Eagles' Howie Roseman 'Enjoys' Building NFL Exec Factory?

PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Eagles organization has developed into a bit of a head-hunting service for the rest of the NFL when it comes to front-office talent.

Joe Douglas, Andrew Berry, Catherine Raiche, Ian Cunningham, Brandon Brown, and Andy Weidl are among the high-profile execs who got promotions elsewhere, something that Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, the reigning NFL Executive of the Year, takes pride in.

“If you’re trained in Philadelphia, you’re probably better equipped to do the job than most,” a rival NFL executive told SI.com’s Eagles Today. “I think Howie didn’t like it at first especially when Brandon [Brown] went to the Giants but now I think he enjoys developing people.”

If you’re looking for the next piece of talent on an upward trajectory, look no further than assistant GM Alec Halaby, the Harvard-educated analytical whiz who has climbed the ladder from intern in 2007 to the cusp of leading his own football operations department.

Billy Beane famously started “counting cards” before anyone else in Major League Baseball and the impact of his outside-the-box thinking ultimately reverberated throughout the entire sport and even spilled into others.

Beane, a former failed outfielder and Oakland Athletics general manager, is now a minority owner of that franchise, and his open-mindedness exploded into “Moneyball” where Hollywood A-lister Brad Pitt played Beane in the movie.

Analytics was born and have completely taken over baseball, impacted basketball dramatically before slowly emerging in the NFL.

The nerds are winning is a refrain you’ll hear across the sports landscape at times.

The Eagles are currently led by three "non-traditional" top football executives: Roseman, as well as his two assistant GMs, Halaby and Jon Ferrari, who has been the organization’s compliance expert.

Non-traditional is quickly becoming the norm, however.

“I mean I've been very fortunate to work with someone who was from a non-traditional background,” Halaby said in a rare interview with Eagles’ beat reporters before pivoting. “I don't probably have it in my head as a non-traditional background and the way I just think of [Roseman has] done it, he's been a great GM for a long time.”

The Eagles have been well ahead of the curve when it came to using what is rudimentarily described as analytics but a head start is exactly that.

"I think in any industry, whatever edge you think you have is going to be swallowed up,” Halaby admitted. “Everyone will jump to the frontier and it is just a continuous process of looking for the next edge. That's true in business, that's true in basketball, and it's true in baseball. I don't know if it's more or less challenging, it's more interesting.

“And some of the low-hanging fruit that was maybe there 15 years ago when we started isn't there anymore, and everyone has jumped to that frontier. But it does force, it's more of an intellectual challenge. It forces you to find [the next edge].”

Finding the next edge is Halaby’s bailiwick and he’s firmly focused on player-tracking data and what that will be able to reveal.

"I think, the player tracking data came to the NFL I want to say five, six years ago and I think one lesson from other sports from talking to people in baseball and basketball, it does take some time to figure out exactly how to develop really specific, finely tuned metrics with that,” Halaby explained. “I think every team is trying to do it. But I think that will continue, our understanding of the game will continue to grow as you spend more time with that data."

Boiled down, however, Halaby’s philosophical approach is gathering as much information as possible to help influence the decision-making process.

"Speaking for myself personally, I am someone that likes to use all of the information,” said Halaby. “... I don't look at analytics and video as in conflict. Fundamentally we're trying to make the best decision that we can, converge on the most accurate evaluation of a player and so we're going to use all the information.”