Mr. Lurie, It’s Time to End #HowieSZN
“Its so hard to evaluate him [Wentz] in this context, especially considering what we’ve already talked about. The offensive line issues, all of the different combinations, the lack of weapons on the perimeter. No he’s not playing great, Griese has documented numerous times the kind of decisions that he has made and the inaccuracy issues… But there’s nothing around him either. So there’s just so much work to be done here.”
Spoke ESPN analyst and former Eagles Director of Pro Personnel, Louis Riddick during the final minutes of the Monday Night Football broadcast. A game that saw Philadelphia suffer another uninspiring defeat, this time at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks. While Riddick was specifically speaking on Wentz during this time, it didn’t take long to realize that many of the problems, identified only pointed back to the man in charge of building the roster in the first place. The second nationally televised game in under a month in which the flaws of an underwhelming and undermanned football team were on full display for the world to see. \
The worst part about it? The man responsible for this display gets to hide in the shadows for an extended period of time due to his limited availability.
All while head coach Doug Pederson and quarterback Carson Wentz are forced to manufacture answers to problems that they’ve had a hand in building, but aren’t solely responsible for.
Has Doug Pederson been perfect? Far from it. Is Carson Wentz playing arguably the worst football of his career? Probably.
Yet with Philadelphia sitting at 3-7-1, a head coach feeling the heat and the quarterback play alarmingly concerning. For some reason, it feels like the Eagles have bigger problems on their hand. Problems that have been present for years now, but were so much easier to mask when the connection between Wentz and Pederson was a bit more competent than the stale offense the Eagles have displayed this season.
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This could just be speculation but maybe; just maybe the Eagles offense (and team) would look a bit better if the general manager just made smarter decisions. This is the same guy who JUST gave his franchise quarterback a brand new $128m contract extension. Rewarding him for the quality of play he has shown, making said general manager look smart after he decided it was best to trade ‘the farm’ to get him. Then wasted a second-round pick on a quarterback after it was reported that scouts had preferred Southern Illinois safety Jeremy Chinn (who is currently the favorite for Defensive Rookie of the Year).
Well, at least he invested a first-round pick in getting his quarterback some weapons, right? Sure if you’re looking at the big picture. The Eagles had a need at wide receiver, true. The Eagles had a need to add a dimension of speed to the offense, specifically at the receiver position. Also true. So in that case maybe his decision to once again override the work of the scouting department, who was on board with selecting LSU’s Justin Jefferson (who is also the favorite to win Offensive Rookie of the Year) in favor of Jalen Reagor will end up being a good one.
Right now though, this looks almost as bad as well, this
http://twitter.com/samparentt/status/1333594249955323907?s=21
It doesn’t help that out of the last 50 players Howie Roseman has drafted, only one has made a Pro Bowl. That one being his supposed franchise quarterback. But, see it’s bigger than the mishandling of recent drafts. It’s the mishandling of the entire roster. It’s signing oft-injured players to fill prominent roles along both sides of the ball, but telling the fans and media that “hope is not a strategy when it comes to injuries”. It’s saying things like “One of my weaknesses is getting attached to our players — there’s no doubt about it” and “we have to let the young players play, grow and get some experience”. But then veterans like Jason Peters and Alshon Jeffery are taking snaps away from the younger players who are playing well, such as Travis Fulgham and Jordan Mailata.
Winning a Super Bowl is one of the hardest tasks in business. While winning a second one? Almost unheard of in this day and age. Yet as difficult as these tasks are, as the years passed by the more it looks like Roseman is closer to the man that was sent to the broom closet in place of Chip Kelly than ‘football genius’ many (including me) proclaimed him to be following the 2017 run.
Something that Eagles owner Jeffery Lurie maybe want to consider? There’s an old saying that says when someone shows you who they are you believe them.
Well, there has been a recent trend going on in Philadelphia.
Andy Reid
The most successful coach in Philadelphia Eagles history. Following the 2008-09 season the Eagles despite finishing the season 9-6-1 got hot at the right time en route to an NFC Championship appearance. While both ’09 and ’10 saw the Eagles finish with wildcard round losses, the team was coming off its third playoff appearance in as many years. 2010 was Howie Roseman‘s first season as the general manager in Philadelphia and was the last successful season of the Andy Reid era. As Roseman took center stage and Joe Banner (who we’ll touch on later) began to take on a lesser role it was announced that all things roster and cap related would be delegated to Reid and the first-year GM.
The importance here? Reid notably had a high influence on roster construction. While Reid and former GM Joe Banner didn’t always see eye to eye (which led to Banners eventual removal), Reid’s handprints remained all over the inputted team. This until Roseman came into the picture. Of course, the Eagles began to take a turn for the worse, leading to the firing of Andy Reid just two years later.
Something that has stuck with me out of all of this is Jeffery Lurie’s quote following the 2011-12 season.
“I keep voluminous notes on talent evaluation on not just who we draft, but who is valued in each draft by each person that is in the organization that’s working here. I came to the conclusion that the person that was providing by far the best talent evaluation in the building was Howie Roseman. I decided to streamline the whole decision-making process for the 2012 draft and offseason and that’s the first draft and offseason I hold Howie completely accountable for. The mistakes that were made in the 2011 draft have little or nothing to do with Howie’s evaluations and I think it was important for me to own up to the mistakes that were made and understand where they were coming from and it was awfully clear.”
Power struggle, anyone?
