Press Pass: Meeting Ed Marynowitz

difference maker type quality individuals. Um at that you know, next tier of guys where you're gonna have solid starter level players. I think there's depth at the offensive line. I think there's certainly depth at wide receiver and at the corner safety position. So it's a it's a good draft in the mid round in that solid starter category for those guys. Adie said, there's ten difference makers you

believe in pretty much every draft. But that being the case, and people always like the fact the teams can move up, how do you weigh that against the future of multiple picks and getting a difference maker in the top ten. Yeah, I think the goal the goal with any draft is to get good football players, you know, and we view it as every pick as an opportunity to improve your football team. So the more picks that you have, the

more opportunities you have to get great players. Certainly, if there's a great player that's up there and it makes sense from a compensation perspective, you know, we'll look at those avenues as well. But you know, philosophically, we'd like we have eight picks right now. We'd like to make eight picks or more, not less. So when you say philosophically, if you can find a difference maker as opposed to a player that you hope can be a starter rather than you really believe can be a starter, how do

you weigh that? And I think you weigh Those are the conversations that we have, and I mean, we're not at that point right now. We've got another round of meetings, you know, this afternoon tomorrow in the beginning part of next week, where we'll really from a strategy standpoint, really kind of set our plan of what we're gonna do. You know, at this point right now, our board is

predominantly set. There's some small adjustments that will make, but in terms of the strategy of how we're going to approach it, that will take place at the end of this week. Beginning of next week the best available or there there have to be a certain amount of feed for now in the future, or do you just take the highest rank KI recordless or our philosophy is best player available for us. So it's not just the best

player available for the league. We grade and we set our board for the Eagles, so it's according to our heightweight, speed parameters. It's according to how they fit in our system, how they compare to our roster. So it is the best player available, but it's the best player available for us. Okay, so you're really good at running back right now? Because a free agency, if there's a running back who fits your scheme, who do you think is the best player

where you're picking you'll take? It wouldn't preclude us from taking a player that's there. I think every situation is unique with that, it depends on the other players that are available the board. If you're looking at the board and you're looking at it horizontally, if there's if there's a number of players are in the same category at the same spot, you could defer to need at that perspective. But if if the running back is the best player on the board and there's a huge drop off at

other positions. I think you need to consider taking the best player if he fits for us. Thank you just describe what your new role is and what your daily interactions are like what you Chip? Yeah, I think just from a big picture standpoint, my role, the way that I view it is, I'm here to support the head coach. So I think it's our responsibility. Everybody in the organization

is to support Chip and his vision. My responsibility is obviously in the player personnel aspect of that, no different than Derek's responsibility with the media or Greg's responsibility from an equipment standpoint. We're all here to support Chips. So in terms of my day to day, I'm evaluating players for both the draft and free agency, organizing our department, making sure that we're all speaking the same language and that we're able to see players through the coach's eyes.

And I think Chips done an unbelievable job of supplying us with that vision of what he wants his team to look like, what he wants each position to look like, and it's our responsibility to identify and go get those players. Look at the safety position and obviously that that's a position of need that a lot of people view you guys have having when you look at a guy like Landing Collins, there's a lot of thought that he might not fit your scheme and what Bill Davis covets in

a safety. How do you evaluate Collins? And would you draft a player or a position of need if he doesn't necessarily fit exactly what you are trying to do. Yeah, and I don't want to get into specific evaluations of specific players, but from a big picture standpoint, again, we want players that fit for us. I'm not saying Landing Collins does or does not fit. There's a lot of things that Landing does well. There's some things that he struggles with, just like any other player in the draft.

But you know what, We'll consider him, we'll discuss him, we rank him accordingly, but we want players that that fit our system. I'm not saying Landing does or does not fit, but he's a good football player. Do you the Eagles want to extend Sam Bradford before the start of the season. It's not I'm not going to talk about the contract situation. I think it's, you know, more of an organizational philosophy that we're not going to discuss contract,

whether it's extensions or terms. I think those conversations will be between the player and the agent. It's the hardest part of your job, the evaluation process for any of these guys, the hardest part in terms of part of the evaluation process for all the prospects. Is there one thing that is most of them? I think it, Yeah, it's probably it's probably the things that you can't see on film, which is really as we break the evaluation process down. Um, we've talked about this before. You know,

it's really into three phases. You know, it's the size and speed for the position. It's their athletic ability to play the position, which are the critical factors, and the position specifics. And the third part is the character, attitude

and intelligence. I think that's probably the most difficult part because that's the unknown, you know, and you've got to spend a lot of time with these guys to figure out they're wiring their makeup, what makes them tick, you know, do they fit in this culture and do they have the right football mentality and temperament to be a successful player.

