Nice work over at The Athletic, from the trio of Zach Berman, Bo Wulf, and Sheil Kapadia.

It’s another deep dive on the Philadelphia Eagles, similar to what Jeff McLane did on Howie Roseman back in March.

This one is titled “Paranoia, mismanagement and office politics: Inside the Eagles’ downfall under Jeffrey Lurie, Howie Roseman.” It uses current and former staffers (as anonymous sources) to paint a picture of the Birds’ last few seasons, and highlight the activity and behavior of the owner and general manager. There are a couple of great stories that serve to reinforce what we’ve heard about Lurie and Roseman in other reports.

You should go read the whole thing when you find 10-15 minutes, but I’ll share two brief snippets here, the first dealing with Doug Pederson and a weekly meeting he had with his superiors:

“Sources say Pederson was beaten down by the constant second-guessing. “They treated him like a baby,” one said.

Alec Halaby, the Eagles’ vice president of football operations and strategy, has worked under Roseman since joining the team full time in 2010 and now runs the team’s four-person analytics department. The young executive with an Ivy League pedigree carries with him the kind of reputation that causes football lifers to scoff. And according to multiple sources, a rift grew between Halaby and some members of the coaching staff and scouting department.

“Within the building, he’s perceived as Howie’s guy,” said one source. “That’s a problem. … No coach wants somebody around who they think is undermining the perception of how well they’re doing.”’

…

During the 2017 season, Halaby and Pederson’s relationship soured to the point where Pederson berated Halaby within earshot of the rest of the office, according to sources. In the opinion of some members of the coaching staff, Halaby was not to be trusted.

Frustration mounted on the scouting side as well. Rather than being presented with reasons for where certain draft-eligible players were rated by Halaby’s department, the scouting staff would simply be given a list of players the analytics department liked. According to one source, a top personnel official was upset to find out Halaby was grading players on his own despite never having been trained in the scouting department’s methodology.

Halaby is an interesting name. We haven’t heard too much about him. He originally served as “special assistant to the general manager” from 2012 to 2015, and then was promoted to “vice president of football operations and strategy” in 2016. I don’t think Doug ever mentioned his name once, not in any press conference that I recall. Whenever Doug talked about analytics he mentioned Ryan Paganetti, who was the in-game guy for decision making. Paganetti is no longer with the team.

Here’s another nugget:

“Roseman is also thought by some to be too friendly with his favorite players. He has publicly acknowledged his sentimentality for the Super Bowl roster as a flaw in recent years, but that closeness extends beyond what turned out to be bad football decisions. Wentz and defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, for instance, held outsized sway over certain roster and coaching staff decisions, according to multiple sources.

Perhaps the most combustible way in which Roseman’s image consciousness plays itself out in the building is his paranoia about information leaks. There are horror stories across departments of Roseman scolding employees and threatening to search phones in reaction to the publication of inside information. On at least one occasion, according to a source, Roseman tasked an employee with combing through phone records in search of a leak’s origin. But the understanding in the building is that this particular Roseman anxiety is not principally over concern about the information getting out. Rather, he prefers to be the one to disseminate the information when and where he sees fit. In his view, information is currency.”

This happens all the time in front offices. Executives HATE leaks and will always threaten to take their employees phones or whatever. Then, they’ll turn around and give information to their preferred media partner, because it’s not about information getting out, it’s about the CONTROL of the information. Also, and this goes without saying, but when the team is winning and things are going well, nobody leaks. When things are shitty, that’s when sources start talking.

It’s a good read, so check it out. There’s more in there about Jeffrey Lurie, and how involved he is from a scouting/film/personnel standpoint. Some nuggets about Roseman help shape and bolster things that have previously been reported about him. It all helps to illustrate how fractured things were behind the scenes, as the Birds fell apart after winning the first Super Bowl in franchise history.

Full link here: