The Howie Roseman 2.0 Draft Scoreboard
Howie Roseman was once the youngest general manager in the NFL when he first took over the job title for Jeffrey Lurie’s Eagles in 2010.
You can’t glean much from Roseman's first stint as GM, however, which ran until 2014 when Chip Kelly won a power struggle and a very short stint atop Philadelphia’s football operations.
While Roseman certainly had a significant footprint on personnel decisions with the Eagles there were other voices who had significant power and likely more than Roseman, most notably Andy Reid before Kelly.
Despite assumptions that have become narratives over the ensuing years few really understand who exactly the Andy picks, the Howie picks, and the Chip picks were in that era. From 2016 forward, though, when Roseman 2.0 emerged out of exile as a better leader who picked the brains of other successful sports executives like Brian Cashman and R.C. Buford, the buck has unquestionably stopped with Roseman, so it’s fair game to judge him over the past four years.
Every GM has help and first it was senior director of player personnel Tom Donahoe running the scouting department to get through the 2016 draft before Roseman hired Joe Douglas from Chicago to run the scouting department through last year’s draft.
The Super LII championship and one of the deeper rosters in football put Douglas on GM shortlists and he ultimately went to North Jersey to run the New York Jets’ football ops. Douglas had brought in his old friend Andy Weidl to be his top lieutenant and Weidl was elevated once Douglas left.
Roseman runs it all, though, with a directive of collaboration from Lurie.
The Eagles have had only 26 total picks over the past four years - eight in 2016 and 2017 and five each over the past two years.
SI.com asked a former AFC personnel executive to go down the list of Eagles picks from 2016 to present - adding in the context of draft position and expectations - and label them as either: mission accomplished, satisfactory or better, neutral, unsatisfactory or misses.
Here’s the list with premium picks (Rounds one through three in bold):
2016:
No. 2 - Carson Wentz - mission accomplished
No. 79 - Isaac Seumalo - mission accomplished
No. 153 - Wendell Smallwood - satisfactory
No. 164 - Halapoulivaati Vaitai - mission accomplished
No. 196 - Blake Countess - satisfactory (Countess lost in the numbers game here but developed into a contributor with the Rams)
No. 233 - Jalen Mills - mission accomplished
No. 240 - Alex McCalister - neutral
No. 251 - Joe Walker - satisfactory
2017
No. 14 - Derek Barnett - satisfactory
No. 43 - Sidney Jones - unsatisfactory/injuries
No. 99 - Rasul Douglas - satisfactory
No. 118 - Mack Hollins - unsatisfactory/injury
No. 132 - Donnel Pumphrey - miss
No. 166 - Shelton Gibson - satisfactory
No. 184 - Nate Gerry - mission accomplished
No. 214 - Elijah Qualls - neutral
2018
No. 49 - Dallas Goedert - mission accomplished
No. 125 - Avonte Maddox - satisfactory/plus
No. 130 - Josh Sweat - satisfactory/upside
No. 206 - Matt Pryor - satisfactory
No. 233 - Jordan Mailata - neutral/injury
2019
No. 22 - Andre Dillard - incomplete/upside
No. 53 - Miles Sanders - mission accomplished
No. 57 - J.J. Arcega-Whiteside - incomplete/injury?
No. 138 - Shareef Miller - incomplete
No. 167 - Clayton Thorson - neutral
In the eyes of the league with that context of expectations factored in, there are few outright swings and misses on Roseman’s resume, the most notable being the disastrous 2017 fourth-round selection on running back Donnel Pumphrey.
Receiver Mack Hollins was also graded as unsatisfactory but the executive noted he was trending in a positive direction before core-muscle surgery derailed him in Philadelphia.
Overall, there have been nine premium picks (Rounds 1 through 3) and the results are generally good with five of them being what most NFL personnel departments would consider hits - quarterback Carson Wentz, defensive end Derek Barnett, tight end Dallas Goedert, RB Miles Sanders and left guard Isaac Seumalo, a third-round pick from Wentz’s class who has settled down to become an effective starter.
Of the rest, back-to back cornerbacks selections from the 2017 draft in the second and third round, Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas, haven’t hit as hoped.
Jones, who was drafted despite suffering a torn Achilles’ at his pro day and essentially redshirted his rookie season, has been a disappointment to date and will presumably have one last opportunity to turn it around in 2020.
Douglas, meanwhile, has been a solid contributor, at least in short stretches, but the Eagles have made the decision that he’s not in their long-term plans and have put him on the trading block in advance of the final season on his rookie contract.
The jury is still out on 2019 first-round pick Andre Dillard, who is set to take over at left tackle for Jason Peters this upcoming season and showed some upside as a rookie, and second-round wideout J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, who had a very disappointing debut.
There has been 17 Day 3 picks in the Roseman 2.0 era with six being meaningful contributors over the course of their rookie deals, including RB Wendell Smallwood and swing tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai, who are now in other cities, the latter getting a big-money deal from Detroit as a former fifth-round pick who was one of the better swing tackles in the league for the Eagles.
Defensive end Josh Sweat, linebacker Nate Gerry and CBs Jalen Mills and Avonte Maddox remain and figure to have substantive roles next season.
Offensive lineman Matt Pryor is trending in a positive direction while there is still some hope with project OT Jordan Mailata. DE Shareef Miller barely dressed as a rookie last season but it’s too early to make a judgment.
When you take those three players out of the equation the Roseman 2.0 hit rate for contribution on Day 3 is six out of 14 which is 42.9 percent, a typical number in the short span of what is essentially a rookie contract. To find at least a spot starter on Day 3 is four out of 14 or 28.6 percent.
For full-time starters, the number is just one with Mills, who was a seventh-round pick in 2016 and has been a staple at outside corner until being earmarked for a move to safety as Malcolm Jenkins’ heir apparent in 2020. If you want to stretch it, you could include Gerry, who is at least penciled in for next season at this point.
Taken in the context of the rest of the NFL the Eagles draft record is probably a little below par over the Roseman 2.0 era with Wentz being the only Pro Bowl player drafted although early returns on Sanders and Goedert could certainly have them reaching that plateau.
It’s also fair to point out talent-acquisition season doesn’t exist in a vacuum and the leapfrog up to get Wentz in 2016 from No. 13 to the eighth pick to No. 2 was a masterstroke. It’s just as fair to say you should get it right at two when you are that high and if Wentz is taken out of this equation, the Eagles’ draft record over the past four years would be pedestrian.
Roseman’s strength, particularly before the Super Bowl season, was making the right decisions on veteran free agents who still had legs, players like Chris Long, LeGarrette Blount, and Patrick Robinson.
Everything is fluid, however, and the keys to changing that narrative are the continued improvement of Sanders and Goedert, the development of Dillard, a 180 from Arcega-Whiteside and perhaps the health of Barnett.
Roseman will start Thursday with eight more picks and a bigger splash is needed whenever and wherever he decides to use his capital.
John McMullen covers the Eagles for SI.com and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every day on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, Every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SBNation Radio, and every weekday on ESPN 97.3 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
