New Broncos Director of Pro Personnel Tom Heckert: An Eagles perspective

When Heckert was in Philadelphia, the Eagles' front office was always tough to figure out. Andy Reid had final say, so despite being the GM, Heckert was really a right hand man to Reid. However, during that time, Joe Banner (who is now running the Browns) was the Eagles' president and involved in personel. I'm not sure that he was deciding which players to get, but he was often the guy leading negotiations on contracts and trades.

So the question Eagles fans always had in regards to Heckert was... what does he do? Andy Reid had the final say and was always the guy up front on draft. Joe Banner was involved in negotiations with free agents and trade partners. Later on in Heckert's tenure, Howie Roseman (current Eagles GM) was running the scouting department.

Now, the team had some good drafts when he was here. He had to have some voice in those discussions. To what extent he had say? No one ever knew and anytime anyone tried to figure out how the pecking order worked, they were just told that all the decision makers in the Eagles front office all agreed on everything all the time.

Here's the thing that would give me pause about Heckert. When he was GM of the Eagles, Andy Reid actively campaigned on his behalf to get him another job elsewhere. He called the Falcons to recommend Heckert before they hired Thomas Dimitroff and he called Mike Holmgren in Cleveland to recommend him for the Browns job. Then when Joe Banner, who worked with Heckert in Philly, gets to Cleveland what does he do? Fires Heckert. Andy Reid then has a chance to hire him in KC and instead picks John Dorsey.

Why don't the people who have worked with Heckert and know him better than anyone seem to want to continue employing or working with him?

In the end, what does all this lead to me to say about Heckert? I don't know. Like I said, the Eagles did bring in good players when he was here, but it's very hard to say what level of influence he had there. People who have worked with him have nothing but good things to say, but do their actions match up with those words? I don't know...