The quarterback dilemma that keeps pulling Howie Roseman in two directions
Howie Roseman feels pulled in two directions, and he’s constantly trying to figure out which direction to follow.
On the one hand, he understands how crucial it is to develop young players. The Eagles have a tremendous teaching staff and you don’t win two Super Bowls in eight years without developing your draft picks.
On the other hand, you also need to stock the roster with players who can help you win football games now.
Which brings us to quarterbacks.
The Eagles like rookie Kyle McCord and believe he has the potential to one day be an NFL quarterback. But they also are trying to win a Super Bowl this year and McCord isn’t close to being ready to help them do that.
Which is why they released McCord and traded for Sam Howell.
“Just felt like for our team right now, the hardest part for us is trying to balance the development of players, the development of young players who we like, and doing whatever we can to go out and defend our title and to put the best team forward here for Dallas and going forward,” Roseman said after the Eagles cut the roster to 53 on Tuesday.
“I think everything we’re doing with those parallel paths (is) trying to figure out where we can get away with developing some guys that we think can help us in the future and where we can help the team in the short term and make sure that we are covered.”
The Eagles released McCord, their rookie 6th-round pick, after making the trade for Howell, who was the Commanders’ full-time starter in 2023. Howell is only 24 – two years older than McCord – but has enough experience that Roseman feels confident he can get the Eagles through a series or a half or a game or two if called upon.
“We know the player really well,” Roseman said. “Spent a lot of time on him coming out (in 2022). Ironically, I think the only college Thursday night game I’ve gone to in the last 10 years was Pitt-North Carolina, and we ended up getting both those quarterbacks, which is ironic.”
That game, at Heinz Field in 2019, featured Pitt’s Kenny Pickett vs. North Carolina’s Howell, with Pitt winning 34-27.
Four years later, Howell played very well in two starts against the Eagles. Roseman took notice.
“Saw him firsthand as a starter with Washington,” he said. “Obviously, he had tremendous success in those games, had a lot of appreciation for him as a player and his talent level and the person that he was, spending time with him. So a guy who’s always on our radar.”
As for McCord, Nick Sirianni made it clear he’d like to get the former Syracuse quarterback back in the building onto the practice squad, assuming he clears waivers. Which he should.
McCord wasn’t consistent enough and wasn’t good enough at practice or in the games to keep him on the 53. But once in a while he made a read or a throw or a decision that made you believe there’s something there worth developing.
“I think he did some good things and promising things through camp,” Sirianni said. “Obviously, we liked him enough to draft him onto this football team. I always battle with that myself, of how much opportunity can you give your 3’s?
“He shows good promise where to go with the football consistently. And again, we’re looking at everything – practices, meetings, games, all the things. He has the ability to be accurate, and he does a lot of good things. My job as the coach is to try to provide them opportunities to be able to continue to develop and always thinking about how we can do that with our young players.
“We have great coaches to help develop players, and that’s what I’m always thinking about. How do we get them more opportunities?”
No team wants to release a rookie quarterback they just drafted, but it’s not the first the Eagles have done it.
They cut Clayton Thorson, a 5th-round pick in 2019, and never even brought him back to the practice squad. They cut 2004 6th-round pick Andy Hall but did keep him around for a couple years, although he never did play an NFL snap. Before that, they released 1995 4th-round pick Dave Barr at the end of his rookie camp and didn’t bring him back. Same with 5th-round pick Craig Erickson in 1991 and 4th-round pick Casey Weldon in 1992.
Interesting that Roseman spoke in the plural about the young quarterbacks the Eagles released, including Dorian Thompson-Robinson in the conversation as well.
“That doesn’t say we don’t like our young quarterbacks who were here, that we don’t have great hope and promise for those guys,” Roseman said.
“We’ll just see what happens in the next 24 hours and where we go about getting some of these guys back. But just felt like it was the right thing to do here for the short term to make this trade and bring Sam in.”
The quarterback dilemma that keeps pulling Howie Roseman in two directions
