Press Pass: Howie Roseman

looking for. And that process starts now. How it's it's five, it's it's five running backs, six receivers, eight offensive lineman. Why heavy on the skill spots and light on the line. Yeah, you know, we like offensive lineman, there's no question about it. We feel really good about our eight. From there, we felt like, um, there were a lot of guys, a

lot of young players that we had. Um, you know, there's still the potential to bring some of them back, and so we just try to balance that and kind of our grading of those guys and um, if they were kind of in the same range, and feeling confident

that we can get some of those guys back. But certainly different than we've done in the past with the old line only keeping eight one of them only plays tackle, one of them only plays guard, and more specific to Warmack, reserved offensive lineman that only plays guard isn't really thought to be a valuable thing. You know, only kept him

but gave Hi a contract extension. So do you view him sort of as you know, a kind of a more of a special player as a reserve, but also do you see him as kind of maybe a starter option in twenty eighteen and beyond. We think we have eight starters on the offensive line, so not only him, but in Whiz and V. We think those guys are all starters in the National Football League. And I know I've said this a lot, so I'm going to sound repetitive, but it's hard to find offensive linement. It's hard to

find those guys. And when we look at kind of the market for those guys and what they get paid, and having the opportunity to maybe keep them together and all of them under contract going forward, we think that's a good issue for us to have. So we looked at it more of kind of the talent of those guys and at a position that we always want to be strong at, and that's why we move forward there.

Thanks your question, Well, I guess, more more specific to Warmack, do you view him as I know you said you'd see all your guys a starter, but um, you know, giving him a contract extension, do you see him as a guy that can you know, compete for a starting job next year. Yeah, that's why we did it. I mean, all those guys. Again, we feel like we're very fortunate to have eight guys that can go in and play at a high level, and we want to keep that

as a luxury. You know, taking our quarterbacks a major thing for us. How the two rookie running backs, Pumphrey obviously struggled that talking about that kind of balance of keeping both how difficult to call that was and what was up with Pumphrey during the preseasons. Yeah, i'd say pump.

You know, it's funny because as you go through the whole offseason with him, and he's a guy that was getting first string reps and everyone was talking about how excited they were on him, And you know, we spent a lot of time scouting that this running back class, scouting him in particular, and he's got a body of work. And not only is it the preseason games, but it's everyday of practice, it's every day through the offseason program and we also know that it comes from people quick

sometimes and sometimes it takes a while for rookies. You know, we're in a unique industry where there's really no patience. You know, there's no other industry that you take a guy out of college and um, if they don't look exactly like you're hoping a month in, you just look to dump them. And we want to develop our players. Um, we trust our evaluations on our scouts, and we want to give guys time that we believe in. And I think both Pumping Corey are along those lines. Now, we

I had to receiver spot. What was it that Shelton Gibson showed you that had him our spot over someone like Tregs or even market down. Yeah, when we drafted these guys, m we knew that they were there are rookies, they're work in progress. And we knew that Sheldon went back to school, didn't come out early. He's probably drafted higher, and that we're going to have to spend time to develop him and his skill set. And he does have a trait. I mean, he had more fifty yard receptions

than anyone in college football last year. He can take the top off consistency, for a rookie is obviously, you know, something that sometimes takes some time, but he works really hard. He has the traits we're looking for to develop into a player, and now obviously you know we're going to spend the time trying to develop that. And I think

it's important for us when we make these decisions. We're talking about the forty six, the fifty three, and then the sixty three, and we want to make sure our coaches have the best forty six guys that they need to go into Washington and then from there, there are also guys that we want to develop that we want to sit there a year from now and hope that

they've taken another step. And you know, a guy like Marcus Johnson who deserves a lot of credit for what happened with him developing and in our offseason program and working with our guys. So we want to take these guys and understand that they need some development, and we're gonna try to be patient with guys that we think

have talent. So howie with that set With that said, is it the fifty three best players or is it players that you you think will develop and may not be the best fifty three right now, you understand what I'm saying. Fifty three best player, I think it's the fifty three best players for the Philadelphia Eagles organization. You know, I think we're looking we're trying to balance where the ceilings are of guys, and especially some of the guys

that may not be playing, may not be active. We don't want to lose a guy that a year from now or two years from now we think has started traits. And so that doesn't mean that everything set, that doesn't mean that we're not going to consistently evaluate them. But for us, you know, it's a bigger than just the preseason game, just the training camp practices. It's the offseason, it's the college state, it's the traits, and you know, we feel good about having a plan to develop these yus.

So what you see is there's a player that you feel will develop into the and be one of the fifty three best players on that. I think what we're saying is we're trying to balance where guys have maybe higher ceilings and are we gonna be perfect on that? Probably not our but that's what makes us a tough day. And I think even more so, certainly we're looking at it, and we feel like we put some good players out there, and I think that's a tribute to our personnel staff

and our coaches developing these guys. But it doesn't make it any easier. How you mentioned rookies in development, sometimes it makes time. So why expose Nate? Why was he the one guy the waivers? Well, I think it's credit to the other guys of that position. You know, when we look at the guys that we kept beyond the three starters, Joe Walker had a good preseason, you know, and he's another guy coming off a knee injury. Were really bummed when he got hurt last year. He's got

physical traits. You know, it's hard to find Mike linebackers who have shocked and he's able to do that. And then you look at at Najy Nagy has versatility. You know, he can back up really a three all three of the outside of both the outside positions and play inside and a huge part of our special teams. You know, it's important for us to be good on special teams.

And then Umu when we look at Kamu um we think he has a chance to be one of the better special teams A player not only on our team but in the league, and um, that was a tough one. That was one of the last ones we did right there. And we understand it's a transition from him and it's going to take some time. But it was just the nature of the numbers game. How you put um Sidney

Jones on NFI as expected. So did that factor into how you looked at the cornerback position and do you know you have a better grasp of when and if he can play this year? You know, with Sidney, Um, we're gonna take it kind of. We have a protocol that our doctors are trainers, our strength and conditioning staff have put in place, and it's very organized, it's very detailed, and we're just going to knock it down. We have

a checklist at every point. He's doing a great job, but again, you know, we have a long way to go and we want to make sure that we're getting the best of Sydney Jones. I think one of the benefits of trading for Darby was that we won't have that in urge to try to rush Sydney. But that being said, he's got amazing work effort and we're really excited about him. As a kid and his work ethic, and we'll just take it day by day. As a follow up to that, the league gives you a time

table here. You know you have between week six and week eight. Is that realistic to get him back onto the practice field during that time? Yeah, we'll just have to see. Obviously we're talking about six weeks from now, but you know, we haven't mapped out. I don't want to put any restrictions on him or expectations on him at this point. It's gonna be day to day. But he is doing exactly what we ask of him, and we feel good about where he's at in the process.

The fact that you guys kept two quarterbacks, I mean, does that kind of show that you guys are pretty confident that you know, Nick Boles's elbow situation is fine. I mean, is that kind of reason why you went with two instead of three? Yeah, certainly. You know, if you're sitting here worried about a quarterback, you wouldn't be able to keep too. So I know coaches talked about it. We feel good about where Nick's at and where he is going into the Washington game, and that's why we

did that. How he getting back to the offensive line and the decision not to keep a swing tackle guard. Are you guys gonna be more prone to keep eight on the forty six on game day because of the fact that you don't have a swing guy, or would you you're looking at it some other way. No, I think when you when you look at our three guys, maybe I don't understand the question. Because Whiz can play both guard spots and center. V can play both tackle spots.

Chance can play both guard spots. So you know, you can go a bunch of ways. But certainly Wiz has the versatility to play all three interior positions. V has the ability to play left tackle and right tackle. UM, as does Lane m I missing Yeah, No, um makes sense. Now. I think the other thing just part of that, because that's that's an uncomfortable position for us, just because historically where we've been, certainly in all my time here, and

how many offensive linemen we've kept. But we actually went back and looked at how many teams keep eight, where teams are with their third and fourth tackle, and it made us feel better about the decision. How you kept Dexter mcdougle and then actually gave him an extension. How did you go about that, because he's only been here for less than a week. How did you look at him and see how we'd fit into the system and decide that he was good enough to not only stay

this year, but next year too. Yeah. Really, when you look at it, means McDougal chance all guys that were going to be free agents all out an opportunity to kind of check them off our list and get him here for more than one year. You know, for Dex, he's got a skill set to play the nickel cool hunter position. We saw that in his jet tape. Obviously a little bit of a leap of faith because he only played in that one preseason game, but you know, we're looking for guys who can have defined roles, and

