5 moves Howie Roseman orchestrated to bring Philly back to the Super Bowl

The 2024 Philadelphia Eagles are one of the best Eagles teams of all time, and in less than a week, they could be the best. That’s pretty spectacular given the situation they were in less than a year ago, and almost all of that is thanks to general manager Howie Roseman's moves.

This season was a few years in the making, and since it has all come to fruition, it’s been beautiful.

It’s always Howie SZN

The Super Bowl run in 2022 was something special, but this is about the Eagles making it back to the Super Bowl. There have been plenty of moves Howie made before the 2022 season that have led up to the Birds’ success this season, but this is mainly a focus on things that have happened since their last Super Bowl. These are the things Howie’s done to get the Eagles back to where they are now.

Doing so good of a job that he can take risks

The New York Giants are going to be bad for the foreseeable future because they hilariously kept their general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll. They’re not on the hot seat anymore; they’ve been thrown in a cremation chamber and they’re waiting for someone to throw the switch.  

They’re going to lose their jobs and they’re going to do everything they can to try to save them. That means they’re going to make rash decisions that affect the immediate future. They don’t have the luxury of making moves that will pay off down the road because they might not be there down the road. 

They’re going to do things like drafting a rookie quarterback who might not be the best fit for them. Then they’ll play that quarterback before he’s ready and because they don’t have an offensive line, he’ll get in the habit of making bad decisions like leaving the pocket early. It’s the kind of thing we see around the NFL every single season. 

Howie has been so good at his job that he doesn’t have to worry about losing his job. He’s able to make moves that will pay off down the line. That's exactly what he’s done and it’s why the Eagles are where they are today. 

Ending the Carson Wentz Era

Carson Wentz was the Chosen One until he wasn’t. His physical and mental disintegration between the 2019 and 2020 seasons was something out of a horror movie, but somehow the Eagles were able to trade him to the Colts for a third-round and conditional second-round draft pick.

Howie Roseman took those picks and did a One Red Paperclip-esque series of moves, except instead of trading a paperclip until he got a house, he essentially traded a broken-down Maserati until he owned a Maserati dealership. He turned Wentz into not just DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown, but also Jalen Carter and Cooper DeJean a couple of years later. 

Carter exploded early in 2023 but fell off in the second half of the season (as did pretty much every other player on the roster). He came into the 2024 season hellbound on making every quarterback’s life as miserable as possible for 60 minutes at a time and he’s been nailing it.

He went from playing 51 percent of the snaps last season to playing 84 percent of the snaps this season. You would think that the fall-off might happen again, but it hasn’t. Instead, it’s been pretty much the opposite. Since Week 10, he’s played over 90 percent of the snaps in every game without garbage time. 

Through all of that, he’s become one of the most dominant defensive tackles in the NFL. The Eagles' defense doesn’t have a truly elite edge rusher as they had with Haason Reddick in 2022, which means having that game-wrecking tackle has been unbelievably important toward getting back to the Super Bowl.

Cooper DeJean had a completely different path and contribution. Avonte Maddox was the starting nickel corner at the beginning of the season and struggled big-time. After the bye week, DeJean came in, and the defense almost immediately became elite. 

You can argue that there was a learning curve for Vic Fangio’s defense and everyone got over it during the bye week, but it’s crazy to downplay DeJean’s addition. He added size, speed, athleticism, and youth to the unit (and the position specifically). He’s built like a linebacker which allows Fangio to keep the nickel personnel on the field, even against heavier offensive personnel. 

It limits mismatches that offenses try to take advantage of, which, in the Eagles’ case, eliminates explosive plays. That’s the entire thing the Fangio scheme is built to do.

Finally getting Vic Fangio

Immediately after the Super Bowl in 2022, the Eagles were put in a terrible spot because then-defensive coordinator Jonathon Gannon took the head coaching job in Arizona. Fangio was a consultant for the Eagles in 2022 and was ready to take the DC spot if it opened up. If Gannon had given anyone a heads-up (and not talked to the Cardinals illegally), it’s “a fair assumption” that Fangio would’ve been the Eagles defensive coordinator in 2023. 

Instead, Vic went to the Dolphins as their DC and the Eagles hired Sean Desai. Everyone had a terrible time.

Well, the Dolphins’ 2023 season ended on Jan. 13, 2024. On January 24, 2024, Vic and the Dolphins officially broke up. On January 27, 2024, he got back with the Eagles. 

Howie wasted no time getting the defensive coordinator that he wanted, and it has paid off dividends. The Eagles went from a bottom-three defense in 2023 to the best defense in 2024, and it’s all thanks to Vic Fangio. 

One of the biggest and most impressive things he’s done is turning Zack Baun into the first-team All-Pro linebacker. 

