacant.
"Industry sources I've spoken to down here have the same questions: Is Kelly staying for the long haul, and is Roseman's role truly diminished?," reports Geoff Mosher of CSN Philly.
There is league-wide worry that Roseman's promotion - he was stripped of his GM title and personnel decision-making power, but given a raise and the title of executive vice president of football operations - will cause a strain in the front office between Roseman and Kelly and could eventually lead to Kelly's departure.
"There is concern the strange dynamic between Kelly and Roseman could force Kelly back to college sooner than later and that Roseman would then reassume the total power he held just three weeks ago. Roseman's league-wide reputation is nowhere near as favorable as Kelly's is."
The chance to work with Kelly, per Mosher, is viewed as "an opportunity that's hard to pass up," by those he's spoken to around the league.
But with Roseman's lingering presence - who many view in a negative light - there is obviously a concern that things in the Philadelphia front office won't work in the long-term and Kelly will look for a return to the college coaching ranks.
Kelly said after this season that he relishes the chance to go against the best of the best on a weekly basis in the NFL, per Phil Sheridan of ESPN, but he also acknowledged the monumental difficulty of trying to find and sustain success in the league.
"I love it. ... The chance to compete and to play at this level is extremely intriguing to me because every single game -- no matter who you play, when you play it, where you play it -- you have no idea if you're going to win or lose. I think that's a tough deal when you really look at it."
It is a tough, taxing deal, possibly made even tougher and more taxing if the people surrounding you are keeping your from achieving to your fullest potential.
