Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie on Howie Roseman’s ability to find front-office rising stars

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie addressed reporters during his annual press conference during the league meetings earlier this week at the Arizona Biltmore resort.

He fielded an array of questions for nearly 30 minutes. Topics spanned from the return of the team’s vintage kelly green uniforms to the looming big-money extension designated for franchise quarterback Jalen Hurts.

However, Lurie’s longest and most detailed answer was generated from a question revolving around the front office’s current state under general manager Howie Roseman.

Last offseason, the Eagles lost four members of their front office in Brandon Brown (Giants), Ian Cunningham (Bears), Catherine Raîche (Browns), and Andy Weidl (Steelers) — all of whom departed for assistant general manager jobs across the league. This has been common practice with the Roseman-led front office serving as a revolving door; a handful of past executives have gained valuable experience before departing for more prominent jobs elsewhere.

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But Roseman, who is in his 24th season with the Eagles, continues to replenish those key positions with rising stars. On Tuesday, according to Lurie, Roseman spoke in front of every single NFL owner about his mindset when it comes to repeatedly replenishing his staff.

“I just want to say, Howie — you can’t underestimate the job he’s done the last few years to elevate from Super Bowl team to having to deal with every issue you possibly can deal with in terms of trying to get back to the Super Bowl again,” Lurie said. “It’s a tough job, and he’s got a great staff. They’re unknowns. Those assistant GMs became GMs because they are so well-trained, and they’re not just trained on scouting, they’re not just trained on analytics, they’re not just trained on football ops in certain ways.

“It was brought up in one of the meetings [Tuesday], and Howie was asked to speak on it in front of all the owners, [how] he and the organization trains these people. They’re talented to begin with, but they have multiple responsibilities. They get access to everything. They’re not just, ‘Here’s the scout.’ That scout needs to understand at some point how to use resources, why we do certain things, why the salary cap management takes place where it is, what’s the difference between analysis on film and analysis on data and how that collaborates and works together. It’s a culture of curiosity and information and instinct and all that.

“[Roseman] replaced those assistant GMs with people who are extremely bright, have incredible futures, and some of them are gonna be GMs in this league. It won’t be that long. He thinks outside the box, not only on personnel, trades, acquisitions. It’s a six-month, seven-month offseason. You don’t participate for a week or two. It’s every day for seven months. It’s a much more global view of roster building. Looking at weaknesses of teams and who might be willing to trade for [former safety C.J.] Gardner-Johnson or entice [free agent defensive tackle] Linval Joseph to come back or things like that.

“One of the things I love about Howie is he will bring in people, they’re not yes-people. They’re people he admires from afar or they’re just really bright.”

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The Eagles’ front office is filled with rising talent, featuring potential future NFL general managers in assistant GMs Alec Halaby and Jon Ferrari, director of scouting Brandon Hunt, directors of player personnel Alan Wolking and Charles Walls, director of draft management Phil Bhaya, and director of personnel operations Ameena Soliman.

Additionally, the Eagles recently hired Adam Berry, the twin brother of Andrew Berry, a former Eagles executive and current general manager of the Cleveland Browns, away from Goldman Sachs.

“This is just a really, really bright guy from Goldman,” Lurie said. “And it’s very unusual to be able to entice somebody who is — [Adam] has the same character and intelligence as Andrew in many ways. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t develop into a general manager in this league down the road. That’s what we do. And that’s what [coach] Nick Sirianni does.

“They’re grinders. As an owner, when you have a quarterback that’s an ultimate grinder — just an incredible person — a coach that’s like that, a GM that’s like that, their staffs become like that, the culture of the building is based on a grinding philosophy. We’re never satisfied. Whether we had won the Super Bowl or not, [there’s] that hunger for more. I have it. Everyone has it.”