Jeffrey Lurie has had some ups and downs since purchasing the Philadelphia Eagles from the late Norman Braman, but no decision has been more scrutinized than the hiring of Chip Kelly from Oregon. In Lurie’s defense, Kelly was the hottest name in college football and supposedly ahead of the curve when it came to offensive innovation.
It was not to be though, as Kelly went 26-21 in his three seasons with the Eagles, culminating with his dismissal a week before the final regular season game of 2015. Now in a wide-ranging interview with Sheil Kapadia of The Athletic, Lurie admits that he made a mistake, calling Kelly’s successful power struggle with Howie Roseman a “regret.”
If you were under a rock during that time, the tension between Kelly and Roseman boiled over to the point where Lurie stripped Howie of his job title, and placed him way on the other side, far away from Kelly. Now though, Lurie says that was a mistake.
“I don’t regret the hiring of him because it was done with a really good thought process,” Lurie says.
“But, yes, I would say I regret giving him the kind of authority I gave him, yeah. That’s an easy one.”
Kelly was given full personnel control in January 2015, and after flaming out that final season, Roseman was named the team’s executive vice president of football operations and the rest is great history.
