Can Howie Roseman handle the pressure of Jalen Hurts’ regression, Haason Reddick’s abandonment, and wobbly draft picks?
Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter must show out, the $255 million QB has to look the part, and Bryce Huff has to make people forget the man of the people. That's a lot of worry for a highly-strung GM.
Is time running out on Howie Roseman?
Between the $255 million quarterback, the last two first-round picks, a remade defensive backfield, and the abandonment of local star Haason Reddick, Roseman is juggling chainsaws. These are franchise-altering issues, and they are completely of his making. My biggest question doesn’t concern how any of the issues will turn out. Mine is: How will Howie handle the pressure?
We’ve seen Roseman demoted. We’ve seen him reascend, humbled. We’ve seen him win big and crow. We’ve seen him lose big, and eat crow. How will he act this year, with so much at stake? He has an immense influence on the team’s atmosphere. He’s always around. Every practice. Meetings with the coaches. In the locker room.
Will he be wound too tight, as he was after the 2017 Super Bowl season? Or will he let the coaches coach and let the players play, as he did in the return to the Super Bowl after 2022?
It might not be imminent in 2024, because if this season is lost, the Eagles’ general manager can still blame coach Nick Sirianni. After all, it was owner Jeffrey Lurie who hired Sirianni in 2021, and it was Lurie who let him remain after the Eagles’ historic collapse of 2023, when Lurie and Roseman rebuilt Sirianni’s staff.
But if the Eagles fall flat again in 2025, the Roseman Era will almost certainly end. Consider how close it came to ending last winter.
League sources told me then that Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Lurie had a conversation in which Kraft cautioned Lurie about Bill Belichick’s shortcomings. They believed that conversation was the main reason Lurie stopped thinking about firing Sirianni and hiring Belichick. If Lurie had hired Belichick, that would have been the end of Howie, sooner or later, because, sooner or later, Belichick would have embarked on a full rebuild.
That day might still come, sooner or later. It all depends on how things go in the next 17 to 34 games.
These things.
1. Will Jordan Davis be a bust?
In 2022, Roseman ignored red flags concerning Davis’ weight and professionalism and traded three late-round picks to move up two spots and draft the Georgia defensive tackle at No. 13. Davis went before Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton, who was a first-team All Pro in his second season, and Chiefs end George Karlaftis, who has two Super Bowl rings and 16½ sacks in his first two seasons. Davis has 2½ sacks of quarterbacks, which, apparently, is how many sacks of Burger King he has each night. By the end of the 2023 season, he could barely get off the ball.
The, er, big news out of the offseason workouts last week was that Davis was finally able to keep his weight around 350 pounds, in part by indulging in less-sugary drinks. This guy is a Crystal Light endorsement waiting to happen. Roseman better hope so, anyway.
2. Will Jalen Carter become a star?
Different guy, same school, same position, similar professionalism issues. Roseman traded up in 2023 to draft Carter ninth overall. Carter finished the season with six sacks but had 2½ in the last 11 games after the “rookie wall” came crashing down on him. At least, Roseman better hope he hit the rookie wall, because if he whiffed on a second red-flag defensive tackle in two years, Lurie will have to start examining Roseman’s draft acumen more minutely.
» READ MORE: Vic Fangio’s job: Make sure Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter, and Nolan Smith aren’t the latest Eagles DL busts
Roseman drafted Andre Dillard in 2019 and Jalen Reagor in 2020 before hitting on DeVonta Smith in 2021. If the Georgia tackles struggle, he’ll have drafted one exceptional player in the last five first rounds.
Oof.
3. Will Jalen Hurts earn his $255 million?
In 2022, the Eagles quarterback looked worth every bit of the money he got after that season. In 2023, he looked like a mediocre, run-first, star-dependent game mis-manager. He’s on his fourth coordinator in five seasons. Can Kellen Moore justify Roseman’s biggest expenditure?
4. What’s up with these DBs?
Roseman drafted Toledo outside corner Quinyon Mitchell in the first round and traded up to draft Iowa’s Cooper DeJean, who projects at nickel, outside, and safety. He re-signed ever-injured corner Avonte Maddox, whom he dearly loves. He signed former Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson. He gambled on veteran corner Isaiah Rodgers, who lost 2023 for placing bets on NFL games. Darius Slay, 33, lost the final four regular-season games and the playoff loss to a knee injury. James Bradberry, 31 in August, was as effective as Slay in those five games.
The most effective returning defensive back is speed-deficient safety Reed Blankenship.
If Roseman hasn’t fixed the defensive backfield, not much else matters.
5. Unpopularity Inc.
In the winter of 2009, Joe Banner, Roseman’s genius mentor (no sarcasm; Banner was brilliant), failed to re-sign safety Brian Dawkins, perhaps the most popular player in franchise history. Dawkins made two more Pro Bowls and cemented his place in Canton.
In March, Roseman signed former Jets edge rusher Bryce Huff for three years and $51 million. Three weeks later, Roseman traded the Camden native and Temple product Reddick to the Jets for a conditional third-round pick.
Huff collected 13½ sacks the last two seasons for the Jets, 10 of them in 2023.
Reddick collected 30½ sacks the last two seasons for the Eagles, counting the playoffs, including the sack that knocked 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy out of the NFC championship game and assured the Eagles a trip to Super Bowl LVII.
Reddick could turn out to be Roseman’s Brian Dawkins. If so, bye bye, Howie.
Now, that’s pressure.