Now the Eagles’ front office can’t even stop fighting when the cameras are on

Strife happens during the draft. But with the Eagles, it’s a red flag.

The NFL Draft is impossible. Let’s start there. Nobody gets it all the way right all of the time. Or even somewhat right a lot of the time. It’s really hard, and that means that when decisions makers debate picks there absolutely should be tension and second-guessing. If your draft room doesn’t have that, you aren’t doing it right.

With all that out of the way, this exchange after the Philadelphia Eagles made the 73rd pick of the 2021 NFL Draft is … clearly something more. That’s because the Eagles are a mess (more on that later) and this visual — when these people *know* the cameras might be on — is so damning.

Eagles GM Howie Roseman is seen arguing with Tom Donahoe, the team’s senior director of player personnel and former GM of both the Bills and Steelers. He’s been around the league a long time, and was elevated into his current position in the wake of the team firing Chip Kelly, which coincided with Roseman re-ascending to power after Kelly had previously wrestled control of roster decisions and moved him aside.

The feeling then was that Roseman need the help of somebody like Donahoe, and that someone like Donahoe should have a say. And it sure seems like he didn’t feel like he was heard on this particular decision. Roseman basically admitted as much:

Fun. Sure.

If this were, say, the Tampa Bay draft room, maybe you could call an argument like this fun. Or New England. New Orleans. San Francisco. One of those places where things have gone mostly smoothly.

But the Philadelphia Eagles have probably the most scrutinized front office in the league this offseason, thanks to reporting from The Athletic (yes, the Texans are more of a mess but we’ve known that for a long time.) In their piece headlined “Paranoia, mismanagement and office politics: Inside the Eagles’ downfall under Jeffrey Lurie, Howie Roseman” reporters Sheil Kapadia, Bo Wulf and Zach Berman detail well … it’s all there in the headline, honestly.

The piece — built on interviews with staffers throughout the organization — shows an over-involved owner, Jeffrey Lurie, teaming with the power-hungry Roseman to create a tense atmosphere where micromanagement and favoritism create an atmosphere of distrust.

Part of the issue involved the use of analytics when it comes to drafting, it turns out. The football traditionalists in the building didn’t rust Alec Halaby, the vice president of football operations and strategy, and weren’t clear on how much influence he had:

Frustration mounted on the scouting side as well. Rather than being presented with reasons for where certain draft-eligible players were rated by Halaby’s department, the scouting staff would simply be given a list of players the analytics department liked. According to one source, a top personnel official was upset to find out Halaby was grading players on his own despite never having been trained in the scouting department’s methodology.

All of which explains why:

  1. The Eagles should have been the most image-conscious group in the league at this draft, eager to appear aligned after ever pick so as to scuttle any suggestion that The Athletic’s reporting did, in fact, unearth a rotten culture, and
  2. It’s most certainly meaningful that Donohoe felt he needed that moment to express his displeasure over not getting the guy he wanted, which has probably happened to him many times but clearly rankled in a different way this time around.

Philadelphia hired Nick Sirianni, a little-known coordinator who interviewed for zero other head coaching jobs this season, and the clear assumption was that Lurie and Roseman wanted a coach who wouldn’t push back.

Which brings us back to Donahoe. He knows the difference between being heard but overruled and being politely ignored by the guys who’ve already decided they’re the smartest in the room.

Which one did that look like?

To be clear, the player selected with the pick — Milton Williams, a defensive tackle out of Louisiana Tech — may turn out to be great. He’s a high energy, powerful player and we gave the pick an A in our grades.

But for the Eagles, at this juncture, it should be as much about process as outcome. No organization can thrive under the conditions described in The Athletic piece, and fixing the problem means making others feel empowered and part of a united front.

This wasn’t a good start.

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