January 29, 2016
During Doug Pederson's introductory press conference as the Eagles' new head coach, owner Jeffrey Lurie announced that the team would be conducting a search for a "player personnel head."
The first "player personnel head" candidate to be publicly known to have an interview lined up with the Eagles is Brandon Hunt, who is currently the "pro scouting coordinator" for the Steelers. His interview is scheduled to occur Friday, and the Eagles are thought to be interested in interviewing several other candidates as well.
Whoever they end up hiring, what exactly is the Eagles' new 'personnel head' going to be "heading?"
In the last week, the Eagles have locked up Zach Ertz, Brent Celek, and Lane Johnson to long-term deals. None of those deals were of the urgent variety, seeing as all three players are signed though the 2016 season. In other words, it's not as if the Eagles got a deal done, with, say, Vinny Curry, who is set to become a free agent in March, and they were working under some kind of time constraint.
On Tuesday at the Senior Bowl, Roseman talked like a man who made the decision to do the deals with Ertz and Celek.
"Obviously when you talk about Zach, he's a young player that we drafted on the come," said Roseman. "He has tremendous talent, tremendous work ethic, the type of player that we want to keep in Philly for a long time. And then on the other end, Brent Celek, what he means to our football team, what he means to our organization, on and off the field. In this league, it's so hard to find guys who can block at the point of attack, pass protect, separate, and catch the ball. He's just a true Eagle. I'm just really excited for those guys and their families. and for our coaching staff and football team."
After Johnson's deal was completed, Johnson's agent went as far as to say that Roseman should be given credit for drafting Johnson in 2013.
Ken Sarnoff, Lane Johnson's agent: "People called Lane Johnson a Chip Kelly pick. Howie was the GM at the time. ...
— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) January 29, 2016
Sarnoff, cont. "...I always thought [Howie] should have gotten credit for Lane’s being drafted and being drafted No. 4."
— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) January 29, 2016
Think that maybe Roseman negotiated Johnson's deal with Sarnoff?
At the Senior Bowl, Roseman also talked about long-term approaches.
"In terms of how we plan, it's not always just now, but also going forward," he said. "So we try to look at two to three years out, and how we want to build it. So when you look at your own young players, it's positions that you strengthen for not only present but hopefully for the future."
If a true "player personnel head" were indeed "heading" personnel decisions as his or her title might suggest, the deals for Ertz, Celek, and Johnson could have waited.
Instead, it would appear that the team is already very much carrying out the beginning stages of an offseason plan, and the commander of the ship is Howie Roseman.
Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempski
Add some PhillyVoice RSS feeds.
