Tom Gamble and the credibility of Howie Roseman

In life, there are people that like you, people that get splinters and those that don’t like you. Not everyone will like you 100% of time. We’ve seen some unflattering pieces of writing about Howie Roseman in the past 18 months or so. By all means there are mistakes and issues that everyone of us make and criticism should be made. We don’t want a cult of personality surrounding the GM. Some of the stuff written has been particularly vindictive. Jason La Canfora in particular undermined Roseman in a particularly nasty manner.

I wasn’t the only person to suspect someone who had left the Eagles as the source behind that article. That person allegedly known for being particularly obsessed with press coverage that wasn’t 100% positive about him or the Eagles. I can understand it, but there are times when silence is the most appropriate response.

So, the media’s perception has been that Roseman is a lawyer playing GM who has no credibility with his peers . He doesn’t know what he is doing. He’s Jeff’s favourite son who doesn’t deserve to be there.

Taking a step back, Moneyball has been an ever influential book/film in Sports. If you read the book you realise that individuals like Billy Beane and the Baseball Almanac dude set forth a change in sports. It brought stats and models into the mainstream to the point where even small football clubs are doing it. Traditional roles were no longer being taken by traditional people with an ingrained background. Instinct was partly pushed aside for reason. You weren’t the player transitioning to the coach to the GM. Other industries were pushing in.

The assumption is that because you’ve never played the game, you don’t understand it instinctively. You can’t scout a player, you can’t do anything but work the cap. You count the beans. Lots of lifers are rightly nervous of these young guys coming into their jobs and doing a better job of it, putting them out of work.

People like Howie Roseman and Theo Epstein are getting the big jobs. But at times the credibility needs supplementing so the perception holds of the football side being authentic.

The Eagles have history with the Gamble family. Tom’s father Harry was President of the Eagles in the 90s so Tom must have grown up in the area. Ryan Grigson left to go to the Colts and position was left unfilled. While we promoted some guys and hired Rick Mueller and Tom Donohoe, there was still tittle tattle about Roseman’s credentials. He wasn’t liked by the Patriots.

What does Gamble bring? He interviewed for various GM positions in the off season, notably rejecting the Jets. I can see one large reason why. This hire is undoubtedly a parallel move, moving from a franchise who were in the Super Bowl to one who ended the season in the toilet bowl. Sometimes in life you need to move sideways to move upwards.

Plus if your family is from the Philly area, you can have a home life and a put another success story on your CV.

The most curious thing is why the Niners let him go now. The organisation must respect him to let him walk before the draft. Or believe they can get on without him and he isn’t that special. What Tom brings is a great background in Pro Personnel.

The FO is now well balanced, and the coaching staff is set. We need to see what else happens on the player personnel front when FA starts.

Jenkins and Patterson are now gone. One is a little surprising, the other is not surprising. Patterson in particular was a long standing player who served the club well. He put weight on when asked, lost it when asked, did his job without complaint and suffered an untimely injury that from midseason indicated he was likely on the way out. Heck of a servant. Jenkins became increasingly marginal and while he started well, he disappeared later in the season. Cox is a rising player who if all goes well will put them both in the shade. Our DT depth is low. We have Dixon, Thornton, Cox and Cameron. None of which are a NT. Cameron sounds like a decent fellow though.

Dion Jordan did well at the combine, but some of those OL run quicker 40s than some WRs. I can see some of those boys rising quickly up draft boards.

Time will tell.

2 Comments

1. 

   Matty

   February 28, 2013 at 11:06 pm

   Not to bothered about the Jenkins/Patterson hit, we;ve got some great rookies in place, although NT is very weak…

   Reply
   • 

     Freakin Eagle

     March 1, 2013 at 2:13 pm

     I still have a programme from Patterson’s rookie season (I saw a Mike McMahon victory!) and it made me realise how long ago it was.

     Fletcher Cox will be good in whatever system is used, I’m just not sure about Thornton or Dixon. Cameron is an unknown at this point and Thornton is a nice upcoming player, but I want a vet.

     That vet is rumoured to be Ricky Jean-Francois from the Niners. A mid level FA who has relatively litte wear on the tires. Watch out for McCain the CB from the Texans as well.

     Reply