A lot of the things from an athletic standpoint you can see on tape, but the majority of the reason why guys fail, especially in the upper the higher portions of the draft, is it's it's something from an intangible standpoint, whether it's the lack of love or passion for the game, some sort of mental toughness issues. So we're trying to dig in and find that. So that's probably the most difficult part. Bruce arians and I'm sure other coaches said

the same thing. Character overrides talent, and I understand ship if it comes down to that, how do you evaluate character over talent and his character better than talent. Yeah, I think that you're always going to have those conversations of character versus talent with every player, and character is a big part of what we do. We want guys

that are wired right in that fit. But we're going to do our due diligence to make sure, you know, just because the guys had one the indiscretion in his past doesn't make you know, hit him and off the board candidate for us. We're going to make sure that we figure out does this guy have the right makeup, the right mindset to be a great player. And I think from a big picture standpoint, you want guys that

that that live their life the right way. That approached their job the right way that's conducive to them being a really good football player. If they don't do those things, typically they're not going to be successful. Would you say in that regards, I mean, if you talk with Marcus Peters, are you allowed to kind of go into whether you feel you're comfortable with him as a person. Yeah, I'm not going to get into the specifics of that. Yes,

we've met with him. We've met with every player that's in this draft, h and I mean multiple meetings with all these guys, But I'm not going to go into specifics of any individual player. How many guys do you think that you've already checked off because of character? No one is officially off our board at this point. Um next week, as we kind of finalize that process, there will be guys that will be considered off of our board, but nobody has has been pulled off to this point.

You're not going to mortgage your future, and you'd rather have more picks than less picks. But in that eight to ten in this draft, do you think there's anyone that's that transformative, that's that sure miss that maybe you could be goaded into moving for them. Yeah? I think

that certainly is, and then we would consider that. I think it's, um, you know, you just gotta you know, value and way the opportunity costs, you know, you know with that, but um, you know, well, we've had those discussions, we'll continue to have those discussions. But if there's a player that we feel like makes sense, that can really improve our team, that has a significant role for us next year, I think we'll certainly consider that wide receiver,

right guard. You lost starters at each of these spots. How do you view the death on the roster now at those three positions. Yeah, well, I think and I think that that I mean, it's a really good point to bring up. Is I mean everybody at this you know time of year, no everybody forgets about the players that you have, you know, on your team. Everybody just wants to talk about the players that are available in the draft. And we've got a lot of really good

football players on this team. We view the draft as an opportunity to supplement the guys that are currently in place here. So I think at each one of those positions, we've got guys on the roster that we're excited about them as players and looking forward to them competing for a spot and then whoever we bring in, if we address those positions in the draft, they'll have the same opportunity that the guys in our building currently have, and

that's an opportunity to compete specifically. How do you think, how do you think that's that spot next to Malcolm Jenkins Wills. I think we've got players there. I mean, we've got some guys that UM that have played UM and we're confident and and those guys will need to improve a little bit, but they'll have an opportunity to compete for that spot. We've got, you know, enough people that are currently in place to do that drafting and

offensive tackle to start off at guard? Do you feel like that's a waste if he's a really good tackle or it's it's a no. I think it's it's best player, his best role. UM, how they how they fit best, and what can they do year one, you know, their first year here to help the football team. So UM, you know, you we need good players at every position, So I don't I don't view that as a wasted asset. UM in terms of position versatility. The more player can do,

the more valuable they are. So A guy that can play both guard and tackle is more valuable than a guy that can just exclusively play guard. A guy that can play maybe corner and safety maybe a little bit more valuable than a guy that can only play safety. So uh, and that that's just with fifty three man value forty six man game day value. The more you can do, the more valuable you are. This week, can you tell us foot you saw the changes time you

saw and how he fits in. Yeah, we worked him out and we saw improvement from the last time that we saw him. We had exposure him live when he was with New England when they practiced here. When we worked him out, we saw a great deal of improvement with him. Uh. You know, Tim, We've got sixty eight players that are on our roster right now. Tim's one of sixty eight, so whole I have an opportunity to

compete for a roster spot here. And I've said this before and uh, you know this, this comes from coach. I mean, his role will be determined by his performance.

So we're we're excited that he's a member of the organization and we're looking forward to him competing potential role change with point after a touch down influence that decision at all, there's been connecting the dollar Tebow could potentially help in that is that was that part of the thought process, not not not entirely, but I think again, you know, if if that, if that does come to fruition and there's a role there, um, you know, depending

on his performance that may dictate maybe he'll have a role in that capacity. To wide receiver with two of your first three picks last year was obviously one of the deeper wide receiver classes in memory. What do you think of the class at that position this year and is that one of in your one of your top needs going into the next week. Uh. In terms of needs, I think are we have needs at a lot of

different positions. That's no slight on any player that we have here, but we you know, we have a need for good football players, you know, at any position, uh, the wide receiver position in this in this draft. As I said before, Uh, there's a lot of good players at that spot, UM that that could help us, that could improve UM and we we evaluated those guys accordingly. I think we've got him in the right spot that obviously needs that you're not expressing that you think are

more than others. If it gets to that point and you're at twenty, forget about top ten, and you see you can move up spot you have taught you will target some players, How likely or how heavy will the discussion be to try to move up? I mean, I know you try to do it last year and this is you ended up with what you ended up with. But how likely is it to try a little harder to move up if you have targeted certain players and you know they might not get to twenty, but they're

within range. Yeah, And I think that those are things as the board starts to come off, you know, you start to get a feel for, you know, what players may or may not be there. But that's something that it's just it's an ongoing thing that you'll see as the board falls. There are certain players that obviously we've identified as really good fits for us in the three criteria that we talk about. They fit our system, they've got good skill set to play the position. They fit

from an intangible standpoint. Certainly, we're looking to acquire as many of those type of players as we can at all different levels, certainly at twenty, certainly in the first three rounds, but in all levels of the draft. We're looking to get those guys. All right, you spent a great deal of time on the road, um, your first few years here last sou to kind of get equated with college scouting from from a national level road a lot. What was the biggest benefit? What did you take most

from that time what you're doing now? I think I think anytime anytime you can see a player live, it's it's of great value. You know, whether it's in season, you know, certainly at practice, you know in their element uh to from not only from an evaluation standpoint, but the interaction how they practice. But anytime there's no substitute for seeing a player live, you know, there's there's a lot of work that you can do on tape, especially the way the technology is now, you get the tape

so quick. Um, you know, you want to be efficient in terms of when you're going out, you're and you're kind of targeting the players that you really need to take a look at. But anytime you see a player live, you see them move around, you're going to know one way or the other it's either going to confirm what you saw on tape or it's going to deny it. And then you're gonna have to figure out a way of Okay, well what now we need to go back and figure out what needs to be addressed. But there's

no substitute for seeing a player live. Are you were interviewing for your job here? This job was your age? Part of Yeah, it was you have to have to answer any questions about that that they have any concerns about that. I never had to answer any questions about that. To me, age is not a factor in my opinion. I think if you look across all different professional sports, there's been a lot of people that have been either my age or younger that have been in in some

good roles. And I think, to me, it's more about the experiences that you've had, the people that you've been around, the habits that you've formed. To me, those are the traits and qualities that make you successful in this role. And um, I've got a lot of improvement left to do. I've got you know, I have that same approach that you know you never got it. You know you're always looking to improve and develop. But I feel confident that

I'm uniquely prepared for this opportunity. This offseason, you and Chip had been on the phones negotiating trades and determining compensation those things. What work do you put in to make sure that when draft they rolled around, you know, to for lack of a better term, you're not getting pleased,

you're getting the better end of these deals. Yeah, we've We've done a lot of We've had a lot of conversations with people that have been inside the building, and there are also people outside the building in terms of professional development, some guys that have been helpful for us in terms of consulting to making sure that we're you know, we're up to speed on that. So I'm confident in terms of our preparation and we're ready to go. Since Chip has added these new duties to his plate, how

is he difference? He's longer, does he talk to you differ? He's always here So I don't think he's here any longer now than he is before. But he hasn't changed at all, you know, his approach. I mean, he's a he's a relentless worker. Um. You know, Chip has been a great guy for me to have an opportunity to

work with. He forces you to over prepare. He's obviously extremely intelligent, He's very quick, so when you come to him with a certain topic or an idea or a suggestion something, you know, you better be prepared with plan B, C, and D because of the feedback that you're going to get from him. So I certainly don't think his approach has changed at all. Um, you know, we've had a

really really, really good round of meetings. You know, in terms of our pre draft preparation that's involved obviously, you know myself, Chip and our entire staff, both coaches and personnel broached with all these great man Is there any great coaches? Is there anything that's different about him in this evaluation process than anybody else you've worked with as you have these meetings, I wouldn't say different. He's very thorough, he's very detailed. Um, he puts in the work, he

puts in the time. Um, he's got a natural eye and knack for for talent evaluation, which I think that not a lot of people have. You know, Uh, there's there's varying degrees of talent evaluators from a coaching perspective, Chips unique in that regard. He's a he's got a really good eye for talent. Obviously, he's an exceptional play caller. So the combination of that I think makes makes him

pretty special. Chips the guy that makes the decision. However, you get to a point you've evaluated more than he has, because obviously you have the ability when you get to that point. How much you feel comfortable and I know you're not in that situation to say, Chip, no, I think it's this guy, although Chip says it says it's this guy. How much you're willing to go to the wall for what you believe with what is your new

boss right now? Yeah, I'm very comfortable in doing that, and I think that, Um, you know, the most important relationship in the building to me is one of the head coach and whoever's you know, the personnel director, and there's got to be mutual trust and respect for both parties. I told that to Chip. You know, we had that conversation before I accepted the position. I've never been one to agree, just to agree, and I've got no problems

you know, speaking my mind. I've done the work, I'm confident in my preparation and uh, and that's what Chip wants. I mean, he wants checks and balances, he wants to hear the opinions and we're in this together, and we're gonna make good decisions. Thanks