March 30, 2026
On Sunday, Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman spoke on a variety of topics at the owners meetings in Phoenix. Here are my eight biggest takeaways.
"I understand that there's interest in the A.J. Brown story," Roseman said when asked an obligatory question about the star receiver. "My answer to any question on A.J. Brown is, 'A.J. Brown is a member of the Eagles.' From my perspective, anything you ask me about A.J. Brown, I'm going to go right back to that answer. But I understand the interest. I put on TV, and I see that there's interest. But my answer is A.J. Brown's a member of the roster."
#JimmyTranslation: The first time Howie Roseman got asked about the possibility of trading A.J. Brown this offseason, way back in January, he said the following:
"It is hard to find great players in the NFL and A.J.'s a great player. I think from my perspective, that's what we're going out and looking for when we go out here in free agency and in the draft is trying to find great players who love football, and he's that guy. I think that would be my answer."
He was then asked multiple more times about trading Brown, both before and during the NFL Combine, and he basically gave the same answer that he gave in January.
But this time, after extensive reporting that the Eagles have had serious talks with other teams about trading Brown, the repeated answer was, "He's on the roster," lol. In my experience covering the team, when the answer is "He's on the roster," it usually means he won't be for long.
"You really want to build your receiving corps for different sizes, different skill sets, and so both of those guys have different skill sets. I think there were things that they can add. When we talk about Hollywood, there have been times in our offense that we have had that vertical skill set, but also get separation at the top of his routes. And we had that a little -- I was looking at our team in 2017, I thought Nelson Agholor did a great job of that, bringing that to the team. I think we look at 2022, Quez Watkins did a good job of that.
"I think the 2024 team was constructed a little differently, but I think that really fits the skill set of our quarterback."
#JimmyTranslation: The Eagles seem to want to go back to their third receiver having the ability to run down the field fast to open up the intermediate areas of the field for their good receivers.
Roseman's point that speed guys complement Jalen Hurts' game makes sense, since Hurts is a good deep ball thrower. I'm not sure I'd point to Quez Watkins as a success story though.
Roseman was also asked if Elijah Moore's friendship with A.J. Brown factored into his signing.
"The roster, from a macro perspective, is based on our players," Roseman said. "So everything that we're doing is based on the particulars of the players. There's nothing we're doing to do favors for you or Nick or anyone. We're basing the players based on what they can bring to the team."
"I'd say, first of all, what an unbelievable story, coming in here, being a part of our team for four years, two Super Bowls, starter, captain. And it's hard when you lose guys like that. Love the person, love the player.
"Sometimes as you're going through free agency you have incomplete information. So you have to make some decisions based on where you are in the moment and some of the things that you're trying to do.
"And if you do something, with incomplete information, may preclude you from doing something else that you want to do down the road. So, some of these signings that happen in free agency, when you look back, you can say, 'Hey that was a really good price for a really good player.
"Not talking about Reed, but I understand the question as it relates to Reed.
"But for us, we have this plan, we have this vision, we have this determination of certain guys we don't want to leave over this year, next year, really over the next two or three years. And so making sure that we're able to keep those guys at the same time, certain positions that we really want to prioritize, and making sure that if there's an ability to add to those positions we have the resources to do it."
#JimmyTranslation: Roseman went a long way to say that the team simply doesn't put a high priority on the safety position.
"I think [the safety position] starts with our second-round pick with Andrew Mukuba. We see a lot of growth from the first to second year, and we expect that from him, really excited about him.
"I think we have some guys either that we brought back or that we signed that we have confidence in who can play the position.
"And again, I go back to, we don't play for a long time, we don't go to training camp for a long time.
"We still have a draft, we still have a lot of players who are available, more players will come and go after the draft. So, like any other position, it's hard for me to talk about the totality of the position when I know we're going to add to that position. In some shape or form, we will add to that position."
#JimmyTranslation: This doesn't need much translation. Roseman said point blank that the team would add more safeties.
Just don't expect that to happen in the first round of the draft.
"Supremely talented player," Roseman said of Woolen. "Now does he have to be more consistent? I think at times, for sure. There's a reason a supremely talented player was available. He knows that. I think we have some insight into who the person is. This was a defensive coordinator running a very similar system.
"And so we like to get really talented guys who we think are good people. That doesn't guarantee anything, but we thought that based on where we were and the price point, that it was a good fit for both sides.
#JimmyTranslation: Again, no translation needed here. I think that's a fair assessment of Woolen's game.
"He's a guy we did a lot of work on coming out of college. Obviously, he's local, Temple and Penn State. You saw that the year before this one he was in a defense that was probably a bit more similar to us, playing more stand-up. Those two years he had 6 sacks each season, had a good pressure rate."
#JimmyTranslation: Reasonable flier.
"Independent of Tanner McKee -- we've talked about how much we like Tanner -- it was a good opportunity for us to bring in Andy, a guy that we've known for a long time, a guy that can add a lot on and off the field.
"He can still throw it. He can still really make quick decisions. We've liked him for a long time, watched him for a long time.
"And we always like to have three quarterbacks. If you go back to last year, that's why we brought in Sam Howell. The year before that's why we brought in Kenny Pickett. Both of those times we felt really good about Tanner.
"If I go back, we brought in Marcus Mariota in 2022. In 2021 we had Joe Flacco and Jalen. We had an opportunity to get Gardner Minshew, and we did it.
"You're one injury away from being one injury away, and we take that seriously. So we thought it was an opportunity to add somebody that we thought would be additive to our team."
#JimmyTranslation: Some of the guys Roseman mentioned were the No. 2 over McKee, but his tone was that McKee would be the QB2 over Dalton, which should be obvious anyway.
"I think the cap space is utilized in a way to always make sure that we're able to be flexible to make a difference. When the opportunities come up, whether that's re-signing our own guys, which is a big priority for us, whether that's now or next year or the next couple of years to get a bunch of these guys under contract, or to be flexible is any situations arise, that we want to be able to do that.
"And so we're doing that, not necessarily for one particular move that we have in mind, but more so that if something comes to us and we're able to make quick decisions, and we're able to do it without going to players and saying, 'Hey, we need you to do this, we need you to do that.' We're ready to do it."
#JimmyTranslation: If the Patriots suddenly decided, "Eff it, we'll meet the Eagles' demands and trade for A.J. Brown," the Eagles have enough cap space that they could do a pre-June 1 trade, right now. That's just one example. Last year near the start of the season, the Cowboys made Micah Parsons available, and the Eagles were in on him. So, it is indeed wise for general mangers to create some cap space in the event an opportunity comes along that requires decisive action.
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