Roseman gives himself high grade for Tate trade
PHILADELPHIA >> It was worth that touchdown catch in the wild card playoff win over Chicago for the Eagles to ship a third-round pick to the Detroit Lions for Golden Tate.
At least that’s what football operations chief Howie Roseman boldly proclaimed Tuesday. The way Trader Howie framed it, there was “No question” the price was right.
“When we made the trade, we were 4-4,” Roseman said. “We were looking for a spark. We were looking for more firepower on offense. When you talk about Golden, here’s a guy who’s got incredible character, incredible production, can really fit any scheme. Everyone in this building was incredibly excited about adding him to our football team.
“We don’t look back with regret. We look back at our process, and I feel very good about our process. We’re going to be aggressive and when we’re swinging and we’re aggressive, we feel like we’re going to be right a lot more than we’re going to be wrong. In this case, I feel very good about that. And you saw the contributions that he made in a big game. The stage isn’t too big for Golden Tate.”
It wasn’t a question of the stage being too big. Heck, Tate earned a Super Bowl championship ring with the Seahawks. What Roseman conveniently sidestepped was that Tate made that big play with Nick Foles playing quarterback. And that Foles is the guy who got Alshon Jeffery re-involved in the offense, that last receiver error in the playoff loss to the Saints notwithstanding.
Carson Wentz threw almost exclusively to Zach Ertz, who set a record for receptions by a tight end.
Roseman also failed to mention how the Eagles were lucky to win that playoff game where Tate made his money play in Chicago because of a missed field goal just before the buzzer. He might as well have taken credit for getting rid of Cody Parkey, who double-doinked the upright and crossbar or Treyvon Hester, who got a hand on the kick, although a lot of witnesses believe it actually deflected the ball toward the upright.
Tate made a big play, for sure. Is that worth a thirdrounder?
Rasul Douglas, Isaac Seumalo, Jordan Hicks, Josh Huff, Benny Logan and Nick Foles (2012) are the Birds’ last six third round picks.
Roseman obviously was posturing, as Tate is a free agent. The Eagles certainly would like to bring him back at their price.
For the record, Tate caught 44 passes for 517 yards (11.3 ypr.) and three TDs for the Lions. With the Eagles he had 30 grabs for 278 yards (9.3 ypr.) and one TD. In the playoffs he had seven receptions for 64 yards and the score. ••• The Eagles draft 25th overall in the first round, own two second-round picks, don’t have a thirdrounder but could have two compensatory picks, giving them nine in the April 25 NBA draft.
It’s early but it doesn’t sound like they’re going for offensive linemen in spite of the Achilles’ tendon tear to Pro Bowl right guard Brandon Brooks, the advancing age of soon-to-be 38-yearold tackle Jason Peters and the potential retirement of center Jason Kelce.
Head coach Doug Pederson feels badly for Brooks, who faces a long rehab. But there’s depth on the roster, at least in the minds of the coaching staff.
“Moving forward, I’m very comfortable,” Pederson said. “I’m not going to get into a lot of specifics, obviously, with each guy. And Howie’s alluded to the fact that we’d like to have them all back. That’s part of this process, that’s part of building relationships with our team. … But we’ve got a lot of confidence in some of our young players.
“We’ve got Jordan Mailata and (Matt) Pryor and, of course (Halapoulivaati Vaitai), who’s played a ton of snaps in his three years. And Isaac, and so a lot of confidence there, too. This will be a big offseason for those guys.”
Roseman said the draft was full of defensive ends and tackles.
“Really probably a historical defensive line group,” Roseman said. “And as it comes out, it’s a record number of underclassmen that have publicly declared.” ••• For now, it doesn’t sound like there’s a chance there will be a major change made in the offseason on Pederson’s coaching staff, say John DeFilippo rejoining the club as a coordinator or anything like that.
“This is a week of evaluations,” Pederson said. “We’re going to get through our roster this week as well as the coaches. But yeah, my three coordinators will be back.”
Mike Groh took over for Frank Reich (Colts head coach) as the offensive coordinator.