There’s the preseason, the regular season, the post season and… “Howie SZN.” The three-letter acronym for “season” has become a staple phrase within the fanbase and even in the media due to the fact of how the Eagles general manager seemingly finds ways to surprise the league and hit on free agents at a very solid rate.
At times, Roseman appears to turn whatever he touches into gold, a la the 2017 season where the majority of his signings played an integral part in helping the franchise win their first Lombardi Trophy.
With free agency right around the corner as the new league year starts on Wednesday, March 12, Roseman will look to work his magic yet again and wave his wand to find creative ways to resign some of the Eagles’ current free agents in Zack Baun, Milton Williams, Josh Sweat and Mekhi Becton. More than likely, he and the Eagles won’t be able to resign the quartet in its entirety, but Baun has to be a main priority.
In the pair of Super Bowl winning seasons, Roseman’s ability to cash in on free agents and hoisting the trophy go hand in hand.
It’s fitting as the team comes off a second Super Bowl victory, we rank Roseman’s top ten free agent signings. The way I rank them are based on who helped lead the team to one of their two Super Bowls. Are there players that might be ranked higher than others who didn’t have as great of a career or who aren’t as talented? Yes. However, hanging banners and winning championships is the end game and carries more weight.
10. Jake Elliott
Elliott wasn’t the most popular Eagle this past season after taking a step back from being one of the most reliable kickers in the league. However, when it mattered most, Elliott was perfect in Super Bowl LIX going 4-for-4 on field goals, including a 50-yarder which was his kryptonite this season, while not missing on any of his four extra points.
In 2017, his most memorable kick was his game-winning, 61-yarder in Week 3 against the Giants where if they lost that game, the Eagles start the season 1-2. Instead, he gets lifted on his teammates’ shoulders and solidifies himself as the kicker. He also made a key 46-yarder in Super Bowl LII to give the Eagles an eight-point lead which gets lost in that glorious first Super Bowl win for the franchise.
Elliott, who is a free agent as well this year, is tied for the most made field goals in Super Bowl history with nine and is the only kicker in Super Bowl history with a field goal percentage of 100% who has attempted seven or more field goals in the big game.
9. Chris Long
The situational pass rusher is the definition of a player who etches his name in lore with a fanbase and team because of what they did in the playoffs. Long was nothing short of fantastic in the 2017 Super Bowl run after signing a two-year deal on his 32nd birthday.
The veteran already had a ring with the Patriots in the 28-3 comeback against Atlanta in Super Bowl LI the year prior to the Eagles winning it all. Long used his experience to help the Eagles when it mattered most, racking up five quarterback hits in the playoffs. None bigger than of course the one on Vikings quarterback Case Keenum to force a bad pass that Patrick Robinson took to the house to erase an early 7-0 deficit as the Eagles would go on to rout the Vikings in the NFC Championship game.
Long was also phenomenal off the field, donated his entire 2017 salary to charity and in 2018 was named the Walter Payton Man of the Year recipient for his efforts regarding clean water, military appreciation and youth education.
8. Haason Reddick
Reddick was a great signing for the Eagles when he inked a three-year, $45 million deal in 2022. Add in the local ties of being from Camden, New Jersey and playing at Temple as a walk-on while his mom took out a loan to purchase a meal plan so he could eat with his teammates, it was a great story from the start.
The talented pass rusher paid dividends early for the Eagles, racking up 16 sacks in his first season in South Philly leading the daunting defense who racked up a total of 70 sacks on the year, just two shy of tying the NFL season-record set by the 1984 Chicago Bears. Anchoring a vicious pass rush, Reddick helped lead the Eagles to the Super Bowl that year, ultimately falling to Kansas City 38-35 where Reddick and the pass rush was neutralized due to the poor field conditions in Arizona.
Reddick was unable to win a Super Bowl, and it got a little messy between him and the team as he held out to start the final year of his contract at the start of this season looking for a contract extension. The Eagles traded him to the New York Jets for a 2026 third-round pick that turned into a second-round selection because Reddick did not have 10 sacks in 2024, part of the parameters agreed upon between the two teams. (Another Howie masterclass).
7. LeGarrette Blount
Like Long, Blount joined the Eagles the year after he won the Super Bowl with the Patriots and played a vital role in the Eagles’ success in 2017. A year after leading the NFL with 18 rushing touchdowns, the bruising running back fit right in with the team and fans with his ability to bulldoze would-be tacklers out of his way with his brute strength. In the regular season he rushed for 766 yards with just two rushing scores but is remembered most for what he did in the Super Bowl.
Although scoring a touchdown in each of the first two games of the playoffs, Blount rushed for just 19 and 21 yards respectively in the pair of contests. However, he saved his best for last, racking up 90 yards, including a 21-yard rushing touchdown in the Super Bowl win over his former team.
6. Alshon Jeffery
Signing a one-year deal with the Eagles in 2017 didn’t look like a needle moving transaction as the team was struggling to get production from the wideout position since Jeremy Maclin left in 2014 as a free agent. On top of that, the former Chicago Bear was coming off a down year where he had just two receiving touchdowns and played in just 12 games.
Jeffery turned out to be more than what the Eagles could have hoped for.
The downfield threat hauled in nine touchdowns, the second-most in any season of his nine-year career and had 789 receiving yards in the regular season. However, the wideout shined when the lights were brightest. Across the three playoff games, Jeffery caught 12 of his 18 targets for 219 yards and three touchdowns while making one of the best catches by an Eagles’ wide receiver in the Super Bowl, leaping and spinning in the air to snag a deep pass from Nick Foles to give the team a lead near the end of the first quarter in Super Bowl LII.
