The Rise of Roseman, the Incredible Story of How Howie Roseman Became the Most Powerful Man in Philadelphia Sports

The Beginning:

The rise of Roseman is a fascinating tale. Whether fans like him or not, Howie Roseman’s name has become synonymous with the Philadelphia Eagles, and his story is one of the more unique in NFL history.

To say Howie’s humble beginnings as an intern, to his ascension of becoming the most powerful man in Philadelphia sports is unusual, would be a gross understatement. The meteoric rise rivals any outside of the amazing Vince Papale story of the movie “Invincible” fame.

Roseman was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1975, though he grew up in Marlboro Township in New Jersey. Howie has stated that he has known he wanted to work in the NFL since he was 9 or 10 years old. Unlike most kids at that age who wanted to be the President, a fireman, a ballplayer, etc., he stated that he would tell anyone who asked him that he wanted “to be a general manager of an NFL team”.

During his years at Marlboro High, Howie has stated that he begged his mother to allow him to play football, but she refused and would not sign the permission slip. Howie only weighed 125 pounds as a senior. So he focused his attention on working in the industry and began putting those childhood dreams to paper. Before he completed high school, he had sent letters to every franchise in the NFL.

After high school, Howie earned his college degree from the University of Florida, and a JD degree from Fordham Law. He also made time to keep pursuing his dream of being employed in the National Football League.

His persistence to inquire about every job opening in the NFL proved to be successful. He finally landed his first interview, and also got a taste of how hard it would be to get his foot into the door of the NFL fraternity.

Howie met with Mike Tannenbaum, then pro personnel director for the New York Jets, and interviewed for a player personnel internship in 1999. Tannenbaum explained what he told Howie about giving him a shot.

“I’ve got five minutes. The only reason I’m even going to spend five minutes, I look at my resumé file, I have 20 letters from you, and every time I send you a rejection, you’d send a thank you for the rejection.”

Howie’s name was becoming well known around league circles, and prior to his interview with the Jets, the Eagles team President Joe Banner and Mike Tannenbaum had discussed Howie Roseman.

Tannenbaum stated, “Could somebody be that persistent and be normal?”

Banner jokingly advised that when Mike did the interview to “Do it where there are a lot of people around”

Howie, if nothing else, was dedicated to reaching his goal. He did not get the job, but learned from the experience, and knew he would be more prepared for the next opportunity that should arise. His tenacious desire to work in the NFL paid off a year later.

In 2000, the Eagles and Joe Banner agreed to meet him. Banner still had the same concerns about Howie’s unrelenting letters requesting employment, that he had joked to Tannenbaum about a year earlier.

Banner joked “Was this guy the most persistent guy in the history of America or was he crazy? Should we stay away from him, or should one of us interview him?”

Howie was willing to be the butt of a good-natured joke as long as he got a chance for the job. He had a good interview and managed his way into the building at the old Veterans Stadium by way of an internship. He would assist in issues regarding the salary cap. Howie had his eyes on becoming much more.

Always being interested in the personnel side of the business, he spent many long nights studying film and would do write-ups and player evaluations and then distribute them in team meetings. He eventually earned the trust and respect of some lifelong football “guys” who had always viewed him as an outsider. Perception due to the fact he had never played, coached, etc. He still had his doubters, and those who would never accept him, but he was starting to earn the trust of someone much more important than any of them. The owner.

By 2003 he was named the Director of Football Administrations and in 2006 was promoted to Vice President of Football Administrations. His role was increasing and so were his contributions regarding player evaluations.

Slowly but surely his studies were being taken more seriously, and by 2008 Howie was becoming involved in the personnel side of the business and was Joe Banner’s sounding board for contracts. 2008 is also the year Howie was named Vice President of player personnel. A role he served in for 2 years, and the one that validated him as a talent evaluator.

In 2010, then-current Eagles GM, Tom Heckert accepted an offer from the Cleveland Browns to fill the same role as GM for their franchise. Upon Hekcert’s departure, Howie had done what was unimaginable 10 years earlier. He had worked his way into becoming the General Manager of the Philadelphia Eagles (although it is widely speculated he served in an advisory role to then Head Coach Andy Reid who had the final say on the roster).

Howie’s first time as GM:

Roseman’s responsibilities grew with the title, and he was expected to do a lot more than study film. He began to oversee the Eagles’ college and pro scouting departments, the medical team, and of course, manage the salary cap.

Howie wasted little time putting his stamp on the team, as he assisted in the transition of turning one of the league’s most aging rosters in 2010 and transforming them into one of the youngest.

The Eagles went 10–6 that season and hosted a wild card game. The future seemed bright, but Andy was about to exude his power of having the final say on the roster, and the team would look vastly different going forward.

2011 is remembered as the infamous, “Dream Team” season. It began with a lot of optimism. Andy Reid was beginning to see the writing on the wall in regards to his job being in jeopardy, and he was in desperation mode to save it. The signings of all of the well-known free agents excited the fans during the summer but disappointed during the season. The strategy didn’t translate to success and the Eagles missed the playoffs. Finishing the year 8–8, the season was a failure.

If the 2011 season is known for being the “dream”, 2012 was the nightmare. The campaign started off with an unthinkable tragedy during training camp. Andy Reid’s son, Garrett, was found unresponsive in a dorm room at Lehigh University’s campus. Garrett had been assisting the Eagles’ strength and conditioning coach during training camp. He was declared dead when emergency personnel arrived. Andy stayed working with the team as he dealt with his grief, but neither he, nor the team, ever recovered. They finished 4–12.

After the disappointing 2012 season, Andy Reid was relieved of his title, and the Eagles led by Howie Roseman replaced him by making a splash. For the first time since Jeff Lurie purchased the team, they dipped into the college ranks and hired the hottest college coach in the game. Chip Kelly.

The fast-paced offensive philosophies that Kelly brought with him from Oregon caught much of the league by surprise, and the Eagles went 10–6 during the 2013 campaign, including a surprising return to the postseason. The playoff performance, losing to the New Orleans Saints in the final minutes, didn’t end how the Eagles wanted, but the overall team improvement was deemed a success. Kelly’s stock was on the rise.

The 2014 season didn’t go as well, as the Eagles missed out on the playoffs. Chip intimated it was due to his personnel and personal disagreements with the front office. Specifically, Howie Roseman.

Prior to the 2015 season, Chip Kelly asked for, and received, what Howie had coveted for so long – total control of the roster. After shockingly losing the power struggle with the Head Coach, he accepted his demotion and eventual move to his place on “the other side of the building”. Kelly, like Reid before him, had pushed Howie into an advisory role.

Howie’s Hiatus:

Roseman stated that he spent his 2015 year in exile, away from most everyone else in the building. Famously mentioned by Jason Kelce in his SB speech.

“Howie Roseman, a few years ago, was relinquished of all control pretty much in this organization. He was put in the side of the building where I didn’t see him for over a year! Two years ago, when they made a decision, he came out of there a different man. He came out of there with a purpose and a drive to make this possible. And I saw a different Howie Roseman. An underdog.”

Howie began studying other professional sports teams during this time to see how the successful ones went about their business. Amongst the qualities that championship teams shared, he concluded that being a good GM is “All about the people.” and building relationships.

While Roseman was in seclusion learning everything he could, Chip was publicly floundering away his opportunity. The 2015 season was a disaster. Terrible trades, bad free agent signings, and overall poor personnel decisions translated to bad play on the field. The team was undisciplined, and declining on a weekly basis. Before the season ended, Chip Kelly was fired and Lurie anointed his “favorite son” back as acting GM.

Howie, understanding how rare it is to get his position back, was ready, rejuvenated, focused, and armed with a single purpose. To win a Super Bowl.

