By Michael Donovan
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie broke his six-month public silence yesterday in an impromptu back and forth with the media, and here are the excerpts:
On Sam Bradford being a franchise quarterback:
“It’s what you hope for. The scarcest resource in the league is having a franchise quarterback. I think I said in March that the greatest structure an organization can have is not who’s doing what, but it’s having a Hall of Fame franchise quarterback. That’s the greatest structure, that will rationalize anything else that goes on. That’s what you always hope for, that’s why the upside gamble with Sam. We thought that potential is there. It certainly is there. I hope it evolves and he can stay healthy and get better and better.”
Communication between Chip Kelly and Howie Boy Roseman:
“It’s been great. You make a significant change and you never know, but the eight months have been fantastic. Ed (Marynowitz has) been terrific, Howie’s been outstanding doing what he does and Chip’s been great leading the way. It’s been that seamless kind of overlay of player personnel and coaching we hope for. That’s what it takes to build a roster, to have that overlay and to reflect what the vision is and it’s been going great.”
What responsibilities does Roseman have?
“Howie does a lot. He does a lot. He’s in charge of all the salary cap management, the negotiations, the strategic initiatives, and he’s also very responsible for a lot of the decisions we made in terms of choosing head coach, player personnel. He’s a trusted advisor.”
Former team president Joe Banner picked Eagles to win the Super Bowl. Thoughts?
“When you play very well in the preseason you’re probably going to expect that. But it doesn’t mean much at all. I don’t know, teams go 0-4 in the preseason and people think they’re gonna miss the playoffs and then they go 12-4. And vice versa. It’s just noise to me, it doesn’t really impact anything. As someone said, I’m on to Atlanta. That’s about it. And by the way, that’s a tough one because Matt Ryan is one of the best young quarterbacks in the league, 7-0 in opening games, unbelievable home record there. So that’s a tough first one.”
What’s your vibe of the team?
“Just very positive. It’s a very hard-working group. I think it’s really great that we’re able to integrate so many key players. Because that you don’t know. You’re always going to have 12 to 16 new players but we have them in certain really key positions and they’re major players in the league. How do you integrate them right away? What’s the chemistry going to be? It’s been superb. With Chip getting so many repetitions in the summer and in the OTAs really has made that much easier for us than it would be for maybe some other teams. That’s been really gratifying. I think it’s a great group of people. But we’re 0-0, we’re tied for last, tied for first. And it’s all about doing well each game.”
What’s the evaluation of Kelly this year?
“We just go game-to-game. He’s an excellent coach in this league and there’s no question about it. He doesn’t need to prove anything. He’s a builder of a roster, culture-builder, he’s everything that I think we all thought when we all interviewed him and more. We had a lot of discussions, myself, Howie, Ed (Marynowtiz), Don (Smolenski) in the interview process. It was a pretty grueling process. Interviews were eight hours and sometimes more in follow-ups after that. It wasn’t about just hiring X’s and O’s. We knew Chip was very dynamic and very smart, but we wanted someone who could see the big picture at all times and help build a roster, help build a culture the way we wanted, who had a vision and wasn’t afraid to make unpopular decisions. That’s all come to fruition. Now we’ve just got to try to remain somewhat healthy and play very well.”
