More Eagles drama? Howie Roseman tells Nick Sirianni to play young players more

In press conferences, Howie Roseman’s usually tighter than a bull’s butt in fly season, but he might’ve let something slip Tuesday in Indianapolis.

The Eagles’ general manager was asked at the NFL Scouting Combine:

How do you view linebacker Nolan Smith heading into Year 2?

Roseman’s response indicated that he didn’t appreciate how little embattled head coach Nick Sirianni had used that first-round pick … and maybe how little Sirianni had used lots of other young players.

“I think that goes back to the point about some younger players, and kind of in retrospect just seeing him, certainly, in the playoff game, [being] one of the guys who played well in the playoff game,” Roseman replied. “Giving him a little bit more time during the year and experience … we talked about that.”

This came after a response to a question directed at the use of young players such as offensive linemen Cam Jurgens and Landon Dickerson, who were drafted with the intention of having them sit behind established players. That wasn’t the case with Smith and some others, and, largely unprompted, Roseman let it be known from the start that Sirianni should have played them more.

“I think when we look back, and Coach and I talk about it a little bit, it’s OK to play some young players. It’s OK for them to get experience and kind of see what you have,” Roseman said. “I think that, for us to play our young players, to develop them — I think that’s something that Coach and I have talked about to not be afraid of. That’s why you draft them. That’s why you sign them.”

If this sounds harsh, it is. Rarely do you see a GM publicly scold a coach over player usage.

Granted, there’s a way to hear those statements in the context of, “We need to make an institutional decision to play young guys more” — that is, the front office can insist that Smith and his peers get more snaps — but it didn’t sound that way, neither in the moment nor afterward.

» READ MORE: Hayes: Eagles veterans say Sirianni played favorites, as Hurts and Brown were treated ‘different’

Especially when Sirianni appeared to push back.

“My philosophy has always been play the guys that are going to help you win the game every week,” Sirianni replied, when specifically asked about playing young players. “Whoever gives us the best chance to win a football game, that’s what we’ll do. Young, old, middle — it doesn’t matter. We’re going to do what we need to do.”

So there.

Sirianni’s mindset makes sense, for a coach. But then, this is a tale as old as sports.

Coaches need to win to have good seasons and win playoff games to keep their jobs, so they tend to use the players who make the fewest mistakes.

On the other hand, GMs need to win for the next 10 seasons and prove they can draft potential stars to keep their jobs, so they want error-prone young players to play and develop and make them look good. This is especially true when you’re trying to maintain a reputation like Roseman’s. He won Executive of the Year after the 2017 and 2022 Super Bowl seasons, but, for the second time, he’s crashed in the subsequent season.

» READ MORE: Vic Fangio’s job: Make sure Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter, and Nolan Smith aren’t the latest Eagles DL busts

What’s more, Roseman’s legacy in the last decade of the draft is spotty, at best. He’s nailed some second-round picks, like Jalen Hurts, Dallas Goedert, Miles Sanders, Jurgens, and Dickerson, and first-rounder DeVonta Smith is a budding superstar. However, Roseman’s list of first-round disappointments is damning: Marcus Smith, Nelson Agholor, Derek Barnett, Andre Dillard, Jalen Reagor, and Jordan Davis all have underperformed to date, and a couple of them are outright busts. The jury’s still out on the 2023 first-round Georgia duo of Jalen Carter, a defensive tackle who played poorly late in the season, and Smith, who hardly played at all.

The Eagles drafted Nolan Smith with the 31st pick last season to add depth and performance at edge rusher, where 35-year-old Brandon Graham was playing on an expiring contract and where Haason Reddick was likely to ask for an extension or a trade after the season. Smith played just 188 snaps, about half as many as Graham and about one-fourth as many as Reddick and Josh Sweat. Not only did Smith get few chances to shine, starters Reddick and Sweat were overused. In particular, Sweat faded during the Eagles’ 1-6 swoon as he played about 200 more snaps than he’d played in either of the two previous seasons.

Smith spent the season in the spotlight not so much for what he was, but rather for what he wasn’t.

Right after the draft Roseman was criticized for drafting Smith instead of a safety, cornerback, or a traditional linebacker (Smith and Reddick are listed as linebackers but really play defensive end). As the season devolved and the Eagles’ linebackers, safeties, and cornerbacks struggled, that criticism grew ever louder. Throw in the year from Steelers corner Joey Porter Jr. and splash plays made by players like Cardinals defensive end BJ Ojulari, and the Smith pick looks more dubious.

It doesn’t help that, as Roseman probes and prods the newest crop of talent the combine, the Eagles’ needs at linebacker, corner, and safety are even more pressing. Roseman seems confident that he addressed the depth situation at edge rusher. Sirianni just failed to prove him right.

“(Smith’s) got all the right tools in his body. He’s got the right mentality,” Roseman said. “And at the same time, he’s got to go out and show it.”

Roseman did not confine his concerns to Smith; he said, “players,” plural. Roseman clearly has issues with how many of the young players have been used, most of whom play defense, and most of whom were drafted in the third round, or later, or not at all.

Nakobe Dean, Marlon Tuipulotu, Zech McPhearson, or Milton Williams probably could have played more, when they were healthy, over the past two seasons.

Josh Jobe, Kelee Ringo, and maybe even Mario Goodrich and Tristin McCollum probably deserved more snaps in the absence of corner Avonte Maddox and the decline of James Bradberry. On a team that hired Shaquille Leonard off the street to stink, Ben VanSumeren could’ve gotten more burn.

» READ MORE: As Haason Reddick trade talk heats up at the NFL combine, the Eagles continue to weigh his possible return

At any rate, the most alarming aspect of Tuesday’s word-salad buffet from Roseman, other than Sirianni admitting that he played favorites, was Roseman’s assertion that Sirianni hadn’t developed the young players that he should.

Next question:

How will this new philosophy sit with new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio — a 65-year-old, old-school, veteran-loving brontosaurus whose young players in Miami despised him?