Redemption Tour:

His first order of business was to replace the man who caused him to lose his job. He made sure he brought the lessons he learned from his time away with him.

“I think when this happened, this was something I took to heart, and I think it goes back to what was really important to me and that was the relationships, so how can I build better relationships?”

After a very lengthy interview process, with numerous candidates, the head coach he chose was a controversial and highly debated decision. Howie never wavered and stayed true to what he had learned the previous year. Winning is “all about the people” He hired Doug Pederson.

Doug is respected around the league for being a man of the people. He was also someone Howie and the Eagles were very familiar with as both a player, when he mentored Donovan McNabb during his rookie season in 1999, and more recently serving as the Eagles QB coach, in 2011 and 12. More importantly to Eagles brass, Pederson was highly thought of by the team’s owner, and for having something that was sorely missed during Chip Kelly’s tenure, “emotional intelligence”.

Philadelphia Eagles owner, Jeff Lurie, made that phrase famous during the head coach hiring process when he stated the Eagles were looking for a leader “who can connect with his players, someone with emotional intelligence.”

Despite the ridicule from fans, the press, most notably Mike Lombardi (quoted below) the hire was ultimately proven to be the best of the 2016 coaching cycle.

“Doug Pederson! Now, everybody knows Pederson isn’t a head coach. He might be less qualified to coach a team than anyone I’ve ever seen in my 30-plus years in the NFL”

The Eagles vastly improved that season due to both the coaching, and the arrival of who was thought to be the long-term franchise QB. Carson Wentz. The story of how Howie moved up to the second spot in the 2016 draft to select Carson, is a story all in itself.

The 2017 season started off in Philadelphia, with the city hosting the NFL draft. In hindsight, some questionable draft picks were made by Howie and the Eagles. First round pick, Derek Barnett, did recover Brandon Graham‘s strip-sack of Tom Brady during the Super Bowl, but most of the players selected made very few contributions during their career with the Eagles.

Howie made up for those miscues by signing some of the greatest free agent acquisitions in the team’s history. The Eagles added future Super Bowl MVP, Nick Foles, wide receivers Alshon Jeffrey and Torrey Smith. Running backs LeGarrette Blount and Jay Ajayi (via trade) and tight end restricted free agent Trey Burton(Philly Special). He also added to the defensive side of the ball; cornerbacks Patrick Robinson (NFC Championship game hero) and Ronald Darby (via trade), D linemen Chris Long and Timmy Jernigan.

The bond between the players and head coach was never in question. Pederson was showering them all with his “emotional intelligence” and the players responded in a big way!

The 2017 season was a magical year. They beat the Giants behind the strong leg of Jake Elliot on a 61-yard field goal. They overcame losing the leading MVP candidate at the time, Carson Wentz, to a season-ending injury (torn ACL) in Los Angeles to the Rams. That is also the game where the legend of Nick Foles began.

Most fans and commentators thought the season was over when Wentz went down, but leaders like Malcolm Jenkins took control of the locker room. “We all we got, we all we need” became the team mantra and they finished the season 13–3. It seemed every button Howie, Doug, and the Eagles pushed was the right one. With wins over Atlanta and Minnesota at home in the playoffs, then beating Tom Brady and the Patriots in the Super Bowl, an improbable coach, QB, and city had finally achieved what it so desperately desired.

The season ended in the same place it started, Philadelphia. A joyous Super Bowl parade concluded at the art museum. The same spot where 9 months earlier the draft had been held.

Being the GM to lead the Eagles to their first championship in the Super Bowl era had to be an amazing, validating feeling for Howie. One he was going to try and duplicate. Head coach Doug Pederson proudly stated, “ This is the new normal”.

Chasing Another Ring:

The 2018 and 2019 seasons were both all about chasing another Super Bowl championship. They sold out the future by pushing contract cap hits down the road for a chance to find more postseason glory, and also by trading away draft picks for more established players they believed could help them immediately. A forward-thinking team, they knowingly took the calculated risks with short-term upside, then experienced the long-term ramifications.

