Howie Roseman's Stamp on Game Planning Limited to Roster Management

PHILADELPHIA - Jonathan Gannon set off a bit of a brush fire at the NovaCare Complex on Tuesday when he revealed a Howie Roseman role in the game-planning process after being asked about rotational positions and how malleable the plan for playing time is in-game by SI Eagles Today.

“We set up the game plan a certain way and say, ‘Hey, we want to come out of the game kind of looking like this,’ and we do that with the head coach and with Howie," the defensive coordinator said.

That dangling baton was run with by many who have the perception that Roseman is an overbearing general manager with his fingerprints on every aspect of Philadelphia's football operations.

When it comes to personnel issues that might even be the case but game planning remains the domain of the coaches, according to Nick Sirianni.

"What Jonathan was talking about, we go in and talk about the roster all the time," the head coach said. "We're always in communication about the roster and Howie's expertise is roster management."

Roseman does have control of the 53-man and game-day rosters to the point he's doing the bookkeeping so to speak but he is allowing the coaches to make the decisions which is the proper path.

"What we have to do is when we meet with Howie all the time is like 'Hey, Howie we're gonna need this guy up and this guy up. We're gonna put this guy down this week and this guy down.' And Howie has to make that happen."

In theory, that's something that can be accomplished in a text message but Sirianni values communication.

"The best teams I've been on have a great relationship between the head coach and the GM," he said. "The crappiest teams I've been on had a bad relationship between the head coach and the GM."

Sirianni and Roseman are on the same page but Roseman is not in on any scheme-based conversations when it comes to game planning.

"We discuss everything but at the end of the day, I have the say of who's up on game day and what we need," said the coach. "He's not sitting in there game-planning with us either and to the point he's... he doesn't know exactly [the schemes]. I'll tell him 'hey we're going to be in 13 personnel a lot.'

"I'll tell him everything."

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Sports. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talker Jody McDonald, every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube.com and JAKIBSports.com. You can reach John at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen