Howie Roseman Not Yet Sold on Receiver Class
INDIANAPOLIS – Howie Roseman isn’t ready to use the ‘H’ word just yet. That word is historic, and the Eagles general manger wasn’t ready to go there when asked about this year’s receiver draft class.
“We don’t have all the information on it, yet,” said Roseman when he met with reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday. “I think as we look at all these positions as we go here, the medicals are a big part of it, the injured reserve a big part of it, how they learn, the testing is part of it. You throw that all together.
“We’ve been in position where there are a bunch of guys we like and maybe they’re a medical reject or maybe something happens off the field that we dig as we go through the process where we think we have 12 guys we like, we’re at eight because we don’t overlook those kinds of things, so let’s see where all the information comes in and after that we’ll be able to make a better decision.”
It is certainly not time to shift into panic mode and think the Eagles won’t spend early for a pass catcher in this year’s draft, though Roseman was asked if he would be willing to wait until the draft to address the receiver position.
In other words, where does free agency come into play regarding a receiver?
“We’re not going to address any position if we don’t feel it’s the right deal at the right moment,” said Roseman. “We won’t do something that we feel puts us in position to – obviously there’s no insurance on this kind thing – but at the time we know is a terrible deal. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense. We’re not afraid to go through a period of the offseason having a hole on our depth chart at whatever position that is.”
Harken back to 2017, when the Eagles swung and missed on a class that was deep in running backs. Instead of landing Dalvin Cook, Alvin Kamara, Kareem Hunt, James Connor, Tarik Cohen, Wayne Gallman, Aaron Jones or Marlon Mack, the Eagles moved up to take Donnel Pumphrey, who never played an NFL down and is now in the XFL.
The Eagles did a good job, however, countering missing out on some good runners by signing Corey Clement as an undrafted free agent. They then signed LeGarrette Blount in May and added Jay Ajayi at the trade deadline. That triumvirate helped the Eagles win a Super Bowl.
“I think in 2017, that would be ideal, how can we have another 2017?” said Roseman. “Not that we were perfect in that offseason, but we found there are ways. I think going back to that, obviously running back was a position of concern.
“I remember in August having a conversation and feeling like we had a big hole at corner then going and trading for (Ron) Darby because we felt it was necessary at the time. We gave up a lot, but we would do that same thing. If you told me right now we’re only going to have five picks the next two years but we’re going to win the Super Bowl next year, where do we sign up? We’ll do that.”
One of the holes the Eagles may be willing to live with is at linebacker, where the team weakened the position by choosing not to pick up the option year on Nigel Bradham’s contract.
Roseman talked about the team’s philosophy about not valuing that position.
“You have a limited number of resources and whether it’s draft picks and money, so you have to figure out what are your priorities, what are things you decide you have to have and there are things you’d like to have or want to have, so for us as we go forward here there are certain positions on our team that we’ve committed huge resource to, whether it’s picks or money,” said Roseman.
“We have to figure out which position we can scout, what we can find. That doesn’t mean if there’s an opportunity to get a great player at a particular position then maybe, in the past we have seemed to undervalue, that we wouldn’t look at that, because we would. But we have to make sacrifices somewhere going forward and we’re going to have to continue to do that.”
