EAGLEMANIACAL.com

TOM Gamble being fired as the Eagles VP of Player Personnel may hurt the Eagles for decades. Yes Eagles fans you read that right, and no I’m not exaggerating. I did in fact say decades.

Prior to our December collapse I said that you could bank on Chip Kelly getting an extension. However with the Gamble firing, reports are all over the map about whether or not the Eagles will want to keep Kelly after this season; and whether or not he’d even want to stay.

Scour the internet. You won’t find any mention of the Eagles extending Kelly beyond 2015. Or of even making an offer. This is something to be concerned about. With no unified vision in the Front Office, our next Draft could be a bigger mess than our last one. As horrible as that would be, there are ripples from this firing (so far) that go further than the Spring of 2015.

It’s not the firing of Tom Gamble that’s an issue, as much as it’s all the speculation that surrounds it, and that is being allowed to keep surrounding it. I can’t say how it looks to those inside the situation, but from out here, it looks like Jeffrey Lurie is a king with little control over his castle or direction for how it should be governed.

Over the years we’ve bleed some pretty solid Front Office talent: Tom Heckert, Joe Banner, Tom Gamble, Ryan Grigson…just too many self-inflicted wounds.

When the Eagles fired our All-time winningest coach in Andy Reid, no stream of candidates to replace him knocked on Lurie’s door for the job. In fact if you recall, it was getting to be sort of embarrassing how no one seemed to want the job. Even Kelly said ‘No’ before he said ‘Yes’. 

Now imagine we let Kelly walk after this season. Or worse if he decides not to re-sign.

If you were a head coach looking for a job, would you want to work for a team that chews up winning coaches, and bleeds top evaluators of football talent without  so much as a decent explanation? We could end up with the same problem that Oakland has had with hiring coaches. Or Buffalo. Or Detroit.

The perception of Jeff Lurie being someone you don’t want to work for could haunt this franchise for as long as he owns it. Good coaches attract good players. Sometimes for less money than they’d sign for elsewhere. That impacts who we can get and possibly make room to keep, on an annual basis. Stretched out over decades that’s high damage. And Lurie will likely own the team for decades.

That decades-long problem could be stemmed right now, and needn’t be a problem at all. Just tell everyone why Gamble was fired. Don’t make it a guessing game. Don’t make it a thing where it can be speculated that you can be fired over a “power struggle” or any other popularity contest. If there was a legitimate reason for firing Gamble, it needs to be known. Not just by fans and the media, but by any professional who may wish to manage, coach or play for the Eagles, as well as any player or coach or executive the Eagles may now or someday covet. Otherwise we may end up as a place that talent avoids instead of runs to.