The Hidden Cost of Howie Roseman's Success: Why the Eagles Keep Losing Front-Office Talent

Howie Roseman has built one of the most consistently successful front offices in modern NFL history.

Dec 8, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman looks on before the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

PHILADELPHIA - Howie Roseman has built one of the most consistently successful front offices in modern NFL history.

Three Super Bowl appearances since 2017. Consistent contention. Draft hits that keep the roster young and cost-effective and cap gymnastics that could make Simone Biles blush.

Under Roseman, the Eagles have quietly become the gold standard Jeffrey Lurie once prematurely branded his organization to be. And right now, the unintended consequence of Roseman's success is an increasingly familiar sight: talented executives exiting the Jefferson Health Training Complex.

Over the last month the Eagles lost three more key pieces from Roseman's inner circle, most notably assistant general manager Alec Halaby, who had been with the organization for 17 years and served as Roseman's right-hand man since his promotion to that position in 2022.

Senior vice president/tertiary football executive Bryce Johnston, the salary-cap expert who spent the past two years executing some of the league's most complex contract work, and vice president of football operations Jeff Scott, a rising star who joined the Eagles in 2021 and climbed the corporate ladder quickly, both earned promotions in Atlanta.

All three departures came in quick succession.

Halaby's exit was framed as a personal decision to "start a new professional chapter," with no landing spot announced yet. Johnston and Scott, however, took clear promotions by joining former Eagles colleague Ian Cunningham, now Atlanta's general manager. The Falcons, in essence, raided Roseman's cabinet.

This isn't new. It's the latest chapter in a decade-long pattern. Think back: Andrew Berry left to become the Browns' GM. Cunningham went to Chicago before landing in Atlanta. Catherine Raiche-Hickman to Cleveland, Brandon Brown to the Giants, Andy Weidl to Pittsburgh—the list of Roseman protégés who have been hired away for bigger roles is longer than a CVS receipt.

The Eagles have quietly become the NFL's top executive development program.

Repopulating

The new look of the Jefferson Health Training Complex. | John McMullen/Eagles On SI

On one level, that us flattery and Roseman does take pride in it. However, no matter how deep the bench is, eventually there is going to be a tipping point.

When other organizations look at Philadelphia's sustained success—savvy drafting, aggressive but disciplined strategy in free agency, roster flexibility that can survive injuries and contract hits—they see Roseman's fingerprints.

In turn, they want the people who learned under him. They want the scouts who integrated the analytics-driven model that has kept the Eagles ahead of the curve and uncovered the Pro Bowl selections, and the execs who seem to always find the flexibility and money to pull off major moves like the recent trade for star edge rusher Jonathan Greenard.

But the unintended consequence is spawned by the glass ceiling of Roseman's success. He's the top dog on the football side and he's not going anywhere which means ambitious people need to move on to reach their career goals.

And every time a Halaby, a Johnston, or a Scott walks out the door, the Eagles lose institutional knowledge, continuity, and the kind of day-to-day excellence that separates good organizations from great ones.

Front-office work is relationship-driven and detail-oriented. Losing the people who know every nuance of the roster, every scout's tendencies, every cap workaround Roseman has engineered over the years forces constant rebuilding from within.

Roseman has already proven he can weather it. The Eagles keep promoting internally, keep finding new talent, and keep winning games. The cupboard is hardly bare. Joe Douglas is already back after a failed stint as the New York Jets GM, and get ready to learn names like Adam Berry, Andrew's brother, Chuck Walls and Alan Wolking.

Roseman and the Eagles have built a self-sustaining front office that can survive turnover.

Yet there has to be a limit. At some point, the brain drain risks becoming more than an inconvenience.

This is the paradox of sustained success in the NFL. The better you are, the more your lieutenants get poached. The more championships you chase, the more other teams want your blueprint—and the people who helped design it.

Roseman's success has both made the Eagles a destination for ambitious young executives and a launching pad or their inevitable exits.

The question for Philadelphia isn't whether Roseman can replace Halaby, Johnston, and Scott. He almost certainly will, just as he has replaced the others who left before them. The deeper question is whether the Eagles can keep doing it indefinitely.

For now, the pipeline keeps flowing.

But every time another key voice leaves the room, it's worth remembering: this is what success looks like when it's done right. It's also what it costs.