National Football League

The Wizarding World of Howie Roseman: How his Eagles keep getting richer

Published May. 2, 2024 2:28 p.m. ET

When the Philadelphia Eagles made the 22nd pick in the 2024 NFL Draft last Thursday, Micah Parsons' face said it all.

He shook his head, he rolled his eyes, and then he buried his face in his hands as the pick was announced on the Bleacher Report draft show. He couldn't believe that Toledo's Quinyon Mitchell, the consensus top cornerbck in the draft, had fallen all the way to the Eagles, who needed a cornerback so badly they were trying to trade up to get one.

"I mean, I'm honestly utterly disgusted," the Cowboys linebacker said. "I don't know how Howie (Roseman) and them get so lucky."

And he wasn't alone.

"Every f---ing year," a scout texted FOX Sports shortly after the pick was made. "These guys just fall into Philly's lap. Happens in free agency, too. And we all just sit back and watch them get richer."

It has certainly felt that way to many around the NFL during this long offseason in which the Eagles sometimes seemed to be making a big move every few days. They loaded up in free agency with running back Saquon Barkley (three years, $37.5 million, edge rusher Bryce Huff (three years, $51.5 million) and safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson (three years, $33 million). They signed guard Landon Dickerson (four years, $84 million), tackle Jordan Mailata (three years, $66 million), kicker Jake Elliott (four years, $24 million), receiver DeVonta Smith (three years, $75 million), and receiver A.J. Brown (three years, $96 million) to contract extensions.

That's nearly half-a-billion dollars worth of contracts. And if that wasn't enough, they then landed Mitchell in the draft and got Iowa cornerback Cooper DeJean — a player many NFL teams had a first-round grade on — with the eighth pick of Round 2. And that came one year after defensive tackle Jalen Carter, a consensus top-two defensive player in the 2023 draft, slipped so far the Eagles were able to trade up one spot to get him at No. 9.

But it's more than just luck. There is a method behind what causes so much madness for Roseman's rivals. The Eagles general manager was praised by sources around the NFL for creating his own luck with his aggressiveness, his willingness to take risks, and to correct the mistakes he's made.

But none of that could happen without the one trait that came up most often in those conversations.

"Job security," said one rival GM. "It's a lot easier to take risks if you know you're not going to get fired for them."

Can the Eagles bounce back from in 2024?

Said Roseman following the draft on Saturday: "I think Jeffrey (Lurie, the Eagles owner) sets a tone for everything we do, and he is never going to only think about the short term. He is totally focused on trying to win championships, but he is also thinking about how we're going to look next year and the year after.

"So you have the three of us (with head coach Nick Sirianni) like-minded about trying to balance everything we can to win a championship now and also trying to keep this rolling so that we can do that in the future."

The 48-year-old Roseman is entering his 25th year with the Eagles, having risen through the ranks since starting off as an intern in 2000. He's been the GM since 2010, with a brief, one-year hiatus in 2015 when then-coach Chip Kelly was given general manager duties. And he's earned his job security by having just one losing season during his 13 years as GM, while making the playoffs eight times, the Super Bowl twice, and winning one championship.

Since he took over from Kelly in 2016, the Eagles have gone 76-54-1 (.584) in the regular season and made the playoffs in all but one of those seven years.

That gives him a freedom most GMs don't have. He not only can withstand a mistake, he knows he'll get a chance to correct it. For example, in the 2020 draft ,Roseman selected receiver Jalen Reagor with the 21st pick — one spot before the Minnesota Vikings grabbed future All-Pro hideout Justin Jefferson. By the end of their rookie seasons, it was clear to everyone that it was a mistake.

But instead of feeling the need to stand pat give Reagor time to prove he was right, Roseman changed course. In the next draft, he used a third-round pick to trade up ahead of the Giants to draft receiver DeVonta Smith at No. 10. And then in the ensuing draft, he traded first and third-round picks to Tennessee for veteran receiver A.J. Brown, whom he then signed to a $100 million deal.

"Not a lot of GMs are willing to do that," said one NFL executive. "We all spend so much time and resources scouting a guy, we always think ‘Give him time. It'll work out.' We get blinded by the work we've done on him. And the bosses feel pressure to justify all that.

