4 days Ago By Christiaan DeFranco
PHILADELPHIA — Call him a magician. Or a quick turnaround artist. As Eagles general manager, Howie Roseman has found some fantastical ways to build the best roster in football.
From performing a sleight of hand in trades, escaping burdensome contracts like Houdini from a straightjacket, enticing the right free agents to come here, swapping coaching staffs like it’s almost a shell game, and pressing the perfect combination of buttons in the draft, the 49-year-old has consistently managed to pull a card from the bottom of the deck. Roseman has been particularly effective in the post-Chip Kelly era, when he regained power over personnel decisions. He has helped land the Eagles in three Super Bowls in the last eight years, including raising a pair of Lombardi Trophies this past season and in 2017-18.
The Birds have eight picks in the upcoming NFL Draft, which will take place April 24-26 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. But as reigning champions, their first pick isn’t slated until 32nd (last) in the first round. “I think that you have to be patient,” Roseman said in a joint press conference with Nick Sirianni Tuesday at NovaCare Complex.
“You have to allow things to come to you. The chances that you’re trading up into the top 10, top 15, top 20 are slim. That’s hard to do.
So you have to really kind of understand the strengths of the draft. “It’s not my best quality, patience, but I think in this situation, (it’s about) understanding the reality of where we are in the draft, what’s going to be available to us potentially, and making sure we know those guys backwards and forwards.” Roseman said he doesn’t have 32 players graded as first-round worthy in this draft, or in nearly any draft.
Trading down for more picks is certainly a possibility, as Roseman sees them as commodities. The Eagles already have another 12 next year. “Picks are valuable and you can use them to, obviously, pick players, you can use them to trade for players, you can package them to move up in the draft,” he said.
“The more picks that you take, the better chance you have of hitting on players. “Where we are right now, we have a lot of good players that have earned their paychecks. We have others coming up through that will be in position to earn paychecks.
We want to get as many young talented players on this roster as we can to add competition, which is one of (Sirianni’s) core values, and also because of the financial situation that we’re going to have going forward in our effort to try to win another championship for the city.” Being patient doesn’t necessarily mean Roseman and owner Jeffrey Lurie will be shy about pulling the trigger on a bold move, if the right opportunity arises. “For me, I think that being aggressive has always been part of my DNA and I feel fortunate that I have people around me who support that in (Sirianni) and Jeffrey, and it allows us to take chances and to try to be aggressive,” Roseman said, adding that moves often depend on which players are available as each Eagles selection approaches.
A big question mark is whether the Birds will draft a tight end in the early rounds. With 30-year-old Dallas Goedert about to enter the final year of his deal, he’d be owed a $14 million option bonus on top of his modest $1.25 million base salary.
The versatile veteran has been a beast when he’s been on the field, but he has been plagued by injuries and comes with a steep price tag when the organization has committed big money to other positions. The only way he remains in Philadelphia is probably if he agrees to a pay cut, which he has been unwilling to do so far. The Eagles reportedly have been shopping him for a fourth-round pick.
Some of the top tight end prospects include Penn State’s Tyer Warren, Michigan’s Colston Loveland, Bowling Green’s Harold Fannin Jr., Elijah Arroyo out of Miami (Fla.), LSU’s Mason Taylor, Oregon’s Terrance Ferguson and Texas’ Gunnar Helm.
The Birds have had a legacy of quality tight ends the last several years, from Chad Lewis to Brent Celek to Zach Ertz to Dallas Goedert. Sirianni mentioned some of the qualities he looks for in that position. “Naturally, I always will start with their targets and the things that, the balls that went their way throughout a game,” Sirianni said.
“You’re always looking for ...
I mean, any time I’m writing reports, it feels like I say ‘big, strong, fast, physical, tough’ usually succeeds and that’s pretty much the case with every position. “But I’m always looking for a guy that can make plays with the ball in his hand and then have the ability to first of all be a factor in the run game and helping you out in the run game, which is one of the harder matchups in the NFL, right? A defensive end versus a tight end, and there’s other ways around that and then not being a liability in the run game.” • • • Eagles 2025 NFL Draft Picks Round 1 (32nd overall) Round 2 (40th) Round 2 (64th) Round 2 (83rd) Round 4 (134th) Round 5 (164th) Round 5 (165th) Round 5 (168th).
