Murphy: Vikings' coach-front office interactions instructive for Eagles

ON WEDNESDAY morning, Mike Zimmer told a story that offered an excellent example of something that has been missing in the Eagles organization for at least the last three years. When the Vikings hired Zimmer to be their head coach after the 2013 season, the first thing the longtime defensive coordinator did was sit down with Vikings general manager Rick Spielman to watch film. The goal was twofold: first, Zimmer wanted to evaluate the skill sets of the players he was inheriting so that he could adapt his scheme to accentuate their strengths and hide their weaknesses; second, and just as important, he wanted to explain to Spielman and his scouts what, exactly, he was looking to do with his defense, and the types of individual traits he prioritized/preferred at each position.

Later that year, the Vikings were evaluating their options for the upcoming draft when Spielman approached his head coach about a linebacker who did not appear to fit his scheme's prototype for the position. Zimmer ran a 4-3 that relied on the front four to generate pressure, while the player in question was valued first and foremost for his ability to pressure the quarterback from the edge.

"He asked me, 'How would you use this guy?' '' Zimmer said in his Wednesday teleconference with Philadelphia reporters. "And I told him: 'We'd do this, and we'd do this, and we'd do this.' ''

Two years later, Anthony Barr is a major reason why the Vikings enter Sunday's game at Lincoln Financial Field allowing just 3.7 yards per rush, 4.8 net yards per attempt, and 12.6 points per game, all of which rank in the top eight in the NFL. But imagine a parallel universe where Spielman held that conversation with a different head coach who could not envision Barr in his scheme and where now Eric Ebron or Taylor Lewan wears the Purple and Gold. Or the real-life universe where Howie Roseman was having that conversation with Chip Kelly.

Throughout the Kelly years, there was a lot of talk about talent vs. scheme and which is the bigger determinant of success. Maybe, though, the answer to the question is that there is no answer, at least not on a macro level, because rosters are filled with talent that has been evaluated with an eye toward fitting into a certain scheme. In other words, talent is at least partially dependent on the role in which it is utilized. We may have seen an example of this last year, when Byron Maxwell's talent looked a lot different when it was utilized in a scheme that did not offer him the help of two All-Pro safeties. 3-4 scheme James Harrison: good linebacker. 4-3 James Harrison: bad linebacker.

This is pretty basic stuff, but it offers a good reminder of the challenges the Eagles will face in the short term as they remodel their roster from Kelly's tempo-spread and Bill Davis' passive 3-4 to Doug Pederson's West Coast offense and Jim Schwartz's attacking 4-3 defense. It is also a reminder of the long-term challenge facing the Eagles, which is to create a culture of stability in the football operations department so that those Spielman-Zimmer conversations result in the drafting of players whose talents are still being maximized five, six, seven years after they are drafted. Right now, that's not the case, and you've seen the consequences start to show.

Take the loss to the Redskins. Bennie Logan, who'd previously been out of place as a nose tackle, was in the midst of a dominant performance at under tackle when he went down with a groin strain. Logan's absence meant a more prominent role for Beau Allen, who was drafted as a nose tackle to fit Davis' scheme and is now a bit out of place in Schwartz's one-gap attack. Starting at middle linebacker was Jordan Hicks, who was drafted as a two-gap linebacker who needed to be smarter, smoother, more technical. Now, he plays in a scheme that asks its linebacker to play faster, more aggressive, less discerning. At defensive end was Connor Barwin, a linebacker throughout his career, now forced to play defensive end. The Redskins ended up rushing for 230 yards, including several big gainers that seemed to be a symptom of an attack defense that misfired.

The good news is that the Eagles never really finished making themselves over from their 4-3/Andy Reid image, so guys such as Logan and Brandon Graham are better off. Other players, such as Lane Johnson and Malcolm Jenkins, have talents that are maximized in virtually any scheme. But the roster at this point is more Frankenstein than Superman, and the only way to reverse that is to create a situation where, year after year, the same types of evaluators draft the same types of players for the same types of offense and defense. Really, that hasn't existed since the Andy Reid-Jim Johnson-Joe Banner years. Are these the right schemes? The right types of evaluators? This isn't about that. It's about the synergy between the two.

@ByDavidMurphy