Chip Kelly hire serves as validation for Eagles GM Howie Roseman

As the Eagles search for ahead coach wore on and more and more names became connected with the job, a narrative started to develop. The reason the Eagles can't seem to nail down a coach has to because no one likes their young GM Howie Roseman!

This narrative was mostly fueled by Jason LaCanfora of CBS Sports, who despite never really citing any sources, persisted in a campaign aimed straight at Roseman. His most recent article on the subject blamed Roseman directly for the fact that the Eagles couldn't land Chip Kelly.

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone told me one esteemed coach or another advised one of the Eagles' top candidates not to take the job precisely because of Roseman's presence there. Roseman isn't the general manager they should tie their wagon to. It's clear Chip Kelly wasn't leaving Oregon for anywhere unless he had a large measure of control over the organization, and owner Jeffrey Lurie has already entrusted that to Roseman. There has been trepidation by some candidates to go all-in given the questions about this existing power structure.

The rumblings about Roseman lacking nuance and foresight, about him turning people off with how drunk with power he's become, only grow louder as his coaching search grows stranger.

Only, the Eagles did in fact land Chip Kelly and as it turns out Howie Roseman seems to be the guy that got the deal done.

Ian Rappoport first mention on NFL Network this afternoon that it was Roseman who continued to keep in touch with Chip Kelly even after he made the decision to go back to Oregon. Reportedly, he was talking with Kelly as soon as January 8th, which was only 2 days after the announcement was made he was staying in college. As the two kept in touch, Kelly's decision wavered and talks really started to heat up in the last 36 hours. Jeff Lurie jumped back into the fray and a deal was reportedly done last night not long after the team's meeting with Gus Bradley had ended.

No doubt we'll learn more about the story of how Chip Kelly came to Philadelphia and you can be sure that he'll get asked about Roseman tomorrow. But the very fact that Kelly will be having a press conference here is a pretty strong proof that a lot of what was written about Roseman during the course of this search was probably not truthful.

And in the end, Howie comes out of this coaching search with the unlikely hero label, rather than the goat.