"To turn around at any position one year later and say ‘Let's try something different' takes a lot of guts."

Grading the Cowboys, Eagles' NFL Draft picks

It also takes assets, which Roseman always seems to have and is willing to use. He didn't worry about giving up two third-rounders in the deals for Smith and Brown, because he knows there are ways to acquire whatever picks he needs. Like in this year's draft when the Eagles made an NFL-record-tying eight trades — nearly one-third of the 28 trades made all around the league.

That not only helped the Eagles move up for DeJean and linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. in the fifth round, they also walked away with extra picks in the third, fourth and fifth rounds in 2025.

"When you have as many picks as we do, you go into it and say, ‘Hey, what would be a great goal?'" Roseman said. "‘It would be to get as many of the guys that we've targeted on Day 3 as we possibly can and at the same time see if we can try to accumulate picks for the future.' We were a little light for next year's draft going into Day 3 today, and so I think that was a little bit of a focus."

Those picks are assets that Roseman surely won't be afraid to use in future trades. And if not, they will become inexpensive players on the Eagles' roster. The more of those they have, the more financial flexibility they have to make bigger deals.

And those deals are where Roseman's willingness to take chances really comes through. He was able to get Brown because the Titans weren't willing to pay him the $100 million (and $57 million guaranteed) that he wanted. He landed Barkley because he ignored the depressed running back market and guaranteed him $26 million despite his history of injuries. He signed Huff because he knew he was working on a deal to trade edge rusher Haason Reddick to the Jets, even though Reddick had 50 ½ sacks over the last four years.

And while other teams are often afraid to break the bank and sign their own players early, Roseman does it regularly. This offseason alone he made Dickerson the highest-paid guard in NFL history, Brown the highest-paid receiver ever, Smith the fourth-highest-paid receiver in the league, and Elliott the NFL's top-paid kicker. Last year, he signed quarterback Jalen Hurts to a massive, five-year, $255 million contract extension with $179 million in guaranteed money after what really was his first really good season.

The Eagles are able to afford so many deals like that because of the way they structure contracts. Most are often heavily back loaded, so the salary cap numbers are affordable in the early years of the deal, and they almost all include multiple "voidable years" that allow the Eagles to spread the cap hits out far beyond the end of those contracts. Roseman also likes to use "option bonuses" as another way to help defer cap costs.

Hurts, for example, only carried a cap number of $13.6 million this offseason, which gave the Eagles plenty of financial flexibility. Hurts' deal mostly includes salaries near the NFL minimum with huge, yearly bonuses to make up the difference. His cap numbers do jump to $41.8 million and $47.1 million in the final two years, according to OverTheCap.com, and if he was cut after that the Eagles would be stuck with an untenable $97.5 million in "dead money" on their cap thanks to the seven voidable years on the deal.

But with deals like that, Roseman is banking on two things. One is that the NFL salary cap, which is currently $72.9 million higher than it was just four years ago, will continue to go up. And the other, as one NFL executive put it, is that "Somehow he'll just figure it out."

"He uses the tools we all have, but most of us are too worried about the consequences," the executive said. "Try telling most owners ‘Hey, I might stick you with $200 million in dead money in five years, but don't worry. I'll figure something out.'"

"We try to be proactive to try to keep this team together," Roseman said. "That starts with Jeffrey (Lurie) and his support and just talking about the benefits of trying to keep it together as much as we possibly can. The only way we can possibly do that is by doing deals early."

That strategy could blow up if Roseman invests in the wrong players, or a slew of injuries spoils his plans. Then again, Lurie has shown he's not afraid of an organizational re-set — like in 2021 when he parted ways with head coach Doug Pederson after a 4-11-1 season and green-lighted the decision to trade quarterback Carson Wentz less than two years after giving him a four-year, $128 million contract, even though that deal left a record $33.8 million in "dead money" behind.

It's the freedom to swing and miss and to come to bat again that allows the Eagles to get so "lucky." In an industry where 16 of 32 teams have changed GMs in the past four years, most of them don't have the job security to do that.

But Roseman does. It gives him an advantage over his opponents and a special power — one he clearly knows how to use.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.