Why 3 first-round picks has changed Eagles’ free agency process

 

PALM BEACH, Fla. — Howie Roseman has a message for Eagles fans: Relax.

It’s not even April.

The Eagles’ longtime general manager spoke to a group of reporters on Monday afternoon at The Breakers, a luxurious resort in South Florida, and explained why the Eagles have been relatively quiet so far in free agency.

"We looked into a bunch of opportunities,” Roseman said in front of the backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean. "Some of them we felt like just weren’t the right fit for us, whether from a cost perspective or a position perspective. I would just say this: We’re not even to April. We are working every day. We are not going to stop working.”

There are still several more weeks of free agency before the draft, which will be another major opportunity for the Eagles to improve their roster. And this year, the Eagles have three first-round picks, all in the top 20, as well as five picks in the top 83.

It’s a unique opportunity for Roseman and his staff.

While it seems possible the Eagles won’t use all three first-rounders — at least not at Nos. 15, 16 and 19 — Roseman on Monday made it seem like he’s preparing for that possibility. Or at least for the possibility of leaving the draft with a haul of players who will be ready to play from Day 1.

"I think the other part of this is when you have the amount of high picks we have, we don’t want to block these players from playing,” Roseman said. "We don’t want to get in a situation where we’re drafting guys in the first, second, sometimes even the third round and they don’t have an ability to play because you’re wasting a contract year. That gives us the opportunity to draft guys and to play early in a contract, which we think is an important part of the team-building process we’re in.”

Roseman admitted there’s "no doubt” that having three first-rounders has affected the way they’ve handled this offseason.

He doesn’t want to have to force redshirt seasons on talented rookies simply because they reached to fill positions with free agents out of a feeling of panicked necessity. Typically, high-round draft picks play early in their careers, but having free agency before the draft, as the NFL has it set up, sometimes makes it difficult to plug holes with veteran signings.

Even after saying he doesn’t want to block draft picks from playing in their rookie seasons, Roseman objected to the idea that this type of thinking would encourage the Eagles to over-prioritize need next month when they’re on the clock.

"We’ve got to learn from mistakes when we force positions. When we’re in a position where we’ve got to have a guy it doesn’t work,” he said. "I think that you see, still in free agency, if we wanted to circle back at some of the positions people perceive there’s a need, there’s still guys there. A lot of these (are) veteran guys and they’re smart enough to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to wait and see in the draft. See if teams draft these guys and what the best spot is for me as well.’

"I think that for us, we know that there are other opportunities to do it. We don’t go into the draft and say, holy cow, we have to draft this position or the team is freaking going to fall apart this year. Again, we’re building. We’re not saying we’re putting all our chips into the middle of the table this year. We want to win. We want to have a really good team but we also want to do the right things.”

The Eagles have signed just three outside free agents this offseason — Haason Reddick, Zach Pascal and Kyzir White — and most of their emphasis has been on retaining their own players. That includes bringing back Jason Kelce, Fletcher Cox, Anthony Harris and others.

Roseman, in his mind, also includes his in-season signings of Jordan Mailata, Dallas Goedert, Josh Sweat and Avonte Maddox. While those extensions haven’t necessarily prevented the Eagles from signing outside free agents, Roseman is probably right about the premise of re-signing their best players before they hit the open market.

In all, Roseman’s Eagles are in a balancing act. They’re not the Rams of last year or the Chargers of 2022. They’re not all in. They’re still building.

And the GM wants you to know that process isn’t over in late March.

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/eagles-gm-howie-roseman-explains-uneventful-free-agency

18 minutes ago, time2rock said:

Howie Roseman has a message for Eagles fans: Relax.

Except they have 3 first round picks, 5 picks in the top 83 I believe(?) and yet a GM who has a patchy at best track record in the draft. 

1 hour ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

Except they have 3 first round picks, 5 picks in the top 83 I believe(?) and yet a GM who has a patchy at best track record in the draft. 

Yes 5 in the top 83 (15, 16, 19, 51, 83).  And indeed true regarding his track record.  He did have a solid draft in 2021 - let's hope it wasn't a fluke and that he makes good use of the picks next month too.  This is probably the biggest draft of his career - this could potentially us up for sustained success or it could sink us.  I think Lurie gave him the 3 year extension so as to avoid having him in a lame duck year and to give him the opportunity to see how well he guides this team to being a legit contender again (not one sneaking into the playoffs with a record that hovers around 0.500 only making it in because they expanded the playoff field by adding an extra seed).  

3 hours ago, time2rock said:

Yes 5 in the top 83 (15, 16, 19, 51, 83).  And indeed true regarding his track record.  He did have a solid draft in 2021 - let's hope it wasn't a fluke and that he makes good use of the picks next month too.  This is probably the biggest draft of his career - this could potentially us up for sustained success or it could sink us.  I think Lurie gave him the 3 year extension so as to avoid having him in a lame duck year and to give him the opportunity to see how well he guides this team to being a legit contender again (not one sneaking into the playoffs with a record that hovers around 0.500 only making it in because they expanded the playoff field by adding an extra seed).  

Yeah he did have a good draft last year. I mean the Smith pick was a no brainer but he deserves credit for the trade back etc. The Dickerson pick was a swing given his injury record but that one looks good right now so fair play Howie got that one right and I like Williams as a rotational guy. I just see last year right now as an outlier so he's got to back it up. If he has another good draft this year then next year things may look very different.