The Eagles General Manager
Howie, Howie, Howie.
He lives in the moment, but that moment may forever be 2017.
We have to hand it to Howie. He destroyed what Chip Kelly “built” and quickly rebuilt the team to a Super Bowl-winning team in two years. Extremely impressive.
He was able to manage the cap and contracts so adeptly, that we were all convinced that the Eagles would stay atop the salary cap savings year after year.
But what actually happened?
We were blinded by the fact that Howie’s draft selections have largely been unfruitful. One Pro Bowl player since 2016. That selection, Carson Wentz, didn’t even play in it due to injury/Super Bowl season. Since 2010, the Eagles have had 21 different players named to the Pro Bowl. Of those 21, only 7 have been drafted in 2010 or after. Of those 7, only 6 were drafted by the Eagles.
The 6 drafted is below the league average of 8.5.
The Super Bowl-winning team had a ton of one-year deals and a few two year deals. We had one year of Blout, Smith, and Robinson. We had four more games of Ajayi in 2018 and a resigning late 2019 that didn’t work. Mychal Kendricks was released. We were lucky enough to have two seasons of Chris Long.
Departures that were never fully planned for by adequate drafting and/or developing.
The running back room still hasn’t had a Blout-type back since he left, the wide receiver room maybe has a speed threat like Smith in Hightower, the corners outside of Slay are disastrous, and we’re still extremely old on the defensive line. Josh Sweat and Derek Barnett are showing flashes opposite Brandon Graham, but neither have had the impact Chris Long had in his short stint.
Back in February, Howard told ProFootballTalk the following:
We have a quarterback that we think is a tremendous player, tremendous leader, and so we’ve got to make sure he’s protected first and foremost, so we’ve put so many investments in the offensive line. And that he’s got playmakers at his disposal. Always looking to surround him with playmakers.
How did that work out? We look around the league at how other teams have helped their franchise quarterbacks and lament how Howie has failed to do that for Wentz. The Reagor, Hightower, and Watkins picks were fine, but relying on hope that Jeffery and Jackson would return to form was extremely irresponsible. Howie allowed DeAndre Hopkins and Stefon Diggs become league leaders in receiving for other young quarterbacks and all we were given was “we were in it until the end”.
The Jalen Hurts pick was a combination of head-scratching and understandable. A quarterback in the second round? Well, we need a backup to develop. But then you hit Carson with:
How’d you do that, Howie? How did you continue to support Carson after the pick? Trade for Goodwin? Wow!
Howie furthered his own hole by signing Jason Peters and ultimately giving him a raise when Andre Dillard went down.
Howie failed to protect Carson Wentz and he failed to protect the long term success of the Eagles. He did so by failing to make the necessary moves to provide Wentz with sufficient playmakers and he did so by continuing to push contracts further into deferred money.
Now the Eagles are stuck with a QB controversy and a bunch of Bobby Bonilla’s.
This team is a mess, but make sure you place the blame on the entire product and not just one sole person.
Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire
