Wentz pick can conceal untimely personnel shuffle

THE WHEELS for the Eagles' decision to trade up and take Carson Wentz with the second pick in the draft Thursday night were set in motion long before he caught their eye at the Senior Bowl and the Scouting Combine and his pro-day workout, long before they fell in love with him during a predraft, candlelight dinner in Fargo.

The wheels for Wentz becoming an Eagle were set in motion in late December when owner Jeff Lurie decided to fire not only head coach Chip Kelly but also Kelly's handpicked personnel lieutenant, Ed Marynowitz.

It certainly isn't uncommon to fire a coach in late December or January. It's an annual tradition.

But it is uncommon to also throw the guy who has been running your scouting operation for the previous six months out the door with him. Those dismissals typically occur after you've finished the race, not in the middle of it.

But Kelly's firing clearly was personal and Marynowitz was considered Chip's "guy," and so Lurie felt he had to go as well, particularly since he was bringing back Howie Roseman from Siberia to once again oversee the football operation, including preparations for the draft.

Marynowitz's dismissal, coupled with the fact that Roseman hadn't been involved in scouting at all last fall and knew little about the 2016 draft class before his return to power, put the Eagles at a distinct disadvantage as they headed into the homestretch of the predraft scouting process.

January, February and March are for fine-tuning your opinions of players, not forming them.

Roseman brought in extra people to help him play catch-up. Longtime NFL personnel executive Tom Donahoe, who lives in Pittsburgh and had been doing part-time scouting work for the Eagles for the last three years, was named senior director of player personnel and put in charge of the day-to-day draft preparations.

Roseman also brought back two former Eagles personnel executives who were cut loose by Kelly and Marynowitz after the 2015 draft - Anthony Patch and Randy Mueller - to help. Patch had been the team's director of college scouting, Mueller the director of pro personnel.

"Our staff, we have a really good staff," Roseman said Saturday after the Eagles made the last of their eight selections, six of which were in the final three rounds.

"We actually had a larger staff than we're used to having (because of the people they brought back). So we had guys really double-back on a lot of players.

"We don't think (the Kelly-Marynowitz firings) was a factor. The biggest factor for us was not having as many picks in the early going as we used to. So we felt like later in the draft, taking shots on guys in the seventh round (and) really having the best undrafted (free agent) process we've ever had became a priority to us."

If Roseman didn't feel he and his staff had a good handle on this draft - and he insists that wasn't the case - trading up for a potential franchise quarterback certainly is a good way to conceal it. What better way to offset a lack of knowledge than by narrowing the search?

Zero in on one position and one guy. Sell him as the future. Then trade most of the rest of your significant draft picks to go up and get him.

Because now, this draft will be defined by one pick. A pick that very well might spend the next year or two or even three on the bench, depending on how the Sam Bradford saga plays out.

This will be forever known as the "Carson Wentz draft" to Eagles fans just as the 1998 draft will be forever known as the "Manning draft" to Colts fans and the "Leaf draft" to Chargers fans.

If the valedictorian of Bismarck Century High School's class of 2011 goes on to become a terrific NFL quarterback who helps turn the Eagles into a regular Super Bowl contender, then this draft will get sky-high marks and Roseman will be considered a freaking genius.

If he doesn't, if he turns out to be the next Ryan Leaf or Vince Young or Matt Leinart, or even the next Mark Sanchez, well, you'll be able to reach Howie at his next place of employment - the Play Now toy company, where he'll be sharing a basement office with George Costanza.

"It may take a few years for us to figure out exactly what we did this weekend," Roseman said.

Which isn't necessarily a bad thing for Roseman.

The Eagles came out of the draft with eight picks. But six of those eight were in the last three rounds. There is Wentz, there is Isaac Seumalo, a guard out of Oregon State whom the Eagles took in the third round. And then there are The Other Six.

In the last nine drafts, the Eagles have selected 36 players beyond pick No. 150. Just seven have started 20 or more games for the Eagles - center Jason Kelce (sixth round, 2011), wide receiver Riley Cooper (fifth round, 2010), linebackers Jamar Chaney (seventh round, 2010) and Moise Fokou (seventh round, 2009), safety Kurt Coleman (seventh round, 2010), tight end Brent Celek (fifth round, 2007) and offensive tackle King Dunlap (seventh round, 2008). Twenty of those 36 picks appeared in four games or fewer with the Eagles.

"You look at the probabilities of (players taken in) the fifth round, the sixth round, the seventh round (making it), they're not great," Roseman admitted. "So we wanted to take more guys that we felt good about. We got aggressive in (undrafted) free agency.

"We have to come out of this - fifth, sixth, seventh (round), free agency - with contributors at some level, whether that's Day 1 or two years from now, to build the depth of this team."

The Eagles tried to improve their late-round odds by selecting some players who slid to the bottom of the draft because of character issues. Roseman got all Father Flanagan on us Saturday when reporters asked him about some of the transgressions, including seventh-round safety Jalen Mills' 2014 arrest for allegedly hitting a woman in the mouth and fifth-round running back Wendell Smallwood's arrest for alleged witness intimidation. Mills entered a pretrial diversion program for first-time offenders last year and the misdemeanor batter charge will be dropped when he completes the program. The charges against Smallwood were dropped.

"We forget sometimes that these are college kids and things happen," said Roseman.

When it was suggested that this seemed to be a change in philosophy from the not-so-very-long-ago days when the Eagles harped on drafting high-character people with squeaky-clean reputations, Roseman said the organization always has been willing to give players second chances.

"I'd say we did give guys second chances," he said. "When you talk about Mike Vick, he's certainly a guy we gave a second chance to. Bringing T.O. here, who had some things. DeSean (Jackson) coming out, people felt like he had some character concerns."

@Pdomo Blog: philly.com/Eaglesblog