NFL
By: Mark T. Wilson
To become a winner in the NFL, you must have the right person building the team from top to bottom. The Philadelphia Eagles have handed that task to GM Howie Roseman. Over the course of his tenure with the Eagles, Roseman has had his share of hits and misses. But in the offseason heading into the 2022-23 season, Roseman pulled a rabbit out of his hat. A few times.
We can look at GMs such as Chris Grier of the Miami Dolphins who brought in Tyreek Hill and Raheem Mostert or maybe even Trent Baalke of the Jacksonville Jaguars who brought in Christian Kirk and Evan Engram. While they both made great moves that put their respective teams in a winning position, Roseman ran circles around them and everyone else with an array of signings and trades that set the stage for the Eagles to end the regular season with the best record in the NFL.
The AJ Brown trade gets top honors from fans and analysts but some of Roseman’s best moves were before then. In March of 2022, Roseman signed Jason Kelce to a new deal. We all know how huge of a move that was. Losing Kelce would have been damaging to the success the team would have this season. But that was just the beginning. Three days later, Roseman would sign Haason Reddick. It didn’t seem like a big signing at the moment and all Reddick would do is finish the season with 16 sacks on the year.
Howie Roseman Is The Real MVP
Just a few days later, Howie Roseman would pull one of his signature salary cap moves and release Fletcher Cox only to sign him 2 days later to a team-friendly deal. And before the month of March was done, Roseman managed to snag LB Kazir White, re-sign Derek Barnett and Anthony Harris, and still have time to sign free against WR Zach Pascal. In a month, Roseman set the foundation of the Eagles’ 14-3 season. And this was just in March. He wasn’t done yet.
It was Draft time and Howie Roseman made a big move by acquiring Brown in a trade with the Tennessee Titans. The GM was just heating up. In a deal with the New Orleans Saints, Roseman acquired draft picks in 2022 but it’s the 2023 pick that has people still blushing. That pick would turn out to be a top-10 pick in the upcoming 2023 NFL draft. So, a team that just went 14-3 will pick 10th this year. Amazing.
To finish out the offseason, Roseman would add players to the Eagles’ secondary that spearheaded one of the best defenses in the NFL this season. CJ Gardner-Johnson and James Bradberry. Roseman worked his magic that offseason. Plain and simple.
Someone else can point the finger at another GM and find the gems they signed or drafted but what GM other than Roseman did more work than he did? The Eagles were led on the field by the players but it’s the same players that Roseman handpicked that have led to the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
As great of a season as Jalen Hurts had, would the offense be the same if Roseman didn’t sign Kelce or trade for Brown? DC Jonathan Gannon and OC Shane Steichen are being pegged for head coaching jobs but would they be if Roseman didn’t make a move for Bradburry, Gardner-Johnson, or Reddick? The real MVP of the Philadelphia Eagles’ season is GM Howie Roseman. And for that, he deserves to be the GM of the Year in the NFL.
