Howie Roseman has been receiving tons of accolades for his work building the Eagles’ roster for the upcoming season. But in fairness, some of the moves made by the team’s executive vice president and general manager were executed to undo the mistakes he made in talent evaluation in previous years.
Roseman shipped wide receiver Jalen Reagor – a first round pick who never made an impact in his two seasons in Philadelphia – to the Vikings last week for a 2023 seventh-round pick and a conditional 2024 fourth-rounder. As many know, Justin Jefferson was still on the board at the time, and was selected by Minnesota with the very next pick in that draft. Jefferson has more than 3,000 receiving yards in two season, more than four times that of Reagor.
But it seems as though Roseman is learning from his misfires.
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SIGN UP HERE In an interview with Angelo Cataldi Tuesday, Howie showed true buyer’s remorse over the Reagor pick, saying the team went away from its best-player-available draft philosophy.
"I think one of my many weaknesses, is that I spend more time thinking about my mistakes than I do any of the successes we may have had. I think it continuously motivates me to get better. Whenever we do something like that, I go back and I look at the process and how we came to that decision. It's obvious, I'm not going to sit here and lie, we'd love to have that moment back.
"I think a lot of the message there is, we just have to take the best players at all times. We don't have to worry so much about fit or what we have on the team. You go back to that moment, we had two tight ends who were really good in the middle of the field, Greg Ward was coming off of a really good year in the slot. We were looking for a specific role as opposed to just grading the players. That's on me, one hundred percent. At the end of the day, I'm responsible for all of that. But I also promise you one thing, if I make a mistake, I'm going to do everything in my power to make it up."
This is a rare show of humility from Roseman, who staunchly defends his roster decisions when questioned. Whether or not you agree with his rationale, he will stick to his guns on any move he has made, especially those that don’t seem to pan out.
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While the Reagor pick over Jefferson was a big miss, it is fair to say he did do everything in his power to make it up. He drafted wide receiver DeVonta Smith in the first round in 2021, and traded a 2022 first-rounder (along with a third-round pick) to Tennessee to acquire another wideout, A.J. Brown. Roseman also added free agent Zach Pascal on a one-year deal this offseason. The wide receiver position is as strong and deep as it’s been in a long time.