The Eagles signed Baun in free agency to be a depth pass rusher and special teams guy. Vic saw Zack and said, ‘How about instead we make you the best in the world at a position that you’ve never really played? Cool? Cool.’

Changing his draft process

Howie’s had some bad draft picks. In 2019, he drafted Andre Dillard in the first round and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside in the third round, and in 2020, he drafted jalen reagor (who doesn’t get capital letters) in the first round instead of Justin Jefferson. 

He’s learned and changed. After that, he made a change and started just drafting the best players from the best schools. Like Alabama’s DeVonta Smith (who had just become the first wide receiver to win the Heisman in almost 30 years) and Landon Dickerson. He followed that up with two years of getting Georgia’s Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean, Jalen Carter, and Nolan Smith. 

Then 2023 happened and the defensive backfield was in shambles. Howie broke a huge trend: not only did he draft a cornerback in the first round (which the Eagles haven’t done since Lito Sheppard in 2002), but he also drafted Quinyon Mitchell from Toledo … a school in the Mid-American Conference with a total enrollment of around 15,000 students. That’s a big change. 

He could’ve drafted Terrion Arnold, the cornerback from Alabama, but he didn’t. That ended up being the right choice because Quinyon had a Defensive Rookie of the Year-worthy season and Terrion had the most Defensive Pass Interference penalties called against him in the entire NFL. 

Making sure the offense can consistently run the ball

Howie signing Saquon has been worth every penny and then some. He allows the offense to actually be dominant in the running game. We’ve seen over the past few years what good running backs do behind the offensive line. Miles Sanders rushed for 1,269 yards in 2022 and D’Andre Swift rushed for 1,049 yards in 2023. 

Saquon’s left them both in the dust with his 2,005 regular season rushing yards (2,447 including the postseason). The Eagles weren’t able to rely on the run game then. Saquon allows the offense to make conservative play calls that have an incredibly high chance of becoming explosive. 

Any offense that can run on the idea of, ‘low risk and high reward’ is going to be successful, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing and getting… especially behind their still dominant offensive line, which has gone through huge changes in the past two years. 

One of the biggest offseason stories after the 2022 Super Bowl was whether or not Jason Kelce was going to retire. Luckily, Howie had thought ahead of that because in 2021 he drafted Jason Kelce’s replacement, Landon Dickerson. 

Well, it turns out Landon was actually one of the best left guards in the NFL and that’s where he should play. Howie realized that, and in 2022, he drafted Kelce’s second replacement, Cam Jurgens. 

Cam spent 2022 behind both Jason and starting right guard Isaac Seumalo. After 2022, Kelce decided to play one more year and Isaac left in free agency, which made Cam the starting right guard for 2023. 

Yada yada yada, 2023 sucked and Jason Kelce retired. The new question was, ‘How will the Eagles offensive line play after losing an All-Pro center?’ It turns out that the answer was, ‘Pretty awesome, actually.’ 

Jurgens moved over to center and has played better than pretty much anyone would expect. It’s his first year as a starter at that position and he was a pro bowler. 

On top of that, the Eagles also signed Mekhi Becton in free agency. At first, he seemed like he would be a reclamation project for offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland. It ended up just needing a spit-shine and some grease. In training camp, he quickly became the starting right guard, which filled the vacancy Jurgens left.

These are the only two new pieces in the Eagles offensive line from 2022 to now, and they’ve been crushing it. It hardly ever feels like the pressure that Jalen Hurts feels in the pocket is because of his line not holding up and they’ve also paved the way for Saquon Barkley’s historic season.

Now, it’s not just Howie’s management of the offensive line and running backs that has given the Eagles the ability to run the ball; he also dealt with the people who might be made that they’re not getting the ball.

On April 15, 2024, DeVonta Smith signed a three-year extension for $75 million. On April 25, 2024, A.J. Brown signed a three-year $96 million extension. If these two guys didn’t get paid, they’d be rightfully mad that they’ve had their least productive seasons as Eagles… but now they’re paid, so they’re totally fine. 

It would be really hard to keep wide receivers happy if they didn’t have their paychecks. Now, if they’re mad about not getting the ball, it’s because they both know that good things happen when they get the ball and not because they need to put up big numbers to get paid again. 

The way Howie handled this entire thing is masterful. Make everyone happy and zig (by going to the low-risk running game) while the rest of the NFL zags (sticking with a relatively higher-risk passing game). 

This season has been Howie Roseman’s magnum opus. Does he wish he didn’t pay Bryce Huff $17 million for 2.5 sacks? Yeah, probably. Is he fine with that since just about everyone else is playing the best they ever have? You have to imagine he is… but he’s a psychopath, so maybe he’s not. All that matters is that he’s our psychopath, and our psychopath is the best general manager in the NFL.