5. Brandon Brooks
The first and only offensive lineman on the list (Mekhi Becton gets an honorable mention), Brooks was one of the best to do it at the right guard position and closed out his nine-year career making three Pro Bowls over his four years with the Eagles.
Brooks, who started his career with Houston, signed with the Eagles in 2016 for five years and $40 million. He became a key cog on the offensive line and helped protect Nick Foles en route to the 41-point performance the offense put up in their win in Super Bowl LII.
Unfortunately, injuries quickly derailed the end of the lineman’s career. A shoulder surgery forced him to miss the 2019 playoffs and in 2020, he tore his Achillies which caused him to miss the entire season. Brooks’ health wouldn’t last long in 2022 as he suffered a pectoral strain in the second game of the season, ultimately forcing his hand to retire at age 32.
Off the field, Brooks became an advocate for mental health and received his MBA at The University of Pennsylvania. He is currently an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.
4. Zack Baun
If the 2024-25 season is the only one that Baun plays in an Eagles’ uniform, which hopefully it’s not, it could go down as one of the best seasons ever from a linebacker and defensive player in franchise history. We here at PSN have reported and documented at length the inspiring story that Baun became. From a special team’s player with New Orleans to an All-Pro linebacker anchoring a Super Bowl winning defense, it still doesn’t seem like Baun’s season was real.
Signing an unassuming one-year, $3.5 million contract to serve more as a potential depth piece at a position the Eagles historically don’t allocate a lot of money towards, Baun exploded on the scene within the scheme implemented by Vic Fangio. A match made in heaven some would even say and quite the return on investment for Roseman and the team.
Baun made one of the most athletic plays by a linebacker in the Super Bowl, diving head first to intercept a Patrick Mahomes pass deep in Kansas City territory to help the Eagles storm out to a 24-0 lead at halftime. The Eagles would love to re-sign Baun, but it’s understood that he has created quite the market for his services. The Eagles might not get a hometown discount as the linebacker looks for a huge and deserving payday.
3. Malcom Jenkins
We enter the legends status in these final three free agents that Roseman signed, starting with Jenkins who became an Eagles legend during his tenure with the franchise. The safety played with the Eagles from 2014-2019 after initially signing a 3-year, $15.5 million contract after he finished his rookie deal with New Orleans. He then resigned with the team in 2016 with a 4-year, $35 million extension.
Jenkins embodied the soul of the city and was the driving force for the Eagles in that 2017 season which became synonymous with Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares” hit song that became the team’s anthem and the city’s underdog mentality. The longtime safety also was an iron man, who rarely took plays off who played and started in all of the possible 96 regular season games with the Eagles and started in 191 of his 199 regular season games in his career.
His selflessness, leadership and his production has cemented himself as a fan-favorite and Eagle legend.
2. Nick Foles
The first quarterback to lead the Eagles to their first ever Super Bowl victory had claimed the top spot on such rankings since the 2017 season for good reason. The savior. “BDN”. Whatever nickname you want to give Foles, he delivered a season-saving performance that will go down in Philadelphia sports lore until the end of time. Contemplating retirement just two years prior, he was brought in to be the backup, sat on the bench and watched Carson Wentz put together an MVP worthy season before tearing his ACL in that Rams game.
Foles comes in and didn’t allow the offense to falter. He called for the famous “Philly Philly” in the Super Bowl, creating one of the greatest moments in the Super Bowl and Philadelphia sports history and is memorialized forever with a statue down at the Sports Complex in South Philly. He went on to win Super Bowl MVP after throwing for 373 yards, three touchdowns and of course catching one.
The quarterback will forever carry legend status.
1. Saquon Barkley
There’s a new king of free agent signings by Roseman and it’s rather obvious. The Eagles stunned the league when they inked the running back to a three-year, $37.75 million contract, luring him away from the New York Giants who committed arguably the biggest botch job in the public eye when HBO’s Hard Knocks aired the episode where general manager Joe Schoen miscalculated Barkley’s potential suitors terribly and owner Jim Mara said “I’ll have a tough time sleeping if Saquon goes to Philadelphia.”
It’s safe to say Mara didn’t sleep much this season. Barkley galloped his way to an all-time season for a running back, pacing the league with his 2,005 yards, which was also good for the 8th all-time in a single season in NFL history. He set the all-time rushing record between regular season and postseason, racking up 2,405 rushing yards. Barkley rushed for 13 touchdowns while adding two more receiving. He was a highlight reel in the making week in and week out and was in the MVP discussion.
The list of memorable moments for the running back is as long as a CVS receipt.
His first signature moment as an Eagle was in that slog of a game in New Orleans, where the Eagles were trailing 3-0 early in the fourth quarter. Barkley ripped off his first monster rush of the season to ignite the team to a victory.
How about his insane backwards leap in the Jacksonville game?
Or his dismantling of the Los Angeles Rams in two different games this season. His 255-yard game against the Rams where he ripped off a pair of 70-plus yard scoring runs was followed by his Snow Bowl II scurry to the endzone in blizzard like conditions in the NFC Divisional Round for 78-yard electrifying run.
However, his most defining moment came a week later in the NFC Championship game against the Commanders. A team who was feeling quite confident. Barkley, on his first touch, on a play that was switched by Jalen Hurts, took it to the house for 60-yards to deliver a gut punch to the Commanders who ate up more than half of the opening quarter with a drive that ended in a field goal.
Barkley has a chance to win more titles with the Eagles, but his 2024 season alone puts him atop the free agent signings by Roseman and arguably, the best in league history.
Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
