Gambling Man

Posted: January 8th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 43 Comments »

Tom Gamble got hired by the Eagles last February. He is officially listed as the Vice President of Player Personnel. Gamble was brought in to help with both college and pro scouting. He’s been in the business for a couple of decades and helped build the Niners team that is among the best in the league right now.

The Miami Dolphins are now looking to hire Gamble to be their GM. They parted ways with Jeff Ireland for a variety of reasons. You know things aren’t ideal when the fact you’ve gone 5 years without making the playoffs is only one of the reasons you’re let go. Ouch. The Dolphins are looking at a few people, but reportedly Gamble is at the top of their list.

Will he go?

That’s not an easy question. Gamble left a good organization in SF in part due to personal reasons. He’s got family in the Philly area. He also worked for the Eagles early in his career. I’m assuming he enjoyed his time here. He may have been friends with Howie Roseman. No idea about that.

Coming to the Eagles was more of a lateral move than a promotion so that tells you leaving the Eagles won’t be done lightly. Gamble isn’t going to just jump because the job is open. He’ll want to leave if he thinks Miami is a good job. I’ve got some concerns about owner Stephen Ross and the Dolphins organization. They’ve done some odd things in recent years and I’m not sure just how good a job that is.

Eric DeCosta of the Ravens is #2 to Ozzie Newsome. He’s had offers to be a GM, but turns them down because he prefers to stick with Baltimore, an organization he loves and trusts. GMs must be very picky. If you get fired, you are not guaranteed a second chance. You can get some kind of job with an organization, but not necessarily another chance to be GM. You can only take a GM job if you really believe in it or if you’re really desperate.

I tend to think Gamble will stay with the Eagles and wait on a better situation, but that is a wild guess. If he talks to Ross and they get along, Gamble may roll the dice and take the job. Gamble wanted to come to Philly for a reason. I’m just not sure the Dolphins are an organization you leave for.

* * * * *

If Gamble does leave, the Eagles have plenty of guys still in the front office.

Tom Gamble –  Vice President of Player Personnel
Anthony Patch  – Director of College Scouting
Rick Mueller  — Player Personnel Executive
Ed Marynowitz – Assistant Director of Player Personnel
Tom Donahoe  — Senior Football Advisor
Andy Speyer  — Southwest Regional Scout
Michael Bradway –  Eastern Regional Scout
Brad Obee  —- College Scouting Coordinator
Alan Wolking  – College Scout, Southeast
Michael Davis  – College Scout, Midwest
Trey Brown  — College Scout, West
Bret Munsey  — NFS Scout
Louis Clark  —- Pro Scout

I think the area where the Eagles would be most vulnerable is pro scouting. Louis Riddick ran that prior to Gamble’s arrival. If Gamble leaves, there is no one who is an expert in that field. Howie knows what he’s doing and he does have Louis Clark as a pro scout, but it helps to have an administrator who has focused on that area.

Mueller and Donahoe have done plenty of pro scouting from their days as GMs so focusing on that are wouldn’t be super hard.

Let’s hope Gamble stays and this isn’t an area of concern.

UPDATE

* * * * *

I wrote about Johnny Football over at ScoutsNotebook. I’m glad Foles emerged because Johnny scares me to death. Great talent, but plenty of questions.

* * * * *

A few follow-up comments on the DL

Bennie Logan is a player that Kelly and the staff planned to have bulk up. He was probably around 305 this year. Logan said the coaches hope to get him up to the 320 range. They don’t want him too big. Logan’s athletic ability is an asset. You want him stout enough to be a good run defender, but you don’t want him fat.

I have no idea if the coaches will adjust Thornton and/or Cox for 2014. Both guys bulked up a bit this year. The coaches may not want them getting too much bigger. Both guys are powerful as-is.

Vinny Curry was a poor run defender at the beginning of the season. He improved quite a bit during the course of the year. Curry became an effective 2-gap DE. There are some plays where he got pushed around, but he won his share of battles. I think he’ll be even better in 2014.

* * * * *

I’ll post a DGR. I just wanted to let a few days go by before starting. Seeing the Riley Cooper drop is likely to die of a “what if?” attack.

* * * * *

Jay Gruden is reportedly the leading candidate for the Skins. There is a case to be made for him, but Jay isn’t the most compelling guy. Putting him with that owner and that organization doesn’t feel like a good fit at all. So let’s hope they do it.

_

43 Comments on “Gambling Man”

  1. 1 ICDogg said at 3:53 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    If an alliance between Miami’s coach and VP/capologist was what got Ireland ousted, any good GM coming in would want to know that they were not going to be in the same vulnerable position.

  2. 2 OregonDucker said at 6:33 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    And the answer is that he would be in the same vulnerable position.

  3. 3 A_T_G said at 9:15 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    If that GM could obtain photographs of the coach and VP in a vulnerable position…

  4. 4 Nailed It! said at 4:55 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    The lateral move he made to come here in the first place vs. taking a GM position last year speaks volumes. I doubt he makes a questionable move to Miami.

  5. 5 deg0ey said at 4:59 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    I generally hope things work out pretty well for kids going through the draft process, but I find myself hoping only bad things for Manziel. Something about him just rubs me the wrong way and, as much as I feel like a bad person for it, I really hope he fails.

  6. 6 Nailed It! said at 5:12 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    I don’t understand how you can’t not like him, guy is young, talented and living his life, guarantee I would be doing the same thing if I had his athletic talent. Sooo sick of players and their holier than thou attitudes.

  7. 7 deg0ey said at 5:14 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    If he could do those things without coming off as a colossal douche then I’d have no problem.

  8. 8 theycallmerob said at 5:36 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    that’s exactly it. colossal douche. nailed it

  9. 9 Eagles_Fan_in_San_Fran said at 8:50 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    I can’t wait for the first Sports Center highlight showing a DL knocking Johnny’s block off and then standing over him, saying “Welcome to the NFL, douche-bag!”

  10. 10 Michael Winter Cho said at 10:00 AM on January 9th, 2014:

    Douche with anger issues. Interesting article out there where his dad basically outs him in this regard. Maybe he’ll turn it around and become a decent sort, I hope so. Has a fun game.

  11. 11 CrackSammich said at 11:36 AM on January 9th, 2014:

    19-20 year olds with maturity are in the vast minority. Try thinking back to what you were doing back then. Then imagine that at that moment, your family was rich and you became one of the most famous people in the country.

    Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t know either way whether the kid will be good or even is good right now. What I’m saying is that the way media attention came onto him, he’s got no chance of ever living down the press of his bad decisions when he was still just a kid. Judging him on that forever seems a little unfair.

  12. 12 Insomniac said at 7:11 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    What’s there to like? Small, maturity issues and not overwhelmingly athletic. Those don’t live in the NFL for very long.

  13. 13 Nailed It! said at 7:24 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    If you do not think he is athletic then you are outside of your mind. He may not be an NFL quarterback. But to say he isn’t athletic is wrong.

  14. 14 Insomniac said at 8:42 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    Did I say he wasn’t athletic? You just decided to overlook “not overwhelmingly athletic”.

  15. 15 Richard O'Connor said at 5:04 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    Lewis Clark is a badass name for a scout.

  16. 16 P_P_K said at 5:07 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    Thanks for this piece. I tend to forget about how many people are involved in creating the roster of an NFL team. Good stuff.

  17. 17 shah8 said at 5:21 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    At the end of the day, Manziel doesn’t have the arm to be a very talented QB in the NFL regardless of style.

  18. 18 Insomniac said at 8:44 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    Probably doesn’t have the head for it either. He has the makings of Mark Sanchez/Matt Leinart/Ryan Leaf which is god damn scary if you really think about it.

  19. 19 Richard O'Connor said at 5:36 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    Reports that Lazor is interviewing for the OC job in Miami.

