Eagles GM Howie Roseman deserves more respect and credit for his best year ever. Here are his 10 best moves
Roseman had his best year ever, and he's been the best in the business since 2017, when I fired him. Oops.
After the 2016 season, I wrote that Howie Roseman should be fired. Eagles coach Doug Peterson had stumbled to a 7-9 record in his first season as a coach of a fractured and poorly assembled roster. Roseman came off two years of exile from personnel matters in the middle of a power struggle with Chip Kelly, whom Roseman hired and who betrayed him.
Consider it a lapse in judgment.
Thirteen months later, Roseman won the Super Bowl.
Here’s what happened:
In May 2016, too soon to affect that season’s roster, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie fortified Roseman with two excellent lieutenants, Joe Douglas and Andy Weidl. Together, the trio compiled a perfect combination of players, including backup quarterback Nick Foles, who won Super Bowl LII. Roseman also was named the Pro Football Writers Association’s executive of the year in 2017. Yes, I voted for him. Gladly.
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Roseman won the award again in 2022, after he acquired A.J. Brown, Haason Reddick, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, and James Bradberry, and returned to the Super Bowl.
He should have won again this year. Instead, when the results were announced Thursday, Lions GM Brad Holmes had won a second award in a row, based mainly on the same moves that won him the award last season. Whatever. Laurels are made to be rested upon. For me, Commanders GM Adam Peters deserved it more. He hired my coach of the year, Dan Quinn, who drafted my rookie of the year, Jayden Daniels.
But really, no one touched Roseman this year. It is his finest hour. He’s done his best job since succeeding Andy Reid in 2014. What Roseman did in 2017 and 2022 does not compare with what he’s done in 2024.
This is the best assemblage of talent the Eagles franchise has ever known, all compiled for the long haul, all compiled with the burden of a $255 million quarterback on the payroll. Whether or not they win the NFC championship game Sunday, it’s not really debatable where Roseman did the best job of any other general manager in the last calendar year.
Granted, Roseman had some misses: $51 million to Bryce Huff for 2½ sacks is a horrible return on investment, but Huff was no worse than Reddick, whom Roseman traded to the Jets so he could afford Huff.
Also, it’s hard to overlook that Roseman had to cut $4 million veteran Devin White a month into a season in which Roseman believed he would be the starting middle linebacker.
But the hits, like promising third-round edge rusher Jalyx Hunt, obscure the misses.
Saquon Barkley. Barkley, at three years for $37.75 million, is the best free agent signing in Philadelphia sports history, with the possible exceptions of Bryce Harper and Julius Erving, if you consider his complicated arrival via free agency. And that includes Pete Rose and Zack Wheeler. Barkley also had the best season of any Eagles player ever, and that includes Reggie White in 1987 and 1988 and Terrell Owens in 2004.
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. The Eagles pretend that Nick Sirianni is filling out his coaching staff, but Fangio and Moore have long been favorites of Roseman and Lurie, and they have been magnificent. Fangio, who turned the seventh-worst defense in 2023 into the No. 1 unit in 2024, is a candidate to be the Associated Press’ assistant coach of the year. Lions OC Ben Johnson won the PFWA’s version. The AP does not have an executive of the year award.
Zack Baun. Fangio might deserve as much credit for this as Roseman, but Roseman believed this anonymous special-teams edge-rushing linebacker had the ability to do more than he’d shown in four seasons in New Orleans. Baun is a one-year, $3.5 million All-Pro. Roseman saw his potential and deserves the credit.
Quinyon Mitchell. Roseman couldn’t believe his good fortune when Mitchell, their No. 1 corner in the draft, fell to them at No. 22, and yes, again, there might be some Fangio effect here. But Howie gets credit for him.
Cooper DeJean. Roseman couldn’t believe his good fortune when DeJean, their No. 2 corner in the draft, was still available at No. 40, so he traded up 10 spots and snagged a nickel corner for 2024 and bookend for Mitchell for the next 10 years.
Cam Jurgens. Roseman drafted Jurgens two years ago as Jason Kelce’s eventual replacement. Jurgens started at guard next to Kelce in 2023, where Jurgens struggled at times, but when Kelce retired, Jurgens returned to his natural position and earned a Pro Bowl nod in his first full season as the starting center. Again, this might be offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, the best coach in Eagles history, but it’s been Roseman who has exorbitantly paid Stoutland to stay. Jurgens is a brilliant example of Roseman’s stash-and-develop strategy, which also worked out with 2020 second-rounder Jalen Hurts.
C.J. Gardner-Johnson. The scrappy safety returned after a year in Detroit and has been the backbone of the defense. If you want to debate his value, understand that the main reason the Eagles lost to the Commanders in Week 16 was because Gardner-Johnson got himself ejected in the second half.
Isaiah Rodgers. Roseman gambled on Rodgers when the rest of the league blackballed him as he served a yearlong suspension in 2023 for gambling on NFL games, including the Colts, his own team. Rodgers has been a revelation as a backup as well as an exemplary citizen, teammate, and professional.
Extended contracts. Offensive linemen Landon Dickerson and Jordan Mailata and receivers DeVonta Smith and Brown have vastly outperformed the springtime extensions Roseman negotiated. When remembering Roseman’s huge draft misses, this part of the job — retaining his own players at excellent value — always has been Roseman’s strong suit, as it was his mentor’s, Joe Banner.
Mekhi Becton. I’m not as bullish on Becton as most, and he certainly wasn’t guaranteed a starting spot when Roseman plucked him off the street as an underachieving former first-round pick — he was Tyler Steen’s backup in training camp until Steen got hurt — but Becton was a minor, $2.75 million, one-year move that turned out well. He agreed to move from tackle to guard, ranked 17th among guards who took at least 700 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, and salvaged a career that, for a 25-year-old, looks brighter than ever.
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Thanks to Howie.
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