Howie Roseman has taken on folklore status in the NFL. Whenever the draft and free-agent seasons roll around, you hear the chorus: Howie has done it again! As general manager, Roseman has led the Philadelphia Eagles to three Super Bowl appearances in eight years, winning one title. But this year’s team is his magnum opus.
Repeated playoff heartaches can warp a team’s self-perception. Every flaw becomes magnified. Two years after losing the Super Bowl to the Chiefs – and last season’s disappointing end-of-year collapse – Roseman tore down his roster and built a fresh juggernaut, with fewer than half of the players who played the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII remaining on this year’s roster.
Roseman has been a model of stability in Philadelphia, joining the team as an intern in 2000. When Andy Reid was the head coach of the franchise, he was fast-tracked through the personnel department, becoming the team’s GM in 2010. But he soon lost a power struggle that almost saw him ushered out of the building. Owner Jeffrie Lurie turned his franchise over to Chip Kelly, a college football coaching superstar, in 2013. After Kelly oversaw 10-win seasons in his first two years, Roseman was stripped of personnel control. Lurie gave Kelly full autonomy to reshape the team, handing the coach control of the roster, player’s nutrition, sleep schedules and pre-game playlists. Roseman was left secluded within Eagles HQ, his role pared back to visiting sports conferences, filling out junior staff positions and working on contract negotiations.
“As it turned out, it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me,” Roseman said on Pro Football Talk in 2018. “Did I ever think I would be back in a significant position in Philadelphia? No. I don’t think that I did. But I was just determined that I was going to try to do the right thing every day and get better and learn more.”
Kelly’s bungled management eventually led him to drive the franchise off a cliff. And after his time in exile, Lurie gave Roseman another crack. From there, he has proven to be one of the shrewdest executives in the league, overseeing the team’s three Super Bowl runs, six playoff appearances and an 83-48 record in his last seven seasons. By reaching the big dance this season, Roseman has become only the 11th GM to build three Super Bowl teams with the same franchise. Eight of those executives are in the Hall of Fame (Bill Belichick, who was the coach and GM in New England, will be the ninth). If the Eagles win on Sunday, he is likely a lock for The Hall himself. And unlike those other executives, he’s done so without being wedded to a Hall of Fame quarterback or coach.
Most prolonged championship runs are built on a simple foundation: the pairing of a great quarterback and coach. But the Eagles are unusual. During Roseman’s time, the franchise has bounced between coaches and quarterbacks. He moved seamlessly from Doug Pederson, who led the Eagles to a Super Bowl win in 2017, to Nick Sirianni, who has overseen two Super Bowl trips. At quarterback, he drafted Jalen Hurts in the second round in 2020 as an insurance policy for franchise starter Carson Wentz, who ultimately flamed out in Philadelphia. Around Hurts, Roseman built one offensive machine, then reshaped it and built another. The upshot: Two NFC championship victories.
What is fascinating about Roseman, though, is his lack of brand power. He is a quiet figure. He hasn’t sat for a tell-all documentary. There has been no insider book, plumping up his reputation with savvy branding. As far as anyone can tell, beyond being unafraid of risk, there is no overriding philosophy or snazzy motto to stick on coffee cups. He is the salary cap guru … without any background in finance. He consistently builds the most talent-laden roster in the NFL … but entered the league as a 24-year-old law school grad. He is the Death Star in trade negotiations … who cut his teeth as an administrative intern.
Front-office executives like to build a mythical status around their work. Maybe it’s their embrace of new analytics, grinding work ethic, ability to unlock an unforeseen market or their capacity as a former player to tie together the locker room with the cold-hearted nature of front office life. That makes things nice and cozy; they’re smarter and more talented than everyone. But that’s not Roseman. He did not Moneyball the Eagles to multiple Super Bowls, exclusively. He did not Trust The Process. He has never claimed, publicly, to be light years ahead of his competitors. In the landscape of celebrity executives, Roseman does not have a manufactured persona like Pat Riley, Billy Beane, Daryl Morey or Theo Epstein. He doesn’t have an army of zealots hanging on his words. He has just gotten on with building the best roster possible, keeping the franchise in perennial contention despite bouncing between coaches and quarterbacks. His celebrity status comes from being very good at his job; to the point where other executives look sideways when he picks up the phone.
