Howie Roseman has Difficult Week Ahead

Eagles general manager will see three prominent players in the Seattle Seahawks' 8-2 start that he had a chance to bring to Philly

Howie Roseman might want to find a deep hole to crawl into this week and emerge sometime next week. It’s going to be a rough week for the Eagles general manager, who will be reminded these next few days of what could have been.

The Eagles (5-5) are hosting the Seahawks on Sunday (1 p.m.) and there are three players playing pivotal roles in Seattle’s 8-2 start that Roseman had a chance to nab before Seattle did.

Start with defensive end Jadeveon Clowney.

Clowney took over the game when Seattle handed the San Francisco 49ers their lone defeat on Nov. 11, which was the last time Seattle played after having their bye week. In that win, Clowney made five tackles, had five quarterback hits, forced a fumble and recovered a fumble.

For the season, he has just three sacks, but three forced fumbles, 12 quarterback hit and an interception return for a touchdown.

Roseman could have had Clowney in a trade with Houston, but likely shied away because Clowney is a free agent after the season. Still, the Seahawks only had to give up two players – part-time linebacker Jacob Martin and special teamer Barkevious Mingo – and a 2020 third-round pick to bring Clowney in right before the start of the season.

The Eagles defense is rounding into form, so not having Clowney doesn’t sting. Playing against him very well could, though.

What hurts is not having two receivers – or at least one - that could have been Eagles.

Roseman could have had D.K. Metcalf in the last spring’s draft. He could have had Josh Gordon just a couple weeks ago on after he was waived by the New England Patriots, but Roseman didn’t bother putting in a claim and Seattle, who was behind the Eagles in the claim order, ended up with him.

Metcalf was the 64 player taken in the 2019 NFL Draft. He sure would look good in an Eagles uniform right now, better than J.J. Arcega-Whiteside has so far looked.

Metcalf is in the conversation for offensive rookie of the year; Arcega-Whiteside is in water cooler conversations among Eagles fans across the Delaware Valley as to why in the world did the Eagles draft him at No. 57 overall when they could have had Metcalf?

The Seattle rookie has 35 catches for 595 yards (17.0 per catch) with five touchdowns. It is fair to wonder at this point if Arcega-Whiteside will ever be able to have that kind of production.

Metcalf has three touchdown catches in his last three games while Arcega-Whiteside has yet to find the end zone and has just three receptions for 43 yards on 10 games.

Gordon will play his second game with the Seahawks and, after just two catches for 27 yards in his debut with them, figures to have a larger role after having close to two weeks between games to learn the offense.

“I think that they have some playmakers out there, and again, if we let our guard down for one second, they have a lot of guys that can make us pay with touchdowns,” said Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz on Tuesday.

If only a defensive coordinator could say that about the Eagles’ offense.