How Howie Roseman’s out-of-the-box thinking turned the Eagles into a powerhouse

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How Howie Roseman’s out-of-the-box thinking turned the Eagles into a powerhouse originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

You glance up and down the roster and everywhere you look there’s a Howie Roseman experiment.

A guy nobody else wanted. A guy without a team. A guy nobody had ever heard of.

Mekhi Becton was on the street after the Jets decided he was a 1st-round bust. Anybody could have signed him. Day 1 here, the Eagles moved him to a position he had never played. He’s been lights out.

Zack Baun had never been a starter and had never been an off-ball linebacker and nobody else wanted him, and now he’s a 1st-team all-pro.

Jordan Mailata had never played football in his life on any level, but Roseman drafted him six years ago and the rest is history. He’s one of the best tackles in the league.

The knock on Jalen Carter was that he was too out of shape to be an every down player, and now not only does he never miss a snap, he made one of the biggest plays of the season Sunday with 74 seconds left in the game. The work ethic that everybody questioned is beyond reproach.

Nobody gives running backs $12 ½ million per year. Howie did, and a running back who had an uneven last few years with the Giants is having one of the greatest seasons ever.

Reed Blankenship wasn’t drafted, wasn’t even invited to the Combine, but now he’s a big-time playmaker on the NFL’s top-ranked defense.

Isaiah Rodgers was banned from football for a year, and there was one G.M. who pursued him during his banishment, and now Rodgers is a valuable backup corner and special teamer who had a huge 40-yard fumble recovery return down to the 10-yard-line Sunday.

Nakobe Dean kept plunging through the draft in 2022 amid questions about his size until Roseman snapped him up in the third round. Before he got hurt, he was giving the Eagles elite linebacker play.

Oren Burks was an obscure March acquisition that nobody noticed, one that has paid huge dividends.

Heck, even Jalen Hurts was an off-the-wall draft pick five years ago because at the time Carson Wentz was 27 years old, had a 25-15 career record and the 6th-highest passer rating in football over the three previous years and had three seasons left on a massive four-year contract extension. Hurts has had his issues lately, but he’s also 53-20 as a starting quarterback.

Roseman’s ability to think outside the box and make decisions that other GMs won’t even consider is a huge reason – maybe the biggest reason – the Eagles are playing in their third NFC Championship Game in eight years and one step away from a third Super Bowl.

And let’s be honest, it took Roseman a while to get to this point. The Eagles were competitive but didn’t win a playoff game in his first seven years as general manager. He was definitely a risk taker in those early years as well, but those risks – drafting a 26-year guard in the first round in 2011, drafting a long-shot 4th-round pass-rush project in the first round in 2014, etc. – were disastrous.

At some point things began to click for Roseman, and those bizarre moves that backfired turned into franchise-altering moments of brilliance.

It starts with having a strong scouting staff as well as excellent position coaches who can develop young talent. But all this success has come under the umbrella of owner Jeff Lurie and Roseman.

Since 2017, only the Chiefs have won more playoff games than the Eagles, only the Chiefs have reached the postseason more than the Eagles, only the Chiefs have reached more Super Bowls than the Eagles. (And, yes, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach began his career working under Roseman.)

Roseman built a Super Bowl team in 2017, another Super Bowl team with a different coach and different quarterback in 2022 and the Eagles are now one home win from a third Super Bowl trip with a significantly different roster than just two years ago.

Only 11 general managers have built three Super Bowl teams with the same franchise in their entire career. Eight are in the Hall of Fame, and the other three are Bill Belichick, Veach and John McVay, whose grandson Sean coaches the Rams.

Roseman doesn’t have a perfect track record. No GM does. Jalen Reagor instead of Justin Jefferson, J.J. Arcega-Whiteside instead of D.K. Metcalf, monster contract for Bryce Huff.

But the ratio between slam-dunks and busts has increased gradually to the point where the Eagles are a perennial playoff team and the hits have rendered the misses insignificant.

Since Roseman became GM in 2010 – and minus 2015, Chip Kelly’s one year as general manager – the Eagles have as many trips to the NFC Championship Game as losing seasons.

The Eagles’ recent success is evidence that you have to be creative and you have to be inventive to win at the highest level.

It’s not just who’s the most talented, it’s also who has the most upside, who fits best into your culture, who’s the most coachable. Things you can’t measure with a stopwatch or in a weight room.

Roseman has mastered the elusive formula and it’s a healthy dose of going against the grain, defying convention, making moves nobody else is willing to make or even considers.

And it has the Eagles once again on the doorstep of a Super Bowl.

Tune in to Mission 59 specials all playoffs long on NBC Sports Philadelphia, presented by Toyota.