April 17, 2026
During his reign as Philadelphia Eagles general manager, Howie Roseman has made 15 picks in the first round of the draft. He has had a high batting average, especially in recent years, but like every GM who presides over a team for a long time he has had his share of first-round busts as well.
Roseman says that he has learned from those mistakes.
"I think about the first-round picks that I've missed on, I don't know, every day really, if I'm being honest with myself," Roseman said. "I think that sometimes when I think about those picks and think about the reasons that I miss on those picks, sometimes I even overcompensate. So if you're bringing me somebody that may look like one of those guys, I'm going to be asking a lot of questions and I'm going to be skeptical and I'm going to be skeptical of my own report on those guys.
"I feel like they've also helped me really get better at my job. I think if it wasn't for those mistakes, a lot of the successful picks may not have happened. I can't go back and change the past. I'm very comfortable understanding that as much as I'm trying, I'm not going to be perfect, but I'm going to try my hardest to be as perfect as I can be.”
Since 2010, when Roseman became the GM, I count four definitive, unquestioned busts. They were OG Danny Watkins (2011), EDGE Marcus Smith (2014), OT Andre Dillard (2019), and WR Jalen Reagor (2020). There is also a good argument for EDGE Derek Barnett to be included among the busts as well, though he wasn't nearly as bad as the other four.
So what were the lessons learned from each bust? Let's attempt to diagnose why each player failed to make it in the NFL.
Watkins was an insane pick the moment the Eagles turned in the card. I mean, he was 26!
But that wasn't necessarily why he failed. He just had no interest in playing football, and instead infamously wanted to be a firefighter. I mean, he even showed up to fires in Philadelphia in firefighter gear.
Generally speaking, scouting departments probably spend more time and effort on assessing prospects' mental makeup than they do actually determining whether or not they're good football players. Certainly, they have to be good at the sport, but figuring that part out is easy, comparatively speaking. But if a player just isn't into it, they're very likely not going to have a long, fruitful career.
Watkins was a con artist who might've been exposed by present-day scouts.
Smith's case is a little unique in that the Eagles didn't really even want him. They just sort of settled on him after the last of their six primary targets — Anthony Barr, Odell Beckham, Kyle Fuller, C.J. Mosley, Brandin Cooks and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix — all went off the board before they were set to pick in the first round of the 2014 draft.
The Eagles were picking 22nd in that draft. When the Cardinals were on the clock at pick 20, Cooks and Clinton-Dix were still available. The Eagles felt pretty sure they'd get one of those two players, and likely Cooks, who they preferred.
And then... OH NO! The Saints traded up to 20 and selected Cooks, the Packers took Clinton-Dix at 21, and the Eagles were left with nothing at 22. They then traded back four spots from 22 to 26 before selecting Smith.
I believe that this draft was one of Roseman's biggest learning moments. Why did the Eagles trade up from 10 to 9 with the Bears to take Jalen Carter when they knew the Bears weren't selecting him? Because of the Marcus Smith draft.
Why did they trade up one spot with the Chiefs last year to take Jihaad Campbell when the Chiefs weren't going to take him? Because of the Marcus Smith draft.
Dillard was a prospect who many thought would be a top 10 pick because of his extraordinarily nimble feet for an offensive tackle. But when buzz leading up to the draft suggested that Dillard could fall, former OL coach Jeff Stoutland conducted a video conference call with him extremely late in the draft process.
Though Dillard did indeed possess good feet and impressive athleticism, he couldn't anchor against bull rushes.
But really his fatal flaw was that he just didn't have any dog in him. In a crucial game against the Seahawks late in the 2019 season, the Eagles were short a bunch of offensive linemen, and they asked Dillard, normally a LT, to start at RT. Dillard knew full well that wasn't going to go well, and he even made that clear during a media interview session during the week leading up to the game. And well, it didn't, as Dillard got beaten badly throughout the first half before he was benched at halftime.
In my opinion, the failure of the Dillard selection was a lack of thorough scouting due to a faulty presumption of where he would be picked. Clearly, other teams diagnosed that he wasn't a dog. The Eagles did not.
Reagor was probably more of a second- or third-round prospect that the Eagles reached for because they felt they needed to add more speed to their offense. Worse, they selected Reagor over a clearly more talented receiver in Justin Jefferson, who some with the team perceived to be a high-volume slot receiver. Oops! As it turned out, Jefferson did everything the Eagles thought Reagor could do, but far, faaaar better.
In this case, big picture, the Eagles simply got the evaluation way wrong. But if you want to pinpoint a more specific mistake, they got fixated on one particular trait instead of viewing each prospect through a broader lens.
Follow Jimmy & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @JimmyKempski | thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
Add Jimmy's RSS feed to your feed reader
