San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
GM worked his ‘magic’ in quick rebuild
Five seasons ago, the Philadelphia Eagles toppled the New England Patriots for the franchise’s first Super Bowl title after a breakout season from a young quarterback, behind a brash coach in his second season there, with a Top 5 offense and defense that defended the conference’s No. 1 seed.
As the franchise stands on the precipice of another Super Bowl berth, the cast populating those roles has largely been swapped out for upgrades.
In lieu of Doug Pederson, fired in 2021 after a 411-1 season, stands trashtalking coach Nick Sirianni. Quaterback Carson Wentz, signed to a $128 million contract extension in 2019, is gone (as is his backup, Nick Foles), replaced by prospective league MVP Jalen Hurts. The lineup on both sides of the ball is populated by impact players opportunistically hand-picked in the draft or scooped up in free agency.
One of the few constants: general manager Howie Roseman, who survived a role change and navigated middling seasons to orchestrate the Eagles’ turnaround through a mix of bold and aggressive trades and signings that have worked in the team’s favor. He declined to comment, but veterans of similar jobs noted the challenges of working against fast rebuilds in the NFL.
“To have the guts to face very difficult decisions head-on and make moves for the betterment of the organization — and they work — to me, that speaks volumes to Howie’s approach,” said Thomas Dimitroff, general manager for the Atlanta Falcons from 2008-20. “There aren’t that many in the league right now who could go toe to toe with Howie in that space.”
NFL teams that win championships with young rosters usually face tough choices about committing significant money to the players who could form the core for multiple winning seasons. But when those contracted players don’t perform as well as expected, untangling the roster often takes years before the franchise contends for a title again. Roseman’s daring approach is the rare exception, although it wasn’t without errors.
“It’s easy to try to win people and keep people on your positive side. You know, like, ‘I’m going to do this because I don’t want the criticism out there,’” Dimitroff said. “There are oftentimes people out there in that role who are concerning themselves too much about how they’re perceived versus doing what’s best for the organization — but that’s not Howie.”
The post-title rebuild wasn’t Roseman’s first. In 2015, the Eagles stripped Roseman of his general manager title and handed the roster decisions to Chip Kelly, then the team’s coach. A disaster followed: Kelly traded running back LeSean McCoy, the Eagles’ best offensive player. The Eagles were 6-9 before firing Kelly in the final week of that season.
“Most people would have been kind of defeated by that and discouraged,” Joe Banner, the Eagles’ team president from 200112, said of Roseman’s setbacks.
“He used that time to try to look back and learn from any mistakes he made so that if he did get another chance, he was even better.”
With Kelly gone, the Eagles returned roster decisions to Roseman. Since then, he has been one of the most aggressive general managers in the league, often adding established players who contribute immediately by capitalizing on other teams’ miscues.
Many of those offseason pickups fortified the Eagles’ defense. In March, Roseman lured free-agent linebacker Haason Reddick from the Carolina Panthers with a threeyear deal heavy on guaranteed money, making him an anchor of the pass rush. Reddick had 16 of the team’s league-leading 70 sacks this season.
Offenses picked on Eagles defensive backs not named Darius Slay last season, so Roseman pounced when the New York Giants released cornerback James Bradberry in May to make cap space. The Eagles were able to sign Bradberry to a oneyear deal largely because he wanted to play alongside Slay, and Bradberry was named to the All-Pro second team this month.
After the New Orleans Saints couldn’t agree on a contract extension for safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Roseman picked him up on the final year of his rookie deal in exchange for a late-round draft pick. Gardner-Johnson tied for the league-lead in interceptions (six) despite missing five games with a lacerated kidney.
Still, Roseman’s most significant move came on the night of the 2022 draft. He traded for Tennessee Titans wide receiver A.J. Brown, who couldn’t reach a contract agreement with his former team. Roseman signed Brown to a four-year, $100 million contract, which has quickly paid dividends. Brown elevated the Eagles’ offense to one of the most dynamic in the league, and he finished the season with the fourthmost receiving yards in the NFL.
Roseman also traded in the draft’s first round to select University of Georgia defensive lineman Jordan Davis, who has been a force in their run defense.
“Dude, Howie Roseman is working that Howie Roseman magic,” said Jason Kelce, an Eagles center who was hosting a live draft show when the trade happened. He added: “I’m like on Christmas right now. Howie Roseman is Santa Claus.”
Regardless of whether Philadelphia again lifts the Lombardi Trophy, Roseman will again face problems over how to best spend for the future. Hurts is in the third year of his rookie contract, and a league — or Super Bowl — MVP award could put him in line for a marketsetting extension. Playmakers compelled to overachieve their one-year deals will be due for salary talks, and with 19 potential free agents this offseason, Roseman might be in the same position as the capstrapped general managers he lurked last year.
But Roseman and the Eagles have six picks in April’s draft, including the 10th overall selection (from the Saints in the Gardner-Johnson trade). That means the Eagles’ postseason games aren’t the team’s only showcase worth watching.