“Howie and I have done some deals in the past. He’s really a bright guy … But he’s also one of those guys where I have to keep both hands in my back pockets when I’m talking to Howie,” Saints GM Micky Loomis said this year. While executing a draft day trade with the Commanders, Washington GM Adam Peters told Roseman, “You’re a pain in the ass.”
Executives are never as good or bad as they appear in the moment. All have highs and lows, but Roseman has clung on through bleak days and lifted the Eagles to higher highs than at any point in franchise history. His path here has been different. He is not the traditional 21st-century sports wonk, with no wealth management or data science background. And yet, he has proven to be one of the most sophisticated GMs in managing the salary cap, performing a limbo under the salary cap to regenerate rosters that have not been good enough to feel the confetti fall. He has embraced new ideas, keying in on the minutiae of the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement to allow the Eagles to retain talent or address needs.
He has also been more aggressive than his contemporaries on the trade market, moving up and down the draft board to land needle-moving targets and swinging deals for valuable veterans. Darius Slay, DeVonta Smith, Jalen Carter and AJ Brown, cornerstones of the Eagles’ success, were all acquired via some sort of trade. In fact, his most lasting influence on the league may be valuing veterans over mid-round draft picks.
Few GMs have proven better at balancing obvious moves with the abstract. To rebuild the trenches, he was happy to draft an Australian novice in the seventh round, but equally turned to the greatest defense in college football history to sure up Philly’s defensive front. He selected Jordan Davis in the first round and Nakobe Dean in the third of the 2022 draft from the greatest defense in college football history. He then rolled it back in 2023, picking up two more defenders from Georgia’s all-world group: Carter and Nolan Smith.
Every pick has hit. Jordan Mailata, an Australian who had never played a snap of organized football before being drafted by Philadelphia, is now one of the top left tackles in the league. Carter has become the most dominant interior defender in football. Davis is a valuable run-stuffer. Dean helped form the most malleable linebacking duo in the league before an injury ended his season early. Smith has developed into a hellacious edge defender, peaking in time for the postseason.
Heading into this season, Roseman again aimed at obvious targets. The Eagles gagged away more explosive plays than any defense in the league in 2023, so Roseman drafted two cornerbacks at the top of the draft, Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. Paired with Vic Fangio, a gruff, no-nonsense, warlock of a defensive coordinator, the results were immediate: the Eagles no longer give away deep passes and both rookies were named as finalists for Defensive Rookie of the Year, the first time since 2000 a franchise has had two players on the final ballot.
Even the season-defining acquisition of running back Saquon Barkley straddled the line between obvious and philosophical. How about putting the league’s most dynamic runner behind a bruising offensive line? It felt obvious at the time – and feels downright unfair in hindsight. But the Barkley signing also cut against the grain. The Eagles handed Barkley a three-year, $37m contract in free agency at the peak of the Running Backs Don’t Matter era. Roseman recognized that the devaluing of the position, which viewed backs as interchangeable parts, had tipped too far. Solid backs can be found anywhere, but special backs remain rare. And a special back behind an imposing line? Good luck. Barkley became the NFL’s most dangerous offensive weapon, leading the league with 2,005 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns this season. In this postseason alone, he has 442 yards and five rushing scores.
Signing high-priced free-agent stars is one thing. The top GMs, however, balance the books by finding 24-karat players for the price of 24 carrots. This year’s Eagles squad is full of cast-offs and career after-thoughts that have rounded out the most talented roster in the league: Starting guard Mekhi Becton was a first-round bust with the Jets before moving to Philadelphia in free agency; starting safety Reed Blankenship was scooped up as an undrafted free agent; Defensive Player of the Year candidate Zack Baun was a special teams ace and rotational pass-rusher with the Saints, before the Eagles nabbed him for $1m last offseason and converted him into one of the league’s best linebackers. Linebacker Oren Burks was a journeyman who has become Baun’s running mate at linebacker in the playoffs after Dean’s injury. The total cost of those starters combined: $6m, or roughly 2.5% of the cap.
The Eagles earned their spot in New Orleans with smart draft picks, cunning trades, expert coaching, all-world talent, and the necessary dash of luck.If they are to dethrone the Chiefs, it will be because their offensive line controls the line of scrimmage, Barkley goes bananas, Hurts hits shots down the field and the team’s suffocating defense matches the Andy Reid-Patrick Mahomes combination blow-for-blow. Every piece of that puzzle can be traced back to Roseman. He won’t win the Super Bowl’s MVP. But if the Eagles feel the confetti this time around, no one will have been more valuable to the team’s success than their general manager.
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