Kelly On Marynowitz: He Blew Us Away

Between Chip Kelly‘s time at Oregon, Ed Marynowitz‘s days alongside Nick Saban at Alabama and their respective years in Philadelphia since, the new personnel tandem has a healthy amount of player evaluation and program building experience. On the flip side, they are both still pretty green when it comes to operating at the pro level. Kelly and Marynowitz have a total of five years in the NFL between them, and are new to their roles as heads of construction.

Given that, are they leaning on anyone to help them with the draft process, trade evaluations and the like while they get their feet wet?

“No,” Kelly said flatly during his session with reporters at the owners meetings.

It would be a surprise if Kelly isn’t seeking at least some outside counsel as they transition into this new set-up. He has never been shy about collecting intelligence and advice from any number of places to make sure he is attacking a situation properly. Perhaps what Kelly was intending to say with that response was, “We got this.”

When explaining the front-office shakeup Tuesday, Jeffrey Lurie often referred to the detailed “vision” that Kelly presented to him at the beginning of the offseason. Why was Howie Roseman as general manager not part of that vision?

“I think it was much more Chip’s requirement to sort of have a football guy that he was comfortable with in terms of helping him day to day and minute by minute,” Lurie explained.

Kelly said he spent three or four weeks looking for his new right-hand man. He decided to interview Marynowitz last.

“I was impressed with his work ethic and impressed with his knowledge. Just sitting in draft meetings, sitting in free agent meetings, listening to him talk, listening to him describe players and was always, ‘Hey that guy is really sharp.’ And then he was the last guy I interviewed and the last guy Mr. Lurie interviewed,” said Kelly. “I think he blew both of us away. It was like, wow, this guy is extremely organized, extremely detailed, has a real good vision of what we are trying to get accomplished and I thought he was outstanding.”

Once paired, Kelly and Marynowitz jumped right into the crane and got the wrecking ball swinging, reshaping the roster with a couple bold trades, some expensive signings and more than a few releases. The next adventure is the draft in just over a month. How that will turn out is anyone’s guess. But the one thing we’ve learned is that they will not approach the situation timidly, regardless of how many rodeos they have under their belts.