Howie Roseman just finished his biggest and best Eagles offseason with 10 moves to help Jalen Hurts

In Philly, they call it Howie Szn. It’s when the Eagles general manager typically shines. He’s been named executive of the year twice since 2017. He’s one of the best in the business regardless of sport.

He just had his best szn ever.

Within a week, Roseman’s most remarkable and most important offseason will be over. The Eagles will report to training camp on Tuesday. With camp begins the evaluation of the wholesale changes performed to complement $255 million quarterback Jalen Hurts, the biggest investment in team history. He’s 25, he’s healthy, and he’s entering his fourth season as the Eagles’ starter — the referendum season, according to Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie.

Make no mistake: This will be a referendum on Roseman, too.

He made uncharacteristic moves. He extended everybody. He banished a hometown hero. He stripped hot-seat coach Nick Sirianni of power.

Lurie has said that, despite a 1-6 collapse after a 10-1 start in 2023, Roseman’s job was never in peril. We’ll see if he faces peril if the Eagles don’t rebound in 2024.

If they don’t, it won’t be for lack of effort from Roseman. He has gambled, and he has gambled big, but he’s gambled smart.

As usual.

Christian McCaffrey is the best football payer on the planet, and the Eagles love to copy success. Desperate to mimic the 49ers’ template, Roseman committed almost $38 million over the next three years to a 27-year-old running back with a surgically repaired knee and a history of ankle issues that dates back to his days at Penn State. This infuriated Giants owner John Mara, who, on Hard Knocks, said he’d have a “tough time sleeping” if Barkley landed in Philly. Sweet dreams, Johnny.

Barkley has enjoyed only two seasons that justify the Giants’ selection of him with 2018′s No. 2 overall pick: His Rookie of the Year season and 2023, when he made his second Pro Bowl.

The last time the Eagles paid so much for a high-mileage back was 2015, when autocrat coach Chip Kelly banished Roseman to the executive wing and signed DeMarco Murray for five years and $40 million. Neither Murray nor Kelly was with the Eagles the next season.

A mild distraction off the field and modestly insubordinate on it — he admitted to going rogue overriding play calls — Brown is still the best receiver in Eagles history, considering Terrell Owens didn’t even last two seasons. Brown’s diva issues don’t compare with Owens’, and Roseman made sure to let the world know that the Eagles know that. With two years remaining on Brown’s four-year, $100 million deal, Roseman gave him a three-year, $96 million extension, with $84 million guaranteed.

It is a huge investment in a well-meaning player whom, after a year of indulgence and immaturity, Roseman expects to mature into a major leadership role.

After the Eagles lost at Tampa Bay in the playoffs, I asked Camden native and Temple product Haason Reddick if he planned to hold out if he didn’t get an extension and raise. Reddick didn’t say no. He was slated to make a modest $15 million in the final year of his contract, a bargain for a player with 27 sacks in just two seasons. Roseman had no intention of extending Reddick at Reddick’s rumored asking price — at least three years and more than $60 million — so the GM signed Jets free-agent edge rusher Bryce Huff, a one-year wonder, to a three-year, $51 million contract and traded Reddick to the Jets for a conditional 2026 third-round pick.

Reddick didn’t log a sack and had just seven total tackles in the Eagles’ last five games, so maybe Roseman figured Reddick, who will be 30 in September, had hit a wall and wasn’t worth his asking price. The Jets haven’t extended Reddick’s contract, and the edge rusher has yet to show up to any Jets preseason camps. Roseman looks smart so far, but if Reddick goes off in 2024 and Huff does not, Roseman won’t look quite as clever.

At 25, Smith is wise beyond his years. At 170 pounds, Smith is durable beyond expectation. At $75 million, Smith is underpaid beyond his production.

That’s not Roseman’s problem.

Smith and Brown already comprise the best receiver tandem in Eagles history, and Roseman made sure that would be true for at least the next five seasons. After just three seasons Smith already is a better route runner than Brown, and, as Hurts matures and with the addition of Barkley, Smith should begin to regularly record 100-catch seasons. Compared with draft mates Amon-Ra St. Brown of the Lions ($120 million) and Jaylen Waddle of the Dolphins ($85 million), Smith will be a bargain — and even more so after draft mate Ja’Marr Chase comes off his rookie deal in Cincinnati.

This one’s iffy. It’s three years and $27 million, but Gardner-Johnson, a dynamic if fragile player with a strong personality — he ripped Eagles fans after he left — would have to stay healthy and not be a distraction to make the deal worth the risk. He made the secondary elite when healthy in 2022 and had six interceptions, then missed most of 2023 in Detroit due to injury. He’s averaged nine games over the last three seasons, but he’s only 26. The Birds can shed the contract painlessly in two seasons, but those might be two long seasons. Pretty big risk, pretty big reward.

Both Mitchell and DeJean fell in the draft, and Roseman traded up to land DeJean in the second round. If they work out as they should, with Mitchell signing a second contract at cornerback and DeJean playing safety for a decade, it will be Roseman’s third-best draft ever: He got Lane Johnson and Zach Ertz in 2013, then Smith and Landon Dickerson in 2021.

Mailata is 27 and finished 10th in total blocking in 2022 and fourth in 2023 according to profootballfocus.com. Dickerson will be 26 in September and he made the last two Pro Bowls. They both are signed through 2028, and should be the best left-side tandem in the league until then, at very affordable price tags. Utter genius, this.

Nick Sirianni hired Shane Steichen and Jonathan Gannon in 2021, but I’ve gotten many conflicting versions of how the Eagles wound up replacing them. Who promoted quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson (who was a favorite of Lurie’s) to offensive coordinator last year? Who really hired Sean Desai as the defensive coordinator, with Matt Patricia as his replacement-in-waiting?

I’ve gotten one version of how they hired Fangio to be this year’s DC and Moore to be the OC: Howie wanted them. Sirianni acquiesced.

This is the main reason why Roseman’s butt is on the line this year. Acquiring personnel is one thing. Foisting coaches onto the staff is quite another.

Stay tuned to this.

Howie loves to draft-and-stash, but this sign-and-stash move could pay enormous dividends. This is the move that will add a notch to his growing legacy of genius.

The Colts cut Rodgers in June 2023 after the cornerback was suspended for violating the NFL’s gambling policy, apparently by (generally) placing small bets in Indiana for buddies in Florida, where sports betting was illegal. Roseman signed Rodgers in August, gambling (!) that Rodgers would be reinstated this season. He was. He also spent his 12 months in limbo honing his skills and physique, and showed up at Eagles offseason workouts in superior condition. He’s 26. This will be his fourth season. He’s a $1 million player who could pay huge dividends; don’t be surprised to see him sign an extension in the middle of the season.

Smith calls Elliott “Chicken Little” (which Elliott hates), but with Elliott, the sky is never falling.

He’s made all 16 of his postseason field goals. He hasn’t missed a playoff PAT since he was a rookie in 2017. He’s made five game-winning field goals, two 61-yarders, and 26 from outside of 50 yards, a franchise record. Now 29, he signed a four-year, $24 million extension though 2028, tied with Ravens super-boot Justin Tucker for average annual value. And worth every penny.