10 Eagles leftovers from the 2023 NFL owners meetings

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10 Eagles leftovers from the 2023 NFL owners meetings

 

PHOENIX — The NFL owners meetings came to a close but not before we heard from Howie Roseman, Nick Sirianni and Jeffrey Lurie.

After a busy couple of days, there were some leftovers:

1. The Eagles lost their best defensive tackle from 2022 when Javon Hargrave signed a four-year, $84 million deal to join the 49ers. The Eagles were able to bring back Fletcher Cox at $7 million but they’re also going to need to rely on their younger players at the position … and that’s even after signing veteran Kentavius Street.

"We drafted Milton Williams in the third round because we really liked him,” Roseman said on Monday. "We traded up for Jordan Davis because we really liked him.”

The Eagles selected Williams in the third round of the 2021 draft. They then traded up and drafted Davis at No. 13 overall last year. Now both of those young players are in line to be starters for the Eagles in 2023. If the season began now, Williams, Davis and Cox would be the Eagles starters on the interior of their defensive line but depth was a concern.

Roseman offered a little foreshadowing of the move to sign Street.

"That doesn’t mean we’re done there,” Roseman said. "There’s some young guys there we’re excited to see here. It’s a priority position. But again, when you start with those guys and we got a long time before we play a game, I think it’s a good start.”

2. The Eagles proposed a rule change this season to allow the use of the number zero on jerseys and also allow kickers and punters to wear any number between 0-49 and 90-99. That rule change passed.

"It just gives more flexibility. It gives a little more flexibility,” Lurie said. "If anyone brings up double zero next year, I’ll probably vote for it."

3. It’s very clear that Sirianni really enjoys the process of building a coaching staff. He enjoyed it when the Eagles hired him in 2021 and he’s enjoyed reshaping it this offseason after both of his coordinators left for head coaching gigs.

Sirianni said that for each coach he hired this offseason, he called as many as 30-40 people who worked with that coach before. These are exhaustive searches and Sirianni leaves no stone unturned. He and Lurie share philosophies about building staffs.

And it doesn’t end with the hires. Sirianni preaches connection to his players but he tries to do the same thing with his coaches. He said that he hosted a few of the new members of the coaching staff at his home during the first round of the NCAA tournament. And he also wants to get them to the 76ers facility to hang out and shoot around a little bit. He also said he wants to show them he’s the best shooter on the coaching staff.

4. Roseman explained during the week that the Eagles lost C.J. Gardner-Johnson after initially offering him a multi-year contract early in free agency. When Gardner-Johnson turned that deal down, the Eagles pivoted and put that money into extending cornerbacks James Bradberry and Darius Slay.

Gardner-Johnson ended up in Detroit on a one-year deal to play for head coach Dan Campbell and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn. Both coaches have been with Gardner-Johnson before.

Campbell gave the Lions’ perspective after signing the former Eagles safety.

"I would have said C.J. early, of course he would have been an early target,” Campbell said to reporters. "However, we didn’t think that was going to be in our capacity with the money that we had, the cap, everything where we wanted to spend our resources. That one, man, we were fortunate there. The longer it went, the more it ended up favoring us and we were able to work something out with each other. He’s an outstanding addition. AG and I have a lot of history with that guy. We know what he is, we know what he’s about and he’s hungry. He’s out for, ‘This is a year, I’m here, I want to help,’ and then we’ll see what happens after that. Let me tell you something, he’s going to be ready to go.”

5. The Eagles signed Marcus Mariota this offseason to be Jalen Hurts’ backup and it wasn’t just because Mariota is a good player. The similarities in their games — that Mariota is a threat to use his legs too — didn’t hurt.

Roseman said as much during his media availability on Monday afternoon.

"I think when you look at Marcus, you’re talking about an elite athlete who has really good tools as a passer,” Roseman said. "Obviously, we’re hoping he doesn’t have to take the field other than mop-up duty. We can run our offense if need be if Jalen has a cold or something and he had to play. We’re excited about getting him here and have always had a lot of respect for him as a player and as a person. I just think it’s a good fit, hopefully for both sides.”

Sirianni also revealed during his interview session that he and Frank Reich put Mariota through a private workout during the pre-draft process in 2015. At that time, Sirianni and Reich were still with the San Diego Chargers.

And the Eagles also had a ton of other people in the building who knew Mariota previously, including QBs coach Alex Tanney, who was Mariota’s teammate in Tennessee, and TEs coach Jason Michael, who was Mariota’s offensive coordinator and QBs coach with the Titans.

6. While the Eagles landed Mariota as their backup quarterback for the 2023 season, their former backup Gardner Minshew ended up in Indianapolis with Shane Steichen. The former Eagles’ offensive coordinator explained why he thinks so highly of Minshew.

"I just think he has a great natural feel for seeing the game and processes information very quickly,” Steichen said. "Just when you talk to him in the meetings and then when he goes to the practice field and the way he sees it and throws it to the right guy, that’s a part of the thing. Throw it to the right guy and know where to go with the football at the right time and that’s what he does.”

The Colts have the No. 4 pick in the draft and are expected to take a quarterback they hope will become their franchise guy. But if that player isn’t ready to go, Minshew could perhaps be the starter at least early in the 2023 season. But Steichen didn’t want to get into any of that on Monday. He simply said Minshew is coming in to compete and that stuff will sort itself out. Still, that seems like a better situation for Minshew than behind Jalen Hurts in Philly.

7. Steichen was also asked plenty of questions about his former coworkers who now find themselves in bigger roles: New Eagles offensive coordinator Brian Johnson, new Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon and new Cardinals defensive coordinator Nick Rallis.

It was very obvious that Steichen thinks an awful lot about each of them:

On Johnson: "Very detailed, very intelligent, very smart. Sees the game really well. Former quarterback, played the position. I always think that helps to get that perspective, from a quarterback’s perspective. Fast thinker, fast processor. I think he’s going to do a hell of a job there.”

On Gannon: "Jonathan’s going to be great. Just working with him for two years in Philly, just the passion and the energy he brought to that building and that defense, you saw it on a day-in-and-out basis. I think he’s going to bring great energy, great enthusiasm where guys are going to want to play for him.”

On Rallis: "Super, super intelligent. I had many conversations with him in his office, just passing along. He’d come down to my office and we’d bounce stuff off each other. But just the way he saw the game at 29 was impressive. I’m not surprised. He’s a rising star in this league for sure.”

8. The Eagles clearly want to get a long-term contract with Hurts figured out before the start of the 2023 season, the final year on Hurts’ rookie contract.

Sirianni was asked question about his plans for Hurts’ usage once that big contract comes in. When Hurts is on a mega deal, will the Eagles use him any differently, especially as it pertains to the run game?

"No. We’ll do … part of what makes Jalen special is everything that he can do,” Sirianni said. "We’ll do what we have to do to win football games no matter what that is. Jalen does a lot of things special and we’ll try to showcase all the things that he does special and we’ll try to recap the things that we did last year with him and add some new wrinkles with different things that we do. We’ll do what we need to do to win games and we have a special quarterback and we’ll use his special abilities.”

In 2022, Hurts rushed for 760 yards and 13 touchdowns on 165 attempts. While many of those attempts were QB sneaks or scrambles, that’s the second-most rushing attempts for a quarterback in a season in NFL history. The only player with more was Lamar Jackson with 176 in 2019.

9. The Eagles really struggled to stay healthy for several years but that all turned around in 2022. Sure, they had their bumps and bruises along the way but the Eagles played Super Bowl LVII with all 22 of their Week 1 starters on the field. That’s pretty amazing.

Roseman on Monday was asked for his view on this. Does he think a lot of it was luck? Or have the Eagles figured out some things the rest of the league doesn’t know?

"I think obviously our performance staff, our training staff, our doctors deserve a tremendous amount of credit — 22 of 22 starters were playing in the Super Bowl,” Roseman said. "But I think it’s not realistic to expect that’s going to happen the same next year. When we talk about it, it also helps balancing your roster with younger guys. Younger guys just naturally stay healthier, right? Part of it is on us, part of it is they did an amazing job, for sure. But we gotta keep it going. We had a bad injury run for a few years and I think those guys have done a really good job of turning it around and figuring out things that they think can get us a better chance to stay healthy.”

10. The entire Eagles organization loves Hurts and that includes the owner. It’s very clear the Eagles are going to give Hurts a big extension and they won’t be worried about that money changing him. It’s clear the Eagles trust Hurts implicitly.

"I think the future is so great for him. He is 24-years old,” Lurie said. "Honestly, I don’t know if I have ever met someone that mature at age 24. My son is 27 and he is very mature but — no. Jalen is the most mature 24-year old I’ve ever come across.”

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/10-eagles-leftovers-2023-nfl-owners-meetings