  20. 20 OregonDucker said at 6:26 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    I wish him well. The Dolphins are fatally flawed.

  21. 21 gherbox said at 5:41 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    I guess my question is this: What potential coach is a good fit for Dan Snyder?

  22. 22 Weapon Y said at 5:50 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    Ha. I just wrote almost exactly the same thing!

  23. 23 Rambler said at 6:29 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    I think the coach from the basketball team in Van Wilder is the ideal candidate… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVGPBjjTPPw

  24. 24 Eagles_Fan_in_San_Fran said at 8:56 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    I think he’s still available:

  25. 25 A_T_G said at 9:10 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    He could adopt the nickname Redwood.

  26. 26 D3FB said at 10:07 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    A coach that could get Snyder and RG3 to both sit down shut up and do their damn jobs. I’m not sure it can be done. If it can, then we are screwed, because that man can do the impossible.

  27. 27 Weapon Y said at 5:46 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    In fairness to Gruden, no one is a fit with Dan Snyder

  28. 28 ICDogg said at 6:26 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    pic.twitter.com/Cetj3hoTgF

  29. 29 BreakinAnklez said at 7:50 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    Holy crap. I went to high school with Brad Obee

  30. 30 SteveH said at 7:58 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    Let’s hope he can be the Obee One of scouts for us…………… god that was an awful joke.

  31. 31 A_T_G said at 8:07 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    It kinda felt like you were forcing it…

  32. 32 P_P_K said at 8:13 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    They used to hang cowboys for those kinds of jokes.

  33. 33 A_T_G said at 9:04 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    You can still see the cultural impacts of those days in watching the Cowboys choke each year as if they were a bad joke.

  34. 34 P_P_K said at 9:17 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    The year is young, but this is the best post of 2014.

  35. 35 Kevin Powell said at 8:42 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    My dad graduated from Haddonfield memorial class of 81 with Gamble, says that he was kind of a dumb jock in high school, and that he would never have guessed his level of success based on what his intelligence level seemed to be haha.

  36. 36 the midatlantic said at 10:37 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    goes to show you high school is a lifetime before adulthood

  37. 37 mtn_green said at 8:43 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    Smart guys don’t want to go to teams that are perennial dumpster fires, Oakland, Cleveland Miami.

    Some symptoms that your team has a dumb owner:
    1. Firing a coach after one season.
    2. Your owner is the gm.
    3. You’ve had a ‘special investigation’
    4. Tony Dungy is on a ‘committee’

  38. 38 Eagles_Fan_in_San_Fran said at 9:00 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    Well, it is a mighty deep hole out there in Oak-town, but at least Big Al is gone. We’ll have to see what happens with Vick as the QB next year (you just KNOW that’s gonna happen – destiny and all that).

  39. 39 Mitchell said at 9:26 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    What is everyone’s favorite draft sites for analysis, projections, and mocks. Besides the Scout’s Notebook of course?

  40. 40 D3FB said at 10:27 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    I typically use cbssports and mockingthedraft for their rankings just to have an idea who to keep an eye on during live viewings and preliminary tape study. I’ve started to read withthefirstpick this year and they tend to do a pretty good job with their analysis. By the time the combine I typically have a list of the top 10 or so targets I like at each position. Then its into the depths of the draftnik world to try and find a few diamonds in the rough. I’ve been kicking around the idea of starting my own site with an eagles based slant to it but with the sheer volume of draft stuff out there haven’t really gotten around to it.

  41. 41 Mitchell said at 11:58 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    I’d follow it

  42. 42 D3FB said at 12:05 AM on January 9th, 2014:

    Haha much appreciated man. We’ll see.

  43. 43 ICDogg said at 10:11 PM on January 8th, 2014:

    Some inmate Steelers fan (redundant?) is trying to get an injunction to keep the Chargers from continuing in the playoffs.

    http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baltimore-sports-blog/bal-san-diego-chargers-nfl-playoffs-injunction-20140108,0,6127233.story?track=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter