Reid's job remains the same as before, even with Banner stepping down

ANDY REID has final say over the Eagles' personnel today, just as he did yesterday and the day before that and the day before that. The fact that Joe Banner is leaving as team president does not change that fact, according to everybody involved.

Back when the Eagles got rid of general manager Tom Modrak and made Reid the king of all football decisions, there was a clear changing of the power structure. This time, no change is obvious. Owner Jeffrey Lurie insists that Reid's job is no different, now that Don Smolenski is the team president and Howie Roseman is continuing as general manager.

"No, not at all," Lurie said. "Andy's responsibilities are exactly the same as before the transition. There is no increase in any aspect of the job, and it's Howie who is taking on more responsibilities of the job, as he has for many months now. Those are in the obvious areas: player negotiations and cap structuring and analysis. Those are the two key areas in which Joe brought in a unique sense of awareness and key sense of responsibility, and we now have a very traditional structure where the GM and the coach are the football entity."

Reid, too, downplayed any change.

"I've had full support from Jeffrey, Joe and Howie on all the decisions that have been made," he said. "I had final say on the decisions. All the good ones. Joe did all the bad ones. No, listen: I had final decision on all of them. I've been asked that every year. That's not the case."

Much of the talk about Reid's increased role has come from agent Drew Rosenhaus, who negotiated deals this offseason for Evan Mathis, DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy. Reid's presence at any of the talks would be different, and that is true. But a fair reading of the situation is that the biggest difference was not about the coach. It was that Rosenhaus greatly dropped his demands on the Jackson contract after last year, and that the McCoy contract was not a scorched-earth/last-dollar deal, either.