Riddick Offers Strong Takes on Roseman, Marynowitz

Louis Riddick believes that the Eagles front office has been “cleaned up” with the recent restructuring and that the proper people are now in their proper roles.

The former Eagles director of pro personnel turned ESPN analyst sounded bullish on the Chip Kelly-Ed Marynowitz pairing and was candid in his remarks about Howie Roseman, his former boss.

Appearing on the Jon and Sean show on 97.5 The Fanatic, Riddick was asked about the reports of a toxic environment inside the NovaCare and how much Roseman might have been responsible for that.

“Leadership to me is all about credibility and being trustworthy, competency and being someone who people respect as far as your skills are concerned, and then the kind of impact you have on others and the kind of impact you have on the work environment as a whole,” he said. “That’s what leadership is. When you’re in a position of leadership, that’s what you have to bring to the table. When you start to hear news of it being a toxic environment, obviously you are not fulfilling those three criteria as far as I’m concerned from a leadership perspective.  So you can draw whatever conclusion you want from there.”

While Riddick isn’t much of a Roseman fan, he spoke well of Marynowitz and his ability to identify players — and more specifically, players that fit what the head coach is looking for. He’s not buying that the 30-year-old Marynowitz will simply be a “yes” man, and believes Kelly will listen to his new personnel exec.

“I don’t think Chip is so stubborn as to say, ‘I don’t care what anybody says. I’m just going to do what I want to do.’ That’s not the impression I get from him from the people I talk to — at all. He’ll listen to anybody, but you just better bring it. You better know what the heck you’re talking about. And he better respect what you’re saying. If he doesn’t…he’s not going to listen to you, nor should he. I think as long as he respects you and respects your skills, it will work out just fine. And I think he respects Ed.”

The most important thing, Riddick says, is that the key decision-makers are pulling in the same direction.

“These changes obviously were necessary so from from that standpoint, things should be better. And I wouldn’t have all the concerns that I heard people might be having about a pairing of Chip with Ed because of their relative inexperience in the NFL. These are quality football people. They’ll get the job done.”

Bucs Eyeing Mariota?

Riddick went on to say that this offense would be “lethal” if the Eagles could swing a trade for Marcus Mariota, but said he doesn’t know if it’s possible.

The probability of Kelly landing Mariota hinges in part on whether he drops in the draft. The latest from Adam Schefter suggests he may very well be scooped up by Tampa with the first pick.

Many NFL executives and scouts believe Florida State’s Jameis Winston is the best pro quarterback prospect in this draft. Of course, teams still have three months to dig into Winston’s past and see what they can uncover. Plus, there’s a real sense that Tampa Bay has its sights set on Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. So for now, Mariota shapes up as the most likely No. 1 pick. But there are still three months of combine work, pro days, interviews and investigations to go.