Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman was on 610-WIP a couple of days ago being interviewed by Glenn Macnow and Reuben Frank.
Glen confronted him with an article which was written by Yahoo Sports columnist Michael Silver, which quoted an unnamed general manager in the league who said that Roseman “wants to make a name for himself” by fleecing somebody in a trade for Donovan McNabb.
In another quote the GM said, “Roseman is trying to be too smart for his own good.”¬† Silver wrote that general managers around the league ‚Äúwere hitting the ignore button on their phones‚Äù when Roseman called.
Obviously, somebody has started picking up the phones now.  They moved McNabb, although it was in the division and have worked out a a few additional transactions with other teams for players.
The critical article  isn’t a big deal because veterans in every industry force youngsters like Roseman to earn their stripes before giving them their respect.
I like the fact that he didn’t cry about the article because he knows he’s got to earn his stripes. The young 34 year old lawyer said he didn’t have a problem with the article because he knew that public criticism was one of the things which came along with the job.
The fact that he didn’t play football and doesn’t come from a football background is irrrelevant as long as he can find talent.
I liked that fact that he said the Eagles are urgent to find talent to help this football team.¬† They had better be.¬† Urgent is definitely the word in the NFL because you can look up and all of sudden it’s over.
They weren’t urgent in the past decade when they wasted possible Super Bowl years by deciding to go to battle with James Thrash, Todd Pinkston, Charles Johnson and Torrance Small as starting receivers, while employing a pass-oriented offense.
I along with the fan base want to see them bring in some tough and talented defensive players in this draft.¬† They’ve got the picks.¬† It’s that simple.
When I look at their defense I don’t see that much in the way of Pro Bowl level defensive talent that they have drafted.¬† Trent Cole is the only name you can say.
You can see the Eagles are putting Roseman out front as one of the faces of the football team.  He’s been on a number of radio shows and today, Paul Domowitch did an article about him on Philly.com.
While on 610-WIP the other day, Roseman said the Eagles were open to moving any of their three quarterbacks, but they thought the best offer they got was the one from the Redskins for Donovan McNabb.
I don’t buy it. They were not going to move Kevin Kolb.  The report I had made earlier in the off season about them extending his contract was based on some conversations at the Super Bowl.  People close to the young signal caller were down there running their mouths about being assured that he was the man for the Eagles.
I know that people run their mouths when they get a few drinks in them and they definitely made some false claims, but I’m sure somebody told somebody something which made the Kolb camp feel like he was sure to stay with the Birds.
The McNabb camp secured the same information and that’s why they weren’t surprised when he was traded.
Roseman shot down any talk of the team rebuilding, but instead said that he believes the Eagles can win the NFC East this year despite trading and releasing so many experienced veterans.  He’s got the right to believe that but we will see.
He expressed supreme confidence in Kolb and said they are “sure” about him.  Listen to me, you can never be sure about somebody until they have gone out and done it.
When asked what his credentials were to be an NFL general manager and player evaluator, Roseman said he has the instincts to find talent.  He said he’s shown that ability and will continue to show it.  We’ll see about that.
The young GM doesn’t think they’re too far away on the defensive side of the ball.  He believes they will be fine if they add some talented draft picks.
Concerning their need for a safety, Roseman said he thinks Macho Harris is going to take a big jump from his rookie year to his second season.  He says he’s getting bigger and stronger.
He talked about the presence of Marlin Jackson, who has had surgery on both knees.  He didn’t mention Quintin Demps, who has yet to master the defensive coverages.  I think those are good reasons why they should draft Earl Thomas or another safety early in selection process.
Roseman didn’t tip his hand about the left defensive end position.  He acknowledged over achieving and undersized Juqua Parker and mentioned them having Darryl Tapp on board.
He still believes Michael Vick will be here when the season starts in the fall.¬† He’ll be wrong about that if the Eagles get a decent offer for him.
who cares bout this classles front office
“The only thing we knew for sure,was that Henry Porter’s real name, wasn’t really Henry Porter”
Bob Dylan from the song “Brownsville Girl”…
clearly you do if you have such an extreme opinion of them – ha caught you
clearly not an eagle fan anymore so i wouldnt think that would be me schitter
Mr. Classles, who has a classy front office?
But in all honesty, props for being so up front about being a hater phillywill. Hater.
I really hope what he said about Macho Harris was just posturing.
I can’t wait until the draft. Then we will have something worthwhile to speculate on, rather than the relative class etc. of the front office. These guys are into making cash like any other business. Surprise!
Eaglez says, you hit the nail on the head with a sledgehammer. The Eagles front office knows just what to say and do to keep dollars flowing. That’s priority #1. If, per chance a Lombardi trophy were to drop into their laps, so be it.