The efforts didn’t end in another parade down Broad st, but it can’t be denied that ownership tried to recreate the magic and success while the window was open. Some have criticized the drafts and the trading of resources to strike while the iron was hot, but it is hard to fault the Eagles. They may have been one Alshon catch away from running it back. Neither season ended with another ring and at the conclusion of the 2019 postseason, the Eagles were preparing to head in a new direction.

Then the world changed overnight.

2020 will forever be remembered as the unusual pandemic season. It was a small miracle that the season was even played. The world, and the NFL, learned to adapt to life during a pandemic due to the spread of the COVID 19 coronavirus. As everything was being shut down worldwide, the NFL was putting protocols in place for player safety, and trying to figure out a way for the season to avoid being canceled.

Amazingly, the show went on. Though it did so without fans in the stands, which drastically reduced the revenue that the owners and teams were accustomed to collecting. As a result, for the first time since the salary cap was instituted in 1994, the amount each team was able to spend on their players was going to be reduced. The 2021 salary cap would decrease by 8%, and the Eagles were about to learn the meaning of the phrase “you reap what you sow”.

Howie’s “cap wizardry” also known by some as his proverbial kicking the can down the street, is basically borrowing money from the future to invest in players today. The thought behind structuring deals in this manner is simple. Since the cap increases every year, as does the value of player contracts, you pay the player now in today’s dollars before their salary will cost the team more in future years.

So how has Howie, and a lot of other GMs, manipulated the “soft” cap?

EX: A player signs a 5-year $50 million dollar contract.

Step One: Assign $25 million of that money in the form of a signing bonus. Signing bonuses are prorated (meaning they can be spread across the life of the contract, or even longer if you add “dummy years”) So now you have $25 million of the $50 million being spread over the 5-year deal. $5 million a year, for five years. The player cashes a $25 million dollar check, so it’s a win for them too.

Step Two: Push the bulk of the remaining $25 million that’s left in the last couple of years of the deal. The team doesn’t want to spread it evenly over the years, we have already established that. They want to pay less now and pay more later when the cap is higher. Thus a smaller percentage of the cap is dedicated to that player’s salary. So, in year one of five, they pay $1 million of the remaining $25. In year two they pay $2 million. Year three $3 million. Year four $4million. Finally, during year five, they pay out the remaining $15 million. Orchestrating the cap in this way has its downfalls with dead money etc, but usually is effective in adding value and getting more from your current cap.

Unfortunately for Howie and the Eagles, this time it came back to bite them in an ugly way. The cap didn’t increase, the Eagles were forced to make tough cuts and decisions to be compliant. The looming cap issues, coupled with the team’s decision to select Jalen Reagor over Justin Jefferson in round one of the 2020 draft, had fans, and a lot of media personalities calling for Roseman to be fired.

To be fair, nobody could foresee a global pandemic coming that would cause a loss of revenue, lowering the league’s salary cap for every team. But, it did happen, and the Eagles were in the daunting position of having to pay up sooner than expected.

The team had to move on from a few high-priced veterans via cuts or trades, while taking on huge dead money hits (Wentz was the largest dead money hit in NFL history at the time of his trade)in order to reach the target of being under the $182.5 million before the new league calendar year started.

Howie, known for being a salary cap wizard, lived up to his reputation of being able to fix a checkbook fast. He weathered the storm and maneuvered the team into having a positive cash flow by the season’s end. He was heading into the 2021 season with a lot to prove and a lot of room for improvement.

Rebuild and Coach Hire #3, Also Winning Drafts:

After orchestrating the rebuilds of the 2013 and 2016 teams, Howie was in the unique position to start a third rebuild in 2021. Once again he began by hiring a new head coach. The Eagles hired the Offensive coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts, Nick Sirianni. The decision to hire Nick, much like the hiring of Doug, was questioned and debated. A lot of more established candidates were available, but Lurie and Howie hired someone they viewed as an ascending talent and for having fresh ideas. After a playoff appearance in year one, that choice seems to be trending in the right direction.