we feel like he can do that. That's why we made the trade. You know, I'm sure Terrence made the Jets. I don't know that, but I'm sure Terrence made the Jets, And we knew when we were trading Terrence we were trading a fifty three man guy too, so we felt like that was a good trade for both sides. But you know, we've had in the past on our good teams,

we've had guys dedicated to play the nickel position. You know, pe Rob's done a good jobs since he's moved in there, but we think Dex has a skill set to do it as well. How are you up? How much more difficult is the process this year? Now? That looks like, you know, everybody gets released at the same time, we got something like eleven hundred guys hitting the street. Um is it? Is it tougher now? And you know how

difficult does the process become at this point? Yeah, it's hard talking to each one of these guys, you know, Um, all these conversations are not fun. You're letting you're letting guys go, guys who've done everything we've asked of them. Um, we think we bring good people into the building, so you're letting go good people. So, UM, this is a tough week. You know, this is a tough week starting with John. Thank John for all the contributions that he

did to our organization. And UM, you know it's certainly the toughest day of the year, you know when you're talking to all of these guys and having conversations, and UM, as we get better and we get more talented, letting go players that you know, we're going to play UM in the National Football League on other the rosters. What I meant by that, though, it was I know, getting guys in here now, like looking at other players we got we got a thousand guys in the Florida game

on you know, and and it's very distracted. All right, Oh good good, no question, I got one. UM. Seems like there was a well, yeah, we're talking about trade. I think some of us here thought you might make another trade. Understandable. How close did you come and how busy you know? Yeah. I think what we've learned over the past couple of years is, UM, it's easier to do it with more than time. UM. You know, we get a call on guys UM yesterday or today, you know,

our immediate reaction is they're cutting him, UM. And then you have to then get that guy up to speed in your system. So it's a harder sell. It's harder to do UM. Obviously we've seen some trades here in the last thirty six hours. UM. But UM, we felt pretty confident that going into Thursday and Friday, and I think I said this to Brett that UM, it was

gonna be quiet from our our perspective. Um. Yeah, well you talked about not wanting to give up on guys that you know essentially are new and might have a learning curve in front of them. Um. On the other side of that, and the fact that you invested in these guys and not weighing that too much versus what the tape is showing you. I mean, how much of a struggle is that as you're evaluating which guys to

keep and not. Yeah, and I think it's it's also goes back to how much time you're really giving these guys and um, and then what we think when we're drafting them. And you know, the conversation we had this morning is when we drafted every single one of those guys, including some of the guys we let go. Um, we're not just going a you know, we just made the pick.

We're excited, you know, and we're excited, and UM, when we make the decision to pick them, we have conversations like, hey, this guy may not be ready to day one, this guy may some time. Here are the things he may need to work on, and so we try to balance that, but we're also going to make a concerted effort to

try to develop them. And spend the time not just you know, reading off cards on scout team, um, but really spending time with them and developing the person and the player and try to help them on some of the deficiencies that maybe they have. Now you have three guys now and Jenkins, Graham Watkins that can play corner and safety. Um. How big is that the benefits of it to us? For Jim? Yeah, Jim always talks about versatility and his defensive backs and um, those guys their

ability to come down loan and play over the slot receiver. Um. And really if we got into buying to even play outside and Roddy did that in college too. UM. So having safeties with corner background is um really part of the prototype that he puts out for us when we go out and look for guys. So, UM, we're excited. You know, Corey we think was a good addition to our football team and it's going to really help us. Howie. Um,

Billy Brown obviously didn't make a team. UM. What do you guys think of him overall in terms of your evaluation? Do you feel like he'll be a guy that can clear through waivers and you can get back on the on the squad, at least on a practice squad. Yeah, I mean, I think on all these guys, it's hard to know who's going to come back. And Um, we have different agendas than the players. You know, we're kind of going, hey, we hope you see you tomorrow, and

they're probably hoping to get picked up. But you know, his transition wide receiver to tight end, Um, that's a tough transition as it is. Um did a nice job. And again it's these are the hard decisions. These are the ones that we all struggle with, and we had a bunch of those and m glad that we have some more hard decisions this year on our football team. Thank you,