Deja Vu?

David Murphy writes a great column (notwithstanding his attempt to popularize a surely pending trademark for "OPDJ" or Offensive Playcaller Du Jour) by the sheer fact of directing readers to this awesome time capsule story by Jason La Canfora about the last Eagles' head coaching job search.

Murphy calls the look back in time tragedy plus time not equaling humor.

I call it horrifying, especially because of all the bizarre circumstances and names - Doug Marrone?! - that are popping up again like a bad Groundhog Day.

What's the common thread? Howie Roseman, of course.

I've highlighted bits from La Canfora's 2013 account, and tell me if most (all?) of this doesn't sound eerily familiar. 

The last two seasons, culminating with Roseman's rise to power in Philadelphia, have been marred with horror signings like Nnamdi Asomugha, the firing of coordinators and assistants in-season, some pretty obvious situations where the personnel didn't fit the scheme, the demise of Reid. Jason Babin being waived in-season a year after challenging the single-season sack record pretty much sums up the Roseman Era. Some strange front office firings mixed in there too.

Wait, are we sure it was Kelly's idea to trade McCoy and Foles for Alonso and Bradford - and to sign Demarco Murray?

 And, no longer are there out-sized characters around, like Reid and Banner, to take all the bullets when things fail. It's all on Roseman now. No more whispers about, oh, that wasn't Howie's guy, that wasn't Howie's signing, he never wanted him here in the first place.

You could rewrite that sentence to make it current with "And, no longer are there out-sized characters around, like Kelly, to take all the bullets when things fail."

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone told me one esteemed coach or another advised one of the Eagles' top candidates not to take the job precisely because of Roseman's presence there. Roseman isn't the general manager they should tie their wagon to. It's clear Chip Kelly wasn't leaving Oregon for anywhere unless he had a large measure of control over the organization, and owner Jeffrey Lurie has already entrusted that to Roseman. There has been trepidation by some candidates to go all-in given the questions about this existing power structure.

The last Eagles search lasted more than 3 weeks. I'll give Lurie and Roseman a break because the regular season just ended four days ago. But technically, they've been looking for a coach since they fired Kelly a week and a half ago. Time does fly.

The rumblings about Roseman lacking nuance and foresight, about him turning people off with how drunk with power he's become, only grow louder as his coaching search grows stranger.

So when Kelly isn't drunk with power, Roseman is?

All of this adds up to a strange sense of deja vu. We'll see what the coaching interviews bring and who the Eagles settle on. But perhaps the bigger more important question is who the Eagles will hire as a GM/Player Personnel Director.