Howie’s next order of business was trading away QB Carson Wentz. Carson was dealt with the Indianapolis Colts, in February 2021, a month after the Eagles hired their new coach. Despite taking on a $33.8 million dollar cap hit during the 2021 season for trading him, the decision was received well. The Eagles received a 2021 3rd round pick and a 2022 first rounder, as Wentz (surprisingly) played 75% of the Colt’s snaps.

Armed with additional picks in the upcoming draft, Howie and the Eagles focused on their player evaluations. They vowed to not have an aversion to risk and compiled their board accordingly.

The 2021 NFL draft class included selecting DeVonta Smith and Landon Dickerson in rounds one and two. After one season, the early returns seem to promise, and the draft has been one of the more universally liked from the beginning. The team seemingly focused more on drafting athletes who had played for winners at the college level (two national champions) and players who were highly respected, including team captains. A strategy Howie and the Eagles stuck with for the 2022 draft.

While the 2021 draft was universally liked, 2022 was invariably loved. The Eagles selected 2 players from the National Champion Georgia Bulldogs defense. Jordan Davis and Captain Nakobe Dean. The theme of building through the lines while selecting winners, champions, and Captains, was again at the forefront of their decision-making. Once you include the trade to acquire Tennessee WR AJ Brown for picks 18 and 101, the haul seems to be a home run.

Prior to the draft, the Eagles also publicly committed to Jalen Hurts as their Quarterback for now, and in the future.

Howie Roseman and the Eagles seem to have the beginnings of a very good, long-term, nucleus in place. Especially if current starting QB Jalen Hurts improves as expected. If he doesn’t, the Eagles are positioned with 2 first round picks in the 2023 draft to select the QB of their choice.

Howie’s Future, To Infinity and Beyond:

It has been an amazing ride for Howie. While a lot of fans have lost faith in him over the years, his ability to run the franchise and for constructing the 2017 championship team, (the only Super Bowl win in Eagles history) has earned a lot of equity with owner Jeff Lurie.

During the times the Eagles have struggled, Lurie has defended Howie like a father would their son. Some have suggested that Lurie views the Eagles via Howie-colored lenses. If true, he isn’t the only in league circles enamored with him.

Howie is well respected amongst the GMs in the league and has been described as feared by player agents. He is known as a very shrewd and tough negotiator during contract discussions, and it’s been stated that he is convincingly manipulative. There are also reports of agents who felt that they were taken advantage of at the conclusion of some deals. Those players have been less than happy during those negotiations, yet others feel loved and very well taken care of by Howie and the team.

He knows and accepts that he will not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he does have his supporters. Players who are still on the team like Jason Kelce, and many who have since retired speak very fondly of Howie. More importantly, he has the full support of owner Jeff Lurie.

Throughout his 20 years with the team, Howie has experienced many ups and downs but has always remained confident.

“I’m not worried about my job, that’s not anything that really concerns me. That’s out of my hands. I’m worried (about) doing what’s the best and right thing for this team to get back.”

Howie’s confidence in keeping his job seems to be warranted as he recently signed a 3-year contract extension through the 2025 season. Coincidentally, the extension for Roseman matches that of Sirianni’s contract. Both run through the 2025 season.

Coming off the most impressive draft weekend of his tenure, the Eagles are positioning themselves to make another run towards Super Bowl glory. Who knows, the rise of Roseman might just have another act worthy of an extension beyond 2025.

Results:

Roseman has had the final say for 9 NFL drafts. I am excluding 2010–2012 when it is widely believed Andy Reid had the final say, despite Roseman being GM in title.

2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022

During those 8 years (2022 results TBD) the Eagles have won 71 games, lost 58, made the playoffs 5 of the 8 years, and of course, won a Super Bowl.

As always, Thank You for reading!

Follow me @PHLEaglenews

David

5–9–22