The outside perception that Ed Marynowitz is merely Chip Kelly’s “yes man” doesn’t bother the Eagles’ new vice president of football operations.
But it’s not an assessment Marynowitz believes is accurate.
Marynowitz, speaking publicly for the first time since Kelly promoted him to the highest position in the scouting department, said his job is to support Kelly, who became the franchise’s top decision-maker during a January front office shakeup executed by owner Jeff Lurie.
But it’s not to agree with every opinion Kelly holds.
“I know that’s a comment that everybody throws out, is this guy just a ‘yes man?’ Do you agree?” Marynowitz said. “I’m never one to agree just to agree. To support the head coach, I don’t believe that’s just to tell him he’s right in everything that he says. You’re not going to disagree just to disagree either. But I’ve never been afraid to voice my opinion.”
Marynowitz replaced Tom Gamble, the organization’s former top scout who was fired Dec. 31 after feuding behind the scenes with former general manager Howie Roseman, who has since had his title changed and responsibilities reduced mainly to contract negotiations.
Kelly and Roseman didn’t see eye-to-eye, especially in scouting. The frost ultimately led Lurie to hand Roseman’s final say on personnel to Kelly.
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Lurie explained in March that Kelly preferred a “football guy” he’s comfortable with to lead the scouting department. Kelly interviewed several executives from around the league but chose the 31-year-old Marynowitz, who had just one prior year of NFL front-office experience before joining the Eagles in 2012 as assistant director of pro scouting.
Kelly’s comfort with an in-house candidate raised questions about his ability to tolerate an outside opinion and what would happen when disagreements arise between him and his lead personnel man.
“You know, there really hasn’t been that many of them,” Marynowitz said. “Not because we’re all agreeing with him, but I think we’re all speaking the same language and we all see players in a very similar capacity.
“Chip’s done a great job of supplying the vision to the entire organization, to the coaching staff and the player personnel department of what he’s looking for in order to build the football team. So whether it’s at any type of position, he’s going to give us the parameters, give us the prototypes, clearly communicate what he’s looking for, it’s our responsibility to find those players.”
Marynowitz said Kelly isn’t the dictator he’s been portrayed to be since the power coup over Roseman. On the contrary, Marynowitz added, Kelly invites dissenting opinions, which is apparently not the way business used to be conducted upstairs at the NovaCare Complex when Roseman presided over the department.
“He’s very open-minded. He wants collaboration,” Marynowitz said of Kelly. “Part of what we have now, which is so unique, is it’s a fully integrated approach between the coaching staff, the personnel department. Everybody’s involved, everybody has a role.
“The way our meetings are structured now, everybody has an opportunity to speak their mind. We get everything on the table. Not everybody is going to agree on all types of players, but I think what is important is everybody has an opportunity to communicate that and that’s part of our decision-making process.”
Marynowitz admitted that he and Kelly are still novices to some of their major responsibilities, such as navigating the draft. Working under other similarly specific head coaches and program builders, such as Bill Parcells and Nick Saban, helped him understand the importance of intense preparation.
“I think there’s certainly a learning curve,” he said. “Any time you advance professionally there’s going to be new responsibilities that you have to undertake that you didn’t have to do in your previous role. I’ve been fortunate. We have a lot of good people around here that have been able to help and assist in that.
“In some previous roles I had before I joined the organization, I had some good experience [with] managing people. I had a demanding head coach before. So there’s been a lot of things that I’ve been able to translate, but in terms of contract negotiations, trade talks, those are things you kind of learn on the fly. But I’ve relied on the people here to help with that.”