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Marynowitz says the right things; now he needs to do the job

Ed Marynowitz, the handpicked choice of Chip Kelly to oversee the Eagles' personnel operation, has an impressive list of former bosses who have helped form his football philosophy and prepare him for the job at hand. Marynowitz is just 31 years old and has been working in the game for only 10 years, so the way he gained that experience has almost a speed-dating quality to it.

Eagles Vice President of Player Personnel Ed Marynowitz. (Zach Berman/Staff)
Eagles Vice President of Player Personnel Ed Marynowitz. (Zach Berman/Staff)Read more

Ed Marynowitz, the handpicked choice of Chip Kelly to oversee the Eagles' personnel operation, has an impressive list of former bosses who have helped form his football philosophy and prepare him for the job at hand. Marynowitz is just 31 years old and has been working in the game for only 10 years, so the way he gained that experience has almost a speed-dating quality to it.

His longest stint in one job was the four years and three full seasons he spent as the director of player personnel at Alabama under legendarily demanding coach Nick Saban, whom one former assistant referred to as "the devil himself." Those might be credited to Marynowitz as dog years, with each counting as more than just one year.

Still, he grinded it out, just as he had done under George O'Leary at Central Florida, where he joined the staff immediately after graduating and stayed two years while also collecting master's degrees in business administration and sports business management. He then took his long hours to the Miami Dolphins and worked in player evaluation under Bill Parcells for a year before heading to Tuscaloosa. After that, he was hired by Howie Roseman to join the Eagles scouting staff, so Marynowitz also counts Andy Reid as well as Kelly among his influences.

"I've been fortunate and very blessed to be around great people, so I think that's what's formed a little bit of who I am," Marynowitz said this past week, in his first formal interaction with the media since being promoted in January.

Marynowitz - bright, diligent, and the protégé of one of the most respected and feared coaches in the country - was marked for stardom earlier than most. Every NFL general manager visited Saban's campus to scout players, and all of them were aware of the remarkably young man who orchestrated his complex recruiting network.

Praise and power can warp anyone, especially the young, but Marynowitz seems unaffected. He describes his approach as being very simple, regardless of where he worked or in what capacity. The job is always to serve the wishes of the head coach. There is no other hierarchy. When the Eagles went through their little palace intrigue, Marynowitz went to Kelly and said, "Hey, I'm here to help." Roseman may have hired him, but he wasn't the boss. The head coach is the boss.

"I don't have any control over who was let go, who was going to be hired, what that process was," Marynowitz said. "The only thing I can control is doing my job, preparing us for the draft, handling my responsibilities, and then whatever happened was going to happen. If I can't control it, I don't worry about it."

What happened was Kelly promoted Marynowitz to be his right-hand man, and, starting on Thursday, when the NFL draft opens its three-day run, the Eagles get one of the first big looks into how that new organizational partnership will work.

From each of his previous stops, along with whatever experience he gained, Marynowitz came away with a handy aphorism to summarize the philosophy of the place. From O'Leary, Marynowitz learned "the right way to overprepare." From Parcells, it was "one wrong, all wrong." Saban's theme at Alabama is "the process," and Kelly has transferred his "win the day" motto from Oregon to the Eagles.

Those are nice words and sound meaningful when placed on a T-shirt or a motivational poster, but they all boil down to the same thing: Get players who are better than the other guy's, and then coach them better, too. Reid was really the only one of Marynowitz's influences who didn't have a pithy catchphrase, but by the 2012 season he was fresh out of both slogans and answers.

The Eagles under Kelly, according to Marynowitz, are all about putting each brick in place painstakingly and not about worrying whether the wall will be high enough when they are finished. If the bricks are laid properly, the wall will grow high enough. Overprepare, don't get a single thing wrong, observe the process, and win the day.

Football is more than clever sayings, of course, and neither Marynowitz nor Kelly has ever had final say in player acquisition previously. The personnel boss indicated he won't be a "yes man" to the coach, but also doesn't envision many disagreements that can't be settled with a thorough discussion of a potential player's attributes. It all sounded very logical.

During the NFL draft, regardless of how the draft board is prepared or how carefully a team's strategy is devised, logic is placed on the clock. Funny things happen. Philosophies are tested every minute. How the Eagles handle this draft will be a defining point of Kelly's coaching career here.

At his side, Ed Marynowitz, after 10 years of speed-dating, has settled down and been fixed up with the job everyone always said was meant for him some day. Congratulations. Now, he just needs to do it.

@bobfordsports