There are a ton of different storylines this offseason for the Philadelphia Eagles. Who is going to play QB? What will the Eagles do with three first-round picks? What will they do with their flexible cap space?
One of the most underrated and under-reported storylines is the status of the Eagles front office members, specifically GM, Howie Roseman. Roseman signed a four-year extension in 2018. With his contract coming to an end next season, the question of whether or not Howie Roseman should stay or go has come into the limelight.
Like most abov- average GM’s, Roseman’s career has had plenty of excellent moves, coupled with some extremely bad decisions. No GM is perfect, but the top options usually have their good decisions far outweigh their mistakes. So as we get closer to the potential end of Howie Roseman’s contract, the debate of whether he should garner an extension or be let go will be one of the most hotly contested debates across the franchises’ fanbase.
And like any GM, to objectively judge if a GM should stay, the full body of work must be reviewed.
So let’s take a look at Roseman’s resume, and see if he deserves an extension in Philly.
Cap Manipulation
For many years, Howie Roseman was seen as one of the best GM’s when it came to cap manipulation. The ability to recover after one year from the “Dream Team” free agents, without putting the roster in too much of a hole was superb.
But restructured deals from the 2017 Super Bowl roster ended up blowing up in Roseman’s face for a good year and a half. While the team has recovered somewhat from the dead cap the franchise had to eat in 2020, it made the last year and a half more of a transition year with some of their better players.
All in all, cap manipulation is still seen as a Roseman’s strength. The team has done an excellent job of maintaining their win total for multiple years even surrounded by disappointing results.
Stay or Go : Stay
Carson Wentz and the QB position
Howie Roseman gets a net-zero for the work with and against Carson Wentz. He is mostly to blame for the downfall of Carson Wentz. Giving a large extension without Wentz playing a full 16 games was a surprise, and not giving the QB enough talent around him was a massive issue. Having to eat so much dead cap, and throw away a perceived franchise QB is a disaster any way you look at it. Throwing away so many different QB’s doesn’t help either. Foles, Vick, Bradford, Wentz, and potentially even Hurts being thrown aside is not something any GM should be commended for.
But, he does deserve credit for getting as much as he did for Carson Wentz and even Sam Bradford. It’s clear Roseman has an understanding of when to cut the cord with their starting QB’s. Getting two first-round picks for QB’s that clearly didn’t have it was highly impressive.
In the end, most GM’s shouldn’t get the opportunity Roseman has gotten for interchanging so many different QB’s.
Stay or Go : Go
Draft Success
Here’s another one that could go either way. Roseman has had many issues with the NFL Draft, as has every other GM in football.
Roseman has had some very solid drafts. His most recent one in 2021 brought in future Pro-Bowl talents in Landon Dickerson, DeVonta Smith, and Milton Williams. His 2018 Draft was Roseman at his best. Five picks, four of them are All-Pro or Pro-Bowl players while the fifth was traded for draft capital. He absolutely deserves credit for those excellent drafts.
He has also had his setbacks. Some of the biggest draft busts in team history have come under Roseman. Derek Barnett, Marcus Smith, Andre Dillard, Jalen Reagor are all players taken high in the draft, and has been a massive disappointment for the franchise. It took a while for the Eagles to have a draft selection make the pro bowl after Carson Wentz. However, his most recent drafts have shown some very high success rates.
As long as the Eagles maintain their draft strategy from last year, Roseman should get another shot here.
Stay or Go : Stay
Trade Success Rate
This is where Howie Roseman has been one of the best GM’s in football. Getting an All-Pro cornerback in Darius Slay for minor draft picks. Carson Wentz and Sam Bradford for first-round picks. Trading back in the 2021 draft for an extra first, and STILL getting DeVonta Smith. All of these moves have been beyond impressive and show that while Howie has his shortcomings in a lot of different areas, his success rate in trades is beyond absurdly impressive.
Stay or Go: Stay
Contract Extensions
Roseman deserves credit for the very manageable contract extensions given to players this past season.
Mailata, Maddox, Goedert and Sweat are all players who received relatively flexible extensions and the team was quickly rewarded after. But that goes back to his draft picks in 2018 he nailed.
The bulk of his contract extensions has been the other way around. Wentz’s extension turned out to be a disaster. The Alshon Jeffrey extension didn’t work out, and in terms of a franchise-great in Brandon Brooks, he didn’t play enough to confirm the extension was deserved. There are so many examples of Roseman’s extension has been very poor and it’s gotten in the way of the franchise taking the next step.
Stay or Go: Go
Free Agency Signings
Roseman gets credit for the franchises’ first Super Bowl win with all the important free agent signings made. Foles, Jeffery, Long, and Blount, are all players who stepped up when the team needed them and ended up winning the team’s first Lombardi.
But pretty much every signing before and after ended up being very poor. The Ryan Kerrigan and Eric Wilson signings this past off-season’s were a disaster. The “Dream Team” ended up being a fiasco that cost the coaching staff their job. There’s a long history of the Eagles making very poor free-agent decisions that have hurt their success as a franchise and that’s directly at the foot of Roseman.
Stay or Go: Go
Overall Decision: Stay…for now
There are plenty of reasons for the Eagles to both keep Roseman or let him walk away from the organization. The front office has clearly done a complete 180 in how they think as a franchise having dealt with the disastrous 2020 campaign. As long as the Eagles continue to show they have learned from their mistakes, the front office should be able to stay in-tact. If they go back to their mistake-filled run from 2018-2020, the Eagles will absolutely be looking for a new front office in 2023.
Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire
