Howie Roseman will remain Eagles general manager

Howie Roseman will remain the Eagles general manager, a team source said on Monday morning.

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie later made it official during his press conference announcing Andy Reid's firing and went on to explain why he was retaining Roseman.

"I keep voluminous notes on talent evaluation — not just who we draft, but who is valued in each draft by each person that is in the organization that's working here," Lurie said. "And I came to the conclusion that the person who was providing by far the best talent evaluation in the building was Howie Roseman. I decided to streamline the whole decision-making process for the 2012 draft and offseason, and that's the first draft and offseason I hold Howie completely accountable for.

"The mistake that were made in the 2011 draft have little or nothing to do with Howie's evaluations. And I think it was important for me to own up to the mistakes that were made and understand where they were coming from and it was awfully clear, and so an effort was made to streamline the entire operation."

Roseman's job was expected to be safe. He signed a four-five year contract extension in June when Joe Banner stepped down as team president. The team did not announce the new deal then, but The Inquirer reported in early November that Roseman was given an extension two years into his tenure as GM.

The Eagles have gone 22-26 since Roseman was named GM in Jan. 2010, and many questioned whether the 37-year-old would avoid the axe of owner Lurie.

"Our season that we just went through, it's unacceptable," Roseman said. "Whatever has happened here is not good enough for the fans, we're not happy about the chemistry of the team. I'm not trying to shirk any of that responsibility. It's going to stop. We've had a chance to meet with a lot of the players today. We're going to get to the bottom of the things that don't work and [make sure] that they do."

It is unknown whether Lurie will hire someone to work with Roseman to oversee the direction of the Eagles' football operations. Right now, he is the highest-ranking member of the front office, aside from Lurie, to work on the football side. Team president Don Smolenski is in charge of business operations and has very little to do with football decisions.

Roseman will play a very important part in who the Eagles choose to replace Reid. Lurie will seek counsel from various sources, but he has made it clear before that Roseman and Smolenski will help lead the Eagles into their next phase.

With Reid head coach and vice president of football operations, Roseman did not have final say. But he played an important part in the draft and free agency. He also assume contract negotiation responsibilities and managing the salary cap when Banner left.

Lurie said that the next head coach will report directly to him, and that Roseman would work in unison with the new hire.

"The new head coach — whoever that is — will report directly to me. That's the only structure that I insist upon," Lurie said. "As we go through the process we have the flexibility to finalize personnel decisions and everything else that goes with the coach/GM relationship. But my goal is to have the coach and the general manager work hand-in-hand, work collaboratively and work in a very terrific way together.

"But there's no question in my mind the head coach will report directly to me as every head coach has. It's important in terms of attracting the right coach, it's important in terms of the autonomy that coach will have, and it also fosters an owner-coach relationship that I think benefits a football team in many, many ways."

Roseman said that he was not concerned with assuming more power now that there has been a vacuum with Reid's firing.

"The most important part of my job is to make sure that we have a great head coach and a great quarterback. Everything pales in comparison to making sure you have that," Roseman said. "We want to get the best head coach. I've worked in a situation for a long time where we were supporting a head coach — that's how this organization has been built, that's how it will continue to be built — and we look forward to sitting down with these people and making sure that we explain that fully."