Chip Kelly
Of course, once Reid was fired, all things in terms of roster construction and cap management went into the hand of one Howie Roseman. Out goes one head coach, in comes the next; insert what was supposed to be the hottest commodity on the market, Chip Kelly. Of course, no one needs a rerun of this story. Chip comes in, Chip takes the league by storm. Comes in wins 20 games in his first two seasons. Vick, Foles, you name it. Does the system beat talent right (Of course not)? Well, long story short; Kelly and Roseman eventually entered a power struggle, that saw Roseman sent to that aforementioned broom closet, while Kelly? Well, Kelly was ruining the team as we knew it (another story for another time).
Kelly’s time in charge lasted all of one season before he was oust and Roseman was back atop the totem pole. Left to clean up a mess so bad, it actually made his moves look ingenious. Trade up for a quarterback? Kelly wanted to trade Fletcher Cox and anything else moving for Marcus Mariota back in 2015, while Roseman was able to move up for… bad Byron Maxwell and injury-prone Kiko Alonso (part of the initial pick swap with Miami), a couple first, a second (2018), and a couple of late rounders. Yeah, still mortgaging the future but at least this one left Philadelphia with a much brighter future.
The Brandon Brooks and Rodney McLeod signings look much better now than they did then. And now Roseman is two for two in power struggles with coaches. Many will mention Roseman’s initial removal but that was only a battle in a war won by the latter.
Doug Pederson
Now of we enter near present-day; better known as 2016 the Eagles once again look for a head coach this time one with a little more “emotional intelligence”. While it may not have ended pretty, the relationship between Andy Reid and Philadelphia will always be one of great significance. So, why not go back to your roots? Well, partially because it didn’t take Reid long to find a new home as the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. However, just because you couldn’t get Reid doesn’t mean you couldn’t get the next best thing closest to him; his offensive coordinator. Insert former Eagles quality control coach and backup quarterback, Doug Pederson.
For two seasons it seems like everything is peaches and cream, the Eagles even come away with the first Super Bowl in franchise history. Now Roseman really looks like a genius. Talk of change, the knowledge gained from other general managers of past and present around the league, and a new and improved Howie Roseman. It didn’t take long for ‘smartest guy in the room’ Howie to make his return to Broad Street. Now there is currently no common knowledge of a power struggle currently taking place in Philadelphia, but there are more than a few things that could signal something is brewing.
The most recent being Pederson’s comments during a press conference, there was something specific said that stuck with former Eagles general manager Joe Banner, who spoke on it in an interview with The Inquirer’s Paul Domowitch.
“I’m just gonna make a distinction that may sound minor. There’s a distinction between someone who is just really feeling the pressure and having trouble enjoying even a moment at this point and someone who actually has reached the point where they’re throwing in the towel in the sense that they would almost be relieved if it happened. I worked with Doug. I was there when he played. I’m sure he’s incredibly frustrated. I’m sure, like all of us, he sees some things that can be better, and he doesn’t really understand why it’s this bad. But I would be shocked if it was leading to anything other than him being more determined to overcome it and fix it. Philadelphia is a tough place to play or coach or work in a front office. You’d better have thick skin. It does make it harder than in some other places. But there’s also the benefits of the passion [of the fans], which is one of the fun parts of having one of these jobs. The lack of apathy is a plus there. If he is — and I doubt he is — reaching the point where he’s kind of had it, he’s probably just frustrated with internal dynamics and maybe some things that he had to do that didn’t work out, or things that he would like to do that he isn’t being allowed to do. That’s when it becomes a little hopeless as a head coach and makes you feel like you can’t overcome it. If anything is going on, that’s likely the cause rather than the external pressure of negative stories and talk-show criticism.”
Internal dynamics? LOL. I’ll leave that up to you all to determine what that means.
The argument can be made that each of the coaches during #HowieSZN has seen success in spite of the work done by the Roseman. However, there is no denying the fact that history says Howie Roseman is incredibly difficult to work with. Coaching staffs and front offices won’t always see eye to eye which is the beauty of creating a balanced franchise. Though when it becomes apparent that players who were drafted higher are more likely to get on the field instead of breeding competition, then reports surfaced of the coaching staff not knowing who the active players will be until the morning of the game, and you ignore the scouting department for what you think is your own better judgment. That healthy balance becomes borderline narcissistic.
The roster is lacking youth, many veteran players that pass through often refer to the team as ‘stuck in 2017’, and salary cap management; the one thing that Roseman was supposed to be best at is among the worse in the league. Is Howie Roseman a good general manager? Probably, and if fired it certainly wouldn’t take him long to find a new gig. Was 2017 a product of Roseman catching lightning in a bottle? Quite possible, either way, his Super Bowl ring will forever stand. One thing is for certain, that Midas touch that once graced the wonders of the Novacare Complex is no longer present, and that all leads back to one man.
Given the relationship between Lurie and Roseman, it’s hard to see a circumstance where Roseman doesn’t return next year.
“They’ve got to get more players around him. They’ve got to get more protection upfront. This was the best offensive line in football when they won the Super Bowl. Well, Lane Johnson is hurt. He’s not the same guy. Neither is Jason Peters. Brandon Brooks has been hurt. They haven’t drafted a wide receiver that’s contributed. They drafted three wide receivers, Howie Roseman did, this off-season, and none of them has contributed in any meaningful way. So, they have got to be better in the front office. They’ve got to find more talent, so this offense can be built around Carson Wentz” – Brian Griese
At some point, Lurie has to notice what the common denominator has been before it’s too late.
Featured Image: Yong Kim/The Inquirer
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