Howie Roseman opens up on avoiding the mistakes he made after 2017 Super Bowl

By Reuben Frank • Published July 23, 2025 • Updated July 24, 2025

It made sense at the time.

The 2017 Eagles were so good – 13-3 regular season, nine-game winning streak, undefeated in meaningful games in the NFC East, Super Bowl champs with a backup quarterback – that Howie Roseman pretty much kept the roster intact going into 2018.

Seemed logical.

That nucleus won a Super Bowl. Why not run it back with players that Eagles fans loved and Roseman was close to?

The 2018 Eagles got off to a 4-6 start and finished 9-7 before beating the Bears in the double-doink game. Then the 2019 Eagles opened up 5-7 and finished 9-7, losing a home wild-card game against the Seahawks. Then the 2020 Eagles opened up 1-4-1 before sputtering to a 4-11-1 record.

Roseman was so loyal to that 2017 team that he waited too long to rebuild. From 2018 through 2020, the Eagles were 22-25-1. Only 11 teams won fewer games during the three years after the Eagles won a Super Bowl.

Lesson learned.

There aren’t a lot of general managers who get two chances to build a roster a year after a Super Bowl championship, but Roseman is one. And he made sure not to make the same mistakes he made seven years ago. 

Already, 19 players who started at least one game last year are gone. It’s not easy to let go of players who helped you win a Super Bowl. Roseman knew it had to happen.

"I think when I look back at that moment (after the 2017 season), some of of the lessons - and there were a lot of lessons and we've talked about it over the course of the year - is that as much as you love the players, the staff, we've got to keep getting better. 

"There are teams that are improving throughout the offseason that we've got to keep up with, and we've got to do whatever it takes to put our best team forward, our best foot forward.”

According to Spotrac’s team age database, those 2017 Eagles had the 7^th-oldest roster in the NFL with a 26.5 average age and a lot of older veterans who enjoyed one last big season and then just didn’t have much left a year later. By 2018, despite a terrific draft class that included Dallas Goedert, Josh Sweat and Jordan Mailata, they averaged 26.9 years old.

Conversely, the 2024 Eagles were the 4^th-youngest team in the league at 25.7 and they’re currently 3^rd-youngest, still at 25.7.

You don’t want to cut ties with guys like Josh Sweat, Darius Slay, Milton Williams, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, Kenny Gainwell, Mekhi Becton, Fred Johnson and Isaiah Rodgers.

But after watching the Eagles decline every year from 2017 through 2020, Roseman knew better than anyone that you can’t let emotions affect your decision making.

You make moves to remain elite, not to make anybody happy.

"Those are hard decisions, those are hard conversations, it's not fun,” he said. "But at the end of the day, we have responsibility and our responsibility is to continue to get better as a team. 

"There's no resting on laurels and sometimes that means making some changes, and we made some changes.”

There are a lot of reasons only eight teams have won back-to-back Super Bowls – only three in the last 30 years, nobody in the NFC since the 1992 and 1993 Cowboys.

If you’re not getting better, you’re falling behind. It’s a mistake so many teams make, and Roseman was committed to not doing it again.

"I think when you look back at that 2018 team, there are a lot of lessons,” Roseman said Wednesday at the NovaCare Complex practice fields before the first practice of training camp.

"We didn't start incredibly hot. Obviously we finished really well. Had an opportunity in the second round of the playoffs (vs. the Saints). But when you look forward from that, not only what happened in ‘18, but what happened in ‘19, what happened in ’20?

"I think that we're positioned, and that's all we are because we've got to make good decisions. We're positioned to put ourselves to compete here, not only this year, but going forward.”

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/howie-roseman-opens-up-mistakes-2017-super-bowl-eagles/676327/