Howie Roseman

INDIANAPOLIS - Howie Roseman's job right now is to find the kinds of players new coach Chip Kelly needs, building at least a slightly different template than the one the Eagles used for 14 years under Andy Reid. Defining that template is a huge, important undertaking in Year 1 of a regime, and it has been Roseman's focus at the NFL Scouting Combine, as the Eagles' general manager sits every day with Kelly and the rest of the scouting and coaching operation, watching more than 300 prospects work out. "It's a learning process," Roseman said Sunday.

THEY SAY GREAT minds think alike, but in the NFL, at least, that's not always the case. Take Bill Parcells and George Young. Parcells, who will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this summer, is one of the best coaches in NFL history. Young, who should be in Canton, was one of the best judges of football flesh the game has known. Young, who died in 2001, was the general manager of the Giants for 19 seasons (1979-97). Parcells worked for him as head coach for eight of those seasons (1983-90)

When Joe Banner stepped down as team president, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie extended general manager Howie Roseman's contract for an additional four to five years, a team source said. In June, when Lurie first announced a "succession plan" - with Roseman and new president Don Smolenski assuming most of Banner's responsibilities - Lurie said that Smolenski had signed a multiyear deal. He did not elaborate on Roseman's contract, however, except to say that he had an existing contract.

When Chip Kelly sat down Jan. 5 with Jeffrey Lurie, Howie Roseman, and Don Smolenski in the Four Seasons hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz., to begin what would become a nine-hour interview, the Oregon coach told them that some things they might have heard about him weren't true. "These reports about me being power hungry. That's just not me," Kelly said, according to Lurie. If that was welcome news to Lurie, imagine how it played with Roseman, who wanted to run his player-personnel department in collaboration with a new coach, but not have to engage in a daily power tussle over how the roster is built.

Just because the draft is over, that doesn't mean that Howie Roseman can go on vacation. In the midst of one of the busiest Eagles off-seasons in recent memory - 39 new faces have been added - the general manager said Tuesday that there is always time to acquire more players, even if most of the 2010 roster is in place. "We discussed this all along," Roseman said. "We don't play until September. There's opportunity at every position to keep getting better. But we do feel comfortable with what we have.

Jeffrey Lurie said that he was holding Howie Roseman accountable for only the 2012 season when the Eagles owner explained Monday why he was retaining the general manager. "The mistakes that were made in the 2011 draft have little or nothing to do with Howie's evaluations," Lurie said. "I think it was important for me to own up to the mistakes that were made and understand where they were coming from, and it was awfully clear. So an effort was made to streamline the entire operation.

The Eagles still haven't announced the firing of vice president of player personnel Jason Licht, but they did officially replace him yesterday by hiring from within. Howie Roseman, previously the vice president of football administration and a key player in working on the team's salary cap, will now move to the personnel department and assume Licht's former title. In addition to that move, the Eagles also extended the contract of general manager Tom Heckert through the 2011 season.

Andy Reid probably won't have to wait very long to receive the news. If Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie is going to remove him as head coach, Reid will most likely get the message soon after he leaves the field at the Meadowlands late Sunday afternoon. Maybe the owner will ask Reid to meet him back at the NovaCare Complex when the team returns to Philadelphia. Maybe he will request a meeting Monday morning at the team facility. In any case, Lurie has enough respect for Reid after 14 years of working together to deliver that decision in person.

Both Eagles coach Chip Kelly and general manager Howie Roseman heaped praise on Matt Barkley after the surprising selection of the Southern California quarterback Saturday in the fourth round of the NFL draft. But Roseman would not confirm the presumption that Barkley was a top-10 pick last season. "We didn't spend enough time through the whole evaluation process to tell you what he was in last year's draft," Roseman said. And Roseman is not the only one with that view. It's almost without dispute that Barkley would have gone well before the fourth round had he left school after his junior season in 2011, when Barkley threw for 3,528 yards and a Pac-12-record 39 touchdowns with only seven interceptions.