Howie (fantasy football) Roseman reminds me of a former landlord where I rented office space. He looks good,sounds good and made a great first impression
but when it came to delivering on his promises, he was no where to be found. Earning and saving money were his prime motivators.
Hey Drummer I suppose you work for the Glory first and would take a pay cut to stay in your same job huh! Of course they make money- be happy about that because last I checked businesses that don’t make money don’t remain in business. What would you do with your fall and winter if the NFL went away? If you want pure sport no business then go coach pee wee. After kids start to get good at any sport there is an agenda somewhere besides the game.
Go watch men play two hand touch in their backyard if you hate the business so much.
BigE, I always enjoy you, but I fear you are falling into old stereotypes. There are a bunch of GMs in the NFL who did not play or coach football. They were accountants, lawyers, etc. Do you have to be a doctor to run a hospital? The Eagles make dumb decisions, but not cheap ones. what evidence is there that Howie is into “earning and saving money.” And by the way, I’m into “earning and saving money.” Aren’t you?
MMMM, a lawyer who has experience dealing with salary caps. He is going to earn his stripes by saving the FO lots of money. Can you say FORBES Magazine?
Fan Since 1960:
It’s a hunch,but I will wait to see how it plays out. You don’t need to be a doctor to run a hospital
but you need a lot of knowledge on how to provide excellent medical care. Let’s see what Howie knows about providing us with a long overdue Super Bowl Championship.
I hope Forbes Magazine and not Mad Magazine. Tell me though, how good was Tom Heckert as a general manager? He sucked. Did people accuse him of being an avaricious capitalist? Remember the GREAT tight end Pete Retzlaff. He was general manager of the Eagles for 4 years. He sucked! But when you’re name is “Howie” Roseman, hang on to your wallets! of course, he may suck as well…
As you can see Roseman’s getting trotted out front as the GM in a way that Heckert never was. This is a setup to fire Andy Reid when the season blows up. The Eagles are trying to make sure that they have something they haven’t had…the appearance of a GM that’s in control of the club that’s not named Reid. Pure idiocy at it’s finest.
Roseman’s ignorance shows in his comment on Harris…like getting bigger is really going to help his game. He was already too slow to play the same position he played in college at the size he was. Sean Jones dropped 16 lbs. to attempt to prepare himself to play WS in the JJ defensive system.
And he sucked…
Howie is a yes man. He’s also a moron and should of never been given the job.
The Eagles have been screwing the fans over for years like a race car team that forgets to replace all the spark plugs in it’s car every race and says they have to do a better job next time with Reno Mahe as the mechanic in charge of plugs.Howie Roseman is excited about this team challenging for the division
crown. Smuck.
Big E – what team did you ever play on, what sport where you ever part of, what organization did you ever follow or in any way had a realtionship where the mantra wasn’t one day at a time, one game at a time. Never look past the next opponent. How do you get anything done without taking the necessary steps needed to correctly complete a solid foundation? I am just trying to imagine your childhood little league team after any game and the coach going – it doesn’t friggin matter, it wasn’t the championship game or after winning a league title and the coach griping you didn’t win the district title. I don’t know how you were ‘screwed’, do 31 teams ‘screw’ there fans every year? Is Joe Paterno ‘screwing’ the entire state by not winning the national championship? I felt a lot of things after the Eagles lost to Dallas, pissed, mad, sorry the season was over – but how does a sports team ‘screw’ you – did Cole Hamels ‘screw’ the fans last year?
wow way to go out on limb. i think this man should run universe. major intelligence. i think my 9 year old son knows we need good draft.
Paterno doesn’t have the ability to get free agents that can help his team and yes Cole Hamels
pitched a lousy game in the world series and is overrated right now.
Wow, many of you sure do judge a book by it’s cover. Conventional wisdom exists for a reason.
Yes, they are urgently cutting payroll.
I’m all for Roseman if he delivers. So we’ll see. But I don’t pay attention to the lip service. “The GM doesn’t think they are too far away on defense”. Give me a break. He must didn’t watch a game last season. But then again what else is he supposed to say. 95% of GMs and top personnel will say they aren’t that far away to try to soup up the fan base. Well even though Philly fans can be very rabid at times, most are very knowledgeable.
I don’t care what he or anyone says, just go out there and produce. That’s all it take to win the fans over. No one cares about what he says and that he’s more vocal than Heckert and blah blah blah. If good moves still aren’t made and the team still doesn’t win a Super Bowl it’s a fail.
Oh yeah, tell Desean Jackson to keep his mouth shut. He’s the last person we need in front of a camera every week. Just go play and score touchdowns. Leave twitter alone. Feel like he’s going to become Chad Ocho Cinco v 2.0
BigE, you’re the best. Scrapdawg, you’re a smuck!
Big E – Paterno has the ability to scout smaller colleges, get walk ons – recruit, pull scholarships – Pete out at USC, or Florida, or Texas all have the same rules? Paterno gets 80 scholarships like the rest of them – and the question I asked was did they ‘screw’ the fans? How did you get screwed?
Big E, you do not need to know how to provide excellent medical care to run a hospital. Hospitals are run by business men (to get paid) and insurance companies frequently dictate policy and treatment. If you beleive anything else you are dreaming. There have been plenty of GM’s in the league who never played or coached, I am willing to let this man do his job. When we have some evidence of his abilities, or lack thereof, you can start to complain like always. Until then, you are guessing, nothing more.
Navy Eagle
we are talking a mutibillion dollar sport NFL Football not Pop Warner and little league and death warmed over Paterno. In the NFC champion ship game against Carolina our Pinky and Thrash Etc.
dropped six passes. McNaab threw 3 picks because Rinky and Thrash couldn’t run their patterns. Simenou got run over by the Carolina backs as did the reject OLB from Greenbay. Eagles running game was exploding but Idiot Reid decided to throw in the red zone. Sound familiar. It does to me.
Silva
I just read anaarticle from a hospital CEO and President and all that you said about insurance companies dictating policy and treatment is not what his hospital was involved in. The guys name is Levy. Look for yourself. Also look at Rosemans resume and those of other GM’s.
You wrote “the eagles have been screwing fans over for years” I want to know what that means – and if you don’t think Div I NCAA football is a multi billion dollar business you are mistaken. So again my question – does every year 31 teams screw over the fans? Have the Lions and Raiders and Ravens been screwing the fans? Did Pittsburg Steelers screw the fans last year (did they even make the playoffs?)- when we beat the cheifs – did the chiefs screw their fans by not having better CBs – I mean Christ – it was Kolb starting his second game – did the Bears screw the fans by Cutler being such a turd. And which GM would you like me to compare Roseman to – which one or ones – I’ll bet that at some point every single one of those GMs had a first year – should I go read the first year – and what should this new GM have said if not they wanted to win the division (gee – lets piss off all the other 31 teams vice just the four in our division. Your goal is first and foremost to win games, then win your division – then to secure home playoff games, then to clinch home field advantage, then to win games in the playoffs, then to win SB – its logical steps. And I am gathering by your comments about Paterno he too is screwing the state by collecting a salary and failing to properly plan, recruit, and field a national championship team. And Cole Hamels screwed all the Phillies fans by not pitching well. How many WRs in the NFL (figure 4 per team, 32 teams, 128) didn’t run patterns against the Carolina Panthers that year – did Carolina win the SB that year? So they screwed their fans. So again – how do you get screwed by a sports team? What is the definition and does that definition apply to all teams or just the ones that offend your sensabilities?
Nice Nice
The team wants to win that is exactly why they are making the moves they are. If they wanted to they could cut EVERY SINGLE PLAYER on the team since there is no minimum salary this year. They could then hire only league minimum guys. That would be the CHEAP thing to do. That would be the DUMBEST THING EVER as well unless you are the Oakland Raiders then you should consider my flush them down the drain plan and start from scratch after selling the team. Of course I hate the raiders so I would love if they did that.
Do you mean the same Paul Levy who makes over a million dollars a year, and got his employees to take less money in order to save the hospital money? Sounds like a businessman to me.
Silva
Nothing wrong with making money as long as you provide quality service, unlike many of the Eagle players- free agents and draft picks.
If the DB’s don’t pan out it is going to be a long season for the Eagles.
Why is he a moron? I think they have made some good moves this offseason. Our team is younger and faster. What is not to like about getting rid of older players who are irrelevant and always hurt. He is a younger guy with a passion. The Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum got his job with the Jets the same way Roseman did, right out of law school as a contracts guy. They are about the same age too. He seems to be doing a good job with the Jets and he wasn’t a “football” guy. The Eagles aren’t going to come out and say Macho Harris sucks and should be moved back to his natural position. He got the FS job because he outplayed the guys they were going to use. He was their only option last season. Macho is a darn good corner though. I saw a couple of games when he was playing. He can be a good corner option for the Eagles, say if they moved Asante Samuel. Just nobody wants to take on that salary or a non tackling corner. Yes, the interceptions are good, but I would rather have a corner who actually covers the receiver and prevents a catch and if he does can tackle him over a corner who is always getting beat because he always tries to break on the ball. He is good at pushing the receiver out of bounds..I was being sarcastic. And PhillyWill..If you aren’t an Eagles fan, why are you at a website that has to do with Philly sports. Useless. Unless you are one of those great fans that are always falling off and on the wagon. Maybe the eagles should board up the back better so you people can’t get off and on..