March 28, 2022
On a picture perfect day, 78-degree, sunny day in Palm Beach, Florida (sorry, Philly-area residents), Howie Roseman spoke with Philadelphia Eagles media. Here were my five biggest takeaways.
Roseman said that the Eagles aren't done in free agency yet, but he did note that having a large number of high picks affected their free agency plans.
"When you have the amount of high picks we have, we don't want to block these players from playing time," Roseman said. "We don't want to get into a situation where we're drafting guys in the first, second, sometimes even the third round, and they don't have an ability to play because you're wasting a contract year [on a cheap rookie contract]. And so that gives us the opportunity to draft guys and allow them to play early in a contract, which we think is an important part of the team building process that we're in.
"You're talking about adding three players in the top 20, as opposed to maybe one player in the first 32 or in the first 40. I think it goes back to like, we'd hate to draft three guys and go red shirt, red shirt, red shirt. You're blocked [from playing] here, here, and here."
Roseman was then also sure to note that the team won't reach for positional needs in the draft.
The Eagles were interested in trading for Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson, but were unable to because neither quarterback for whatever reason wanted to come to Philly. That makes it rather clear that if the Eagles feel they can upgrade on Hurts, they will jump at those opportunities.
Yet, for the umpteenth time this offseason, the messaging remains that Hurts is the starting quarterback.
"I don't know that we've ever wavered from the level of commitment that we have had in Jalen, so I think when we say 'He's our guy,' and 'He's our starter,' and 'We believe in him,' we got to do whatever we can to help him and give him a chance to reach his potential," Roseman said. "I don't think that has changed one bit."
One of the logical theories of Eagles free agency is that wide receivers don't want to play in Philly because the Eagles were the most run-heavy team in the NFL a season ago. Roseman acknowledged that ultimately they want to pass the ball more.
"I think when we look at our skill position guys, and we look at DeVonta Smith, and I'm not speaking out of turn — this is after my conversation with Coach Sirianni and our coaches, obviously this is lockstep with them — DeVonta Smith had 118 targets," Roseman said. "I think I'm right on that number, but if I'm wrong I apologize. (It was 104, so apology accepted.)
"When you look at the players in Coach Sirianni's offense and the No. 1 receivers in the league, you're talking about guys getting 150 targets. When you talk about Dallas Goedert — and obviously we had Zach — he had 84 targets last year (it was actually 76). Guys who are tight ends of his caliber, you're talking about guys who are getting 120 targets per year. Even when you look at Quez, I think he had 60 targets (62, actually).
"And so we believe, in those three guys specifically the first two guys, they're going to require, as their skill sets continue to get better and better, and as they get more comfortable in the offense, they are going to require more targets.
"So I think we have to look at, we're kind of saying, can we also satisfy players who are going to gobble up a lot of targets while we're trying to satisfy these young players that we think have a chance to be exceptional players."
The bigger takeaway here is probably that the Eagles do not want to be the run-heavy team that they were a year ago, long-term.
Barnett was an unpopular re-signing during free agency.
"I think that perception of Derek is probably not fair with the reality," Roseman said. "He's a guy that if we we're looking at a different team and you'd go, '26 year old defensive end coming off his not best year,' we'd kind of look at that and go, 'Alright, maybe that's an opportunity.'
"Obviously, his playing temperament is ideal, fits Philly. He understands the perception of him and the thousand untimely moments. But this is a guy who certainly contributes to a great defensive line. We've seen it with us. I think that going into free agency, he probably thought a little differently about where he would be and for us understanding that that's what he was thinking and he got to a point where it's a huge priority to us to have a wave defensive line that's really good. We know we can count on him."
There were questions whether Fletcher Cox's one-year, $14 million contract was legitimately $14 million, or if those reported numbers were misleading. It's a legit $14 million.
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