The next three weeks are going to determine a lot of things for the Eagles, including whether they make a fourth straight trip to the playoffs and whether Doug Pederson returns as the head coach.
One thing that definitely isn’t hanging in the balance, though, much to the chagrin of many Eagles fans, is the future of the general manager, Howie Roseman.
Sources close to owner Jeffrey Lurie said that while no decision has been reached on whether Pederson will be back for a sixth season, Roseman’s return never has been in doubt. In fact, it’s not even something Lurie has contemplated.
When asked about Roseman’s job security last week, former Eagles president Joe Banner, who has known Lurie since they were kids and spent nearly two decades working alongside him, said he didn’t think there was “even a 10% chance” of Roseman’s getting fired or being asked to resign.
“I know how Jeff thinks,” Banner said. “I know how much confidence he has in Howie. I know, in his mind, he’ll view Howie’s eight-to-10-year record, including winning a Super Bowl. I think he has tremendous trust in Howie. And I’d be very surprised if there was a move there.”
Others, both inside the Eagles organization and around the league, concur. While Roseman has made some glaring mistakes in the draft and free agency in recent years, his relationship with Lurie remains rock-solid.
“[Lurie] likes to be surrounded by people that he feels he can trust without any reservation,” said a league executive who has worked with both Lurie and Roseman. “People that kind of know him and how he thinks, and vice-versa. Jeffrey is very uncomfortable in situations where he doesn’t have people like that immediately around him.
“And there’s nobody else there that can be that to him at the moment other than Howie. So I have a hard time picturing him standing there without anybody like that by his side.”
For the better part of two decades, that was one of the roles that Banner served for Lurie. That’s why Lurie brought his childhood friend along with him when he bought the Eagles in 1994. He wanted somebody next to him whom he could trust unequivocally.
After Banner left the organization in June 2012, and coach Andy Reid departed six months later, Roseman became Lurie’s primary confidante.
Even when Roseman lost a power struggle to Chip Kelly after the 2013 season, Lurie kept him on. And when he finally realized that he had made a colossal mistake giving Kelly the keys to the football operation and fired him, he immediately put Roseman back in charge.
“He does have a blind spot when it comes to Howie,” said one current member of the organization. “I’m not saying he deserves to be fired for the way this season has gone. I mean, we did win a Super Bowl three years ago and have made the playoffs three straight years. So he probably deserves a little slack.
“But there’s no question that Jeffrey looks at Howie through a different lens than he does everybody else.”
Roseman, 45, has been with the Eagles since 2000, when he was hired out of Fordham Law School to help with the salary cap and player contracts.
Reid brought him over to the football side and promoted him to vice president of player personnel in 2008 under general manager Tom Heckert.
When Heckert, who died in 2018, was forced out two years later, Roseman replaced him as general manager, though Reid still had final say in all personnel matters until he left.
The Eagles drafted 33 players in the 2010-2012 drafts. Got a lot wrong. Got some really, really wrong, like guard Danny Watkins and safety Jaiquawn Jarrett (first and second rounds, 2011). But they also got some very right; people who would end up playing key roles in their Super Bowl title, including Brandon Graham (first round, 2010), Jason Kelce (sixth round, 2011), Fletcher Cox (first round, 2012), and Nick Foles (third round 2012).
Roseman also was in charge in 2013 when the Eagles drafted three-time Pro Bowlers Lane Johnson and Zach Ertz.
His last five drafts since returning to power in 2016 have been hit and miss. How they’ll be remembered is largely going to depend on what happens next with Carson Wentz, and whether players like Derek Barnett and Josh Sweat and Dallas Goedert and Isaac Seumalo and Miles Sanders can develop into Pro Bowlers or are going to max out as serviceable starters.
While Lurie isn’t going to fire Roseman, some think there is a possibility he could suggest bringing in another experienced football evaluator.
But a scout who has worked with Roseman said that really wouldn’t change anything.
“You could bring somebody else in,” the scout said. “But Howie still will be there in the middle of it making all of the final decisions. Howie either has to get it right or it’s not going to get right if he’s there.”
One of the reasons Pederson appealed to Roseman as a head-coaching candidate in 2016 was that Roseman knew he didn’t have to worry about a repeat of what happened with Kelly.
Pederson doesn’t have a big ego. He doesn’t like to make waves. He’s not a confrontational person. He wasn’t interested in acquiring organizational power. He was just happy to be a head coach in the NFL.
He knew Roseman from his previous time with the organization on Reid’s staff. He felt he could work with him, but he also knew that Roseman is a master at self-preservation. If things ever went south, it would be him being shown the door, not Roseman
Pederson has become increasingly frustrated the last couple of years with the way Roseman has conveniently allowed him to be the fall guy in front of the media.
Last January, a day after Pederson told reporters that he wasn’t going to be firing offensive coordinator Mike Groh, he got a call from Lurie and was ordered to do exactly that.
He could have resisted. He could have told Lurie and Roseman that if Groh goes, he goes. They almost certainly would have backed off. But that’s not who Pederson is. He acquiesced.
Asked about Pederson’s relationship with Roseman, a Pederson colleague and friend said, “It’s not a bad relationship. But it’s one in which you always have to watch your back if you’re Doug.
“That’s just the nature of the animal you’re dealing with. That’s why I don’t think Doug would be upset if he got fired. Because he knows he’ll get another job. And he won’t have to deal with a lot of the crap he has to deal with here.”
