Jeffrey Lurie's peculiar reality

THERE WAS a moment Tuesday when Jeffrey Lurie sounded like a man capable of regaining some of the public trust he'd cost himself over the previous few years. It occurred roughly 11 minutes into a question-and-answer session with reporters in a Boca Raton, Fla., hotel, and it detailed something that sounded remarkably close to a coherent vision for his franchise.

The Eagles' owner talked about the treasure trove of data now available to teams as they search for ways to improve the success rate of their decision-making. He talked about talent evaluation, about injury prevention, about resource allocation. He outlined concrete objectives and the concrete steps he hoped would lead to the achievement of those objectives.

And then he fielded another question, and the moment was over.

For the most of the rest of the session, Lurie sounded like some derivative of the guy we've heard throughout the offseason: not so much a clueless rich guy masquerading as a business visionary, but the consultant that kind of guy tends to hire. He sounded like a YouTube video with 2,000 views, like a glossy-covered book at the front of Barnes & Noble, like a corkboard in a sales office where everybody works for commission.

"Information intensive."

"Extraordinarily collaborative."

"Maximize potential."

"Chemistry in the building."

BINGO!

It wasn't the buzzword salad itself that raised doubts about the command structure at One NovaCare Way. Rather, it was the peculiar reality Lurie seemed to inhabit as he served us his latest version of the dish, a reality that sounded considerably different from the one Eagles fans had witnessed in recent years, particularly with regard to Howie Roseman and a personnel department that deserves much of the blame for the club's failure to win a playoff game in seven seasons. In this reality, Lurie's decision to hand Chip Kelly full personnel control wasn't a move that he quickly came to regret, but a calculated decision that not only would force his coach to take responsibility for his decisions, but, even better, would allow him to send his brilliant general manager on a worldwide spirit quest in search of universal truth.

"The whole plan really was for Howie to spend the time studying state-of-the-art decision-making around the globe in sports," Lurie said with a straight face, "and we really opened it up from English Premier League, NHL, NBA, MLB - try to find who the best general managers or, quote, 'head of basketball operations,' were, make sure that Howie was able to spend a lot of time with all these people - I spent some time with some of them - and really kind of take that year and learn from the best in terms of where they are usually open about their successes and their mistakes and where they got lucky, and just take it all in."

While Lurie insisted that Roseman's reinstatement to the top of the football-operations food chain was not a foregone conclusion, he did not insist it in such a way that enabled you to think anything other than, "Gosh, that sure doesn't sound like a management structure that could have led to anything different from what eventually transpired."

But even that wasn't the most disconcerting portion of the proceedings. Rather, it was his triumphant reminder to reporters that, days before he'd decided to demote Roseman last offseason, he'd told them that his GM was doing "a helluva job" and would remain in his post.

There is where the break with reality revealed itself. See, Lurie had already spent several minutes explaining that he expected Roseman to build the best personnel department in football, starting with the hiring of a player-personnel chief to work under him. He had already explained why he felt Roseman was qualified for the job. He had already said that Roseman would be held accountable for the performance of the department.

Left unsaid was how any of this differed from Lurie's expectations for Roseman the first time he gave him a chance to build such a front office. The guess here is that both men would argue that Roseman never had a real chance to build a front office in his image. He went from Andy Reid's shadow to Kelly's shadow. Now, finally, it's Howie's time to shine.

Except Lurie also raved about the young talent the Eagles have on their roster. He emphasized the importance of retaining those players as a future core, something the club started to do this offseason by signing Lane Johnson, Zach Ertz and Vinny Curry to contract extensions. To hear him tell it, the Eagles were an ascendant organization before they allowed Kelly to destroy that trajectory. Maybe that's really the case. Maybe the Eagles' roster isn't what it has seemed the last couple of years. Maybe this alleged core will prove to be what Lurie and Roseman envisioned when they drafted it.

Yet there is another scenario. Maybe Kelly recognized that the roster he'd inherited simply wasn't good enough, and that dramatic action was the only hope to avoid a decline. Maybe his coup d'état was less a power play and more a no-confidence vote. Maybe he is just as excited to watch all of this play out from 3,000 miles away as many Eagles fans are to watch from the opposite way.

At least time reveals all things. To most people, anyway.

@ByDavidMurphy

Blog:philly.com/Eaglesblog