You may have seen a teenie little tweet a few days ago that I put out regarding Howie Roseman. If you didn’t, here it is:
As you can see by the comments, likes, and retweets, it made the rounds pretty quickly.
People like me, and like everyone on Philly Sports Network and sites alike, work hard to earn the trust of people around the league so we can build credibility. Whether it is agents, coaches (both former and current), players, or reporters, we do our best to earn their trust so we can earn your trust. We get bashed by the “known” guys, we get called “internet scouts” and lousy “bloggers”. That’s fine with us. We care about your opinions.
That being said, let’s get down to business, shall we?
The tweet
My tweet above was in reference to Jeff McLane’s point on 97.5:
Of course, many people are down on Jeff McLane because he always seems to have a report like this. He had his “Jim Schwartz has a lot of power” article last year.
To see just how accurate this information was, I contacted someone I have been in touch with for over a year. This source has provided us at Philly Sports Network with very accurate information about a few different things within the organization, so I wanted to see if he knew about this.
Let’s dive into this information.
Clarification
After I put out that tweet, a reporter I greatly respect contacted me and said that it’s not uncommon for GMs to have say on that matter, but that coaches know about it throughout the week. So I asked my source to go deeper.
Normally how operations work with a team, in cases of injury, the GM may go to the head coach and say we’re going to bring this guy in or that guy in or we’ll move this guy up. But most times with the roster, who you play and who you want to play, most times that’s the head coach that’s making that decision. Usually that’s the head coach or the positional coaches if the head coach wants to know who they want to play.
In terms of how Howie’s involvement is different:
Comparing Howie Roseman to other GMs, he’s more involved than most. Most GMs would meet with the coaches and see what they need and do what they need and then get the hell out the way and let you coach.
Could this be the reason why we saw so much of Mack Hollins last year over Ward, or JJAW this year over Fulgham, as suggested in 97.5’s tweet?
What about L.J. Fort? He was cut to make room for the Orlando Scandrick signing, but this was a move every non-player in the building knew was coming. But above all else, Howie Roseman wanted the compensatory pick that came with cutting Fort. The fourth-round pick that came with cutting Fort was nullified when the 49ers cut Jordan Matthews in late October. To gain that pick back, Andrew Sendejo was cut prior to the Week 10 deadline.
Note: Sendejo was bad and deserved to be cut.
Now you’re seeing Fort doing great things in Baltimore, and may very well be a huge factor in Sunday’s game. The Eagles’ linebackers? Well..
Linebacker issues
[The Eagles are] too reliant on LBs who were ST guys to now play defense. Howie Roseman doesn’t believe in strong LB play, he believes you can get a LB from anywhere. Jim goes from having defenses with strong LBs to what he has now, because elsewhere he had GMs who would get who he wanted.
Prior to joining the Eagles, Jim Schwartz spent one year with the Bills as their defensive coordinator. There he had Preston Brown and Nigel Bradham both have over 100 tackles. He had three players on the defensive line combine for 34.5 sacks. He had a top-five defense that dominated almost everywhere.
Before Buffalo, Schwartz was the head coach of the Lions for five seasons.
Linebacker play each year:
- 2009: Larry Foote 99 tackles. DeAndre Levy 85 tackles.
- 2010: Julian Peterson 83 tackles. DeAndre Levy 72 tackles.
- 2011: Stephen Tulloch 111 tackles. DeAndre Levy 109 tackles.
- 2012: Stephen Tulloch 112 tackles. Justin Durant 103 tackles. DeAndre Levy 82 tackles.
- 2013: Stephen Tulloch 135 tackles. DeAndre Levy 118 tackles
Jim had one or two dominant linebackers in every season as a head coach in Detroit. How about his time in Tennessee as defensive coordinator?
His last few seasons as DC had the likes of Keith Bulluck, Stephen Tulloch, and David Thornton collecting massive amounts of tackles. With his history of linebackers who were above average to great, can we really doubt that Jim doesn’t have say on who he has at LB for the Eagles?
When questioned about the LB play, Jim had this to say:
His “I don’t make those decisions” was clarified:
So if Schwartz isn’t in charge of who plays at linebacker, who does?
Note: this does NOT excuse Schwartz for playing #47 as much as he is.
Continued on the page below.
Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire
