Eagles brain trust of Howie Roseman, Andy Weidl say remote NFL draft war rooms are fully armed and ready

The impetus was more insomnia than fear of a pandemic, a few years back when Howie Roseman enlisted Eagles video and IT staffers to create a home office setup equal to what the general manager had at the team’s headquarters.

Vice president of football technology Pat Dolan was in charge of duplicating Roseman’s NovaCare office at his Main Line home.

“He gave me all the bells and whistles so I can watch tape, [access] the scouting system, so I had all the resources at my disposal,” Roseman said in a Thursday predraft video conference with reporters. “He did that because there would be times, we’d be in the offseason, we’d be late at night, and I wouldn’t have everything I needed.”

Now, coronavirus quarantining will cause the NFL draft to be held remotely next Thursday through Saturday. Commissioner Roger Goodell will announce picks from his Westchester County, N.Y., basement. (Bovada will allow you to place a bet on what Goodell will be wearing.) Roseman said he feels no disadvantage.

“There’s really no excuses,” Roseman said. “It’s incredible. It’s a great tribute to our staff, to put us in the position that [preparing for the draft from home] has really been seamless.”

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Instead of a physical draft room, Roseman said there will be “different [computer-link] rooms, big rooms, smaller rooms” as the Eagles make their picks. He said he would try to remotely re-create his draft-day tradition of going around the room and fist-bumping everyone before activities begin.

As usual, senior director of college scouting Anthony Patch will monitor the picks being made ahead of the Eagles’ draft slots, and advise on the time remaining for the pick to be made.

This has been a draft process like no other, with college pro days, medical rechecks, and in-person visits with prospects curtailed. Roseman and player personnel vice president Andy Weidl said they feel prepared.

“I’m sure there are a lot of players in this draft who are sick and tired of seeing 215 numbers come up on their phone,” Roseman said. “Guys are taking it as their responsibility, whether it’s scouts, whether it’s coaches, to make sure they know everything about these guys, to make sure that they’re getting their work done to know as much as they’d known if they’d met in person.”

Weidl noted that the important work on college campuses, at All-Star games and the scouting combine proceeded as usual, before the coronavirus hit.

“Our staff has been aggressive and creative. … We’ve done a really good job in getting to know these players, we feel.”

In South Jersey, Weidl has taken over his wife’s home office setup, he said. He, too, credited Dolan and staff with giving him what he needed to function, as Weidl prepares for his first draft as a personnel head.

It’s a crucial draft for the Eagles, who ended up with just five picks in the last two drafts. They have eight this year, amid what Roseman has called a “retooling.”

“They’ve been absolute rock stars. This has been a seamless transition. We’ve been efficient, we’ve been able to get our work done,” Weidl said. “The connectivity we felt as one with our group last week, 30-people-plus on the calls, was outstanding. It was a great transition.”

The biggest unknown in this draft is how to accurately assess medical concerns. Roseman indicated that chief medical officer Arsh Dhanota and other medical staffers have been trying to amass information from afar, since they are unable to do exams in person.

“Arsh is unbelievable. He’s dealing with so much on his plate right now. … I can’t imagine he’s sleeping right now,” Roseman said.

There has been speculation that teams might trade less than usual during this draft, as they juggle all their internal communications and adjust to a radically different process. Roseman, who has drafted in his assigned first-round slot only once in the last four years, said he doesn’t see that being a problem.

“We’re having the same conversations around the league that we always do, a week out from the draft,” said Roseman, who added that during the draft, there is never any face-to-face contact with other teams anyway.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a lack of communication … we all have each other’s numbers, we all have multiple phone lines, I think there’ll be the same level of communication.”

Roseman said he was on a chat with several other GMs recently on which they discussed strategies for keeping their kids from bothering them during the remote draft.

He was asked if the trade value of 2021 picks changes, given that no one knows right now what sort of college football season there might be, or if there will be one at all.

“You could drive yourself crazy with trying to get involved with all the scenarios,” Roseman said. “What if it’s the opposite?” In other words, what if there is enough of a college season to make accurate assessments, and it turns out to be a really good draft class, but you’ve already traded away picks at a discount?

“We’re going to control what we can control, and that’s this year’s draft,” he said.

Another widely voiced concern has been the postdraft process – the hours after the draft when teams often bid against one another for undrafted free agents they’ve targeted.

It’s easy to envision, say, Weidl on one phone nailing down a contract with a player and his agent, while Roseman is doing the same thing with another agent and player, a guy the Eagles tabbed for the same roster spot.

Steelers GM Kevin Colbert recently suggested adding three rounds to this draft for that reason, but nothing was changed.

“That process is hectic, to say the least, when we’re all together. Now we have this situation where there are going to be people who are going to be handling certain positions,” Roseman said. He said the solution, beyond designating position groups to specific staffers, is to “overcommunicate” during the process.

Roseman joked about holding a mock UDFA draft, since the NFL is going to have a mock draft with GMs to make sure all the links are working.

Weidl said a lot of the UDFA work is done before the draft.

“A lot of it is about relationships and connectivity in this business … It’s about being a good salesperson, being a good recruiter.”

Though there are obvious downsides to not having prospects visit in person, Weidl said he thought his video chats with them were quite valuable.

“You feel you’re one-on-one in a room and you’re alone. You get 60 minutes, it gives a chance for people to really reveal themselves. … They’re not going to be going off to another department … it’s just you and the player. It gives them a chance to bare their soul.”

In the middle of all that is happening, Roseman and Weidl know that they are the only management group in local team sports that has been able to proceed with any sort of normalcy, and also that many Eagles fans have not been so lucky.

“We feel very fortunate that we’ve been able to put our head down and really focus on our jobs. I know that’s not [happening] for everyone,” Roseman said. Through the draft and draft-related charity efforts, he said the Eagles can “hopefully provide a welcome distraction for our fans.”