Kelly On Roseman, Davis And Gamble

During his season-ending press conference today, Chip Kelly was asked to describe his working relationship with GM Howie Roseman.

“Good,” he said, offering a one-word answer.

How has the relationship/your influence changed in two years?

“I don’t think anything’s changed,” Kelly said.

The Eagles have officially entered the time of year where the coaching staff and front office have to work closely together. They have to come up with a plan for players currently on the roster. They have to scout and prioritize free agents. And they have to begin draft prep.

There will be questions about restructuring current players’ contracts as well. Kelly was asked if he’s involved in any of the contract work.

“No,” Kelly said. “For me to stand there and say paragraph five of his contract should mean this instead of that, that’s not my forte, not my strength. So I’m not gonna delve into that and say I think his signing bonus should be this, let’s retroactive that and only make it for injury in the third and fourth year. That’s not my strength. I understand it. But that’s really… [Roseman] does an outstanding job with that. One of the attractive parts about this job is there’s not cap issues. You don’t look at it and go, ‘Oh my God. We’re gonna have to cut 12 players because we’re gonna be $40 million over the cap.’ I think he does an outstanding job with that. That’s his strength.”

Of course, it’s worth noting that as the GM, Roseman is involved with much more than cap/contracts, such as scouting, personnel evaluation, the draft, etc. Kelly did not say one way or another how he feels about Roseman in those areas.

WHAT ABOUT GAMBLE?

Meanwhile, the Eagles seem like they’re prepared to potentially lose vice president of player personnel Tom Gamble. Gamble has interviewed for GM openings in the past and could get more looks in the coming weeks.

“It’s the same thing that when you look at assistant coaches,” Kelly said. “As I said earlier, I think we’ve got an outstanding group of assistant coaches. But if they have an opportunity to move on to what they consider is a better opportunity for them, then you’re never gonna stand in their way. If people have goals and aspirations to continue to move up to the ladder, so to speak… some guys are content in their roles, but other guys want to see what the next step is or see what the next seed is or put the next hat on.

“I think Tom does an outstanding job, and if he has the opportunity to do that, then I would support him in anything. And if I could give him any help in that situation, I would. But he’s a heck of a football guy.”

DAVIS STAYING PUT

Defensive coordinator Billy Davis came under fire during the Eagles’ three-week losing streak that sank their season, but Kelly dumped cold water on the idea that Davis might not return.

“I thought Billy did a really good job,” he said. “I thought our defense improved in a lot of categories. There’s still things we need to clean up. We were really good in 2013 in x-plays. We weren’t good at all in 2014 in x-plays. I thought our run defense got better. I thought our transition of coming in here playing a wide-nine 4-3 defense to a 3-4 defense over the last two years, I think Billy’s done a really good job.”

Kelly did not sound like he would be making any real changes to the coaching staff, although it’s possible guys could leave for other opportunities/promotions.