PHOENIX — Arms crossed, leaning on a cloth-upholstered barstool, Howie Roseman was enjoying his moment of validation.
He wore a blue shirt, cuffs unbuttoned and rolled up to the middle of his crossed forearms. Every few minutes, a spontaneous “E-A-G-L-E-S” cheer broke out behind him. He stood there on the floor of the Footprint Center, defiant.
Roseman had rebuilt the Eagles from ashes in two seasons. The centerpiece of the rebuild, Jalen Hurts, sat about 50 feet away, an MVP candidate on a Super Bowl team in just his third season, relating such wisdoms as a 24-year-old can relate.
Hurts has been the most controversial draft pick of Roseman’s 12-year career as Eagles general manager. Hurts’ progress in the past two seasons probably saved Roseman’s career — a career that might have been torpedoed by Carson Wentz’s absence of character.
Roseman used a second-round pick on Hurts in 2020, selecting the Heisman Trophy runner-up as low-cost insurance for Wentz, who’d been injured every season.
Incredibly, Wentz couldn’t handle it. He tanked on the field. He forced a trade after the season.
Monday night, answering questions regarding the decision to draft Hurts, Roseman for the first time was openly critical of Wentz. Roseman left no question as to how he regarded his former franchise quarterback.
“At the end of the day, it’s the most important position in sports. You see it through the course of this season,” Roseman said, alluding to the Eagles’ two late-season losses that Hurts missed with a shoulder injury. “You need depth in this league. Why wouldn’t you consider building depth at the most important position of all sports?”
That’s all Hurts was supposed to be: long-term depth. Wentz saw a threat, and he collapsed. He was the worst quarterback in the NFL in 2020, and Roseman still can’t believe what happened.
“The league is a competitive league. If you’re worried — if you have players that are worried about competition ... " he began, shaking his head. “Look. You have to be really good to start in this league. If you’re worried [that] we’re bringing in depth and talent, you’re probably not the right guy at that position.”
Roseman cited recent examples. The Eagles drafted defensive tackle Jordan Davis in the first round of the 2022 draft as Fletcher Cox and Javon Hargrave entered the final year of their contracts. They then drafted center Cam Jurgens in the second round as Jason Kelce’s heir apparent. All three veterans played extremely well even as they mentored the rookies.
Wentz in 2020 remained aloof and selfish, according to team sources at the time.
Wentz had shown character flaws between 2017 and 2019, but nobody in the organization could say he was not the “right guy.” Hurts was supposed to be little more than a security blanket.
After all, they’d drafted Hurts in April of 2020, almost a year after Wentz had agreed to a team-record $128 million contract extension before the 2019 season that made him an Eagle for the next six seasons. Wentz had just led them to a third straight playoff appearance.
Still, the move was something of a shock, given the Eagles’ desperate needs at linebacker, cornerback, and running back. Yet the Birds had a history of splurging to fortify the quarterback spot, from Kevin Kolb to Michael Vick to Wentz to Nick Foles, twice.
The Birds used a third-round pick on Foles in 2012 to back up Vick, then signed Foles as Wentz’s backup in 2017. Wentz’s knee injury in 2017 set up Foles to win the Super Bowl LII MVP award. Wentz’s back injury in 2018 set up Foles’ playoff win in Chicago. After that, Foles left for big money in Jacksonville, and Wentz’s concussion in the first round of the 2019 playoffs set up an embarrassing performance by Josh McCown.
“We were making sure that we had depth there,” Roseman said. “We had played, at that time, six playoff games. And Carson had played a total of 12 snaps in those games.”
McCown was a 40-year-old on his ninth team in 16 NFL seasons, and, despite his best efforts, he was putrid. The Eagles were embarrassed, and they swore they’d never be in that situation again.
“We’d won a championship with a backup quarterback,” Roseman said. “We’d just lost a playoff game where our backup quarterback played.”
It still seemed like a waste of a high pick, good money spent to protect an already huge investment. The Eagles sunk a king’s ransom of assets to draft Wentz No. 2 overall in 2016, and Wentz had been an MVP candidate in 2017.
But then Hurts arrived, calm, confident, and capable. He’d led his teams at Alabama and Oklahoma to three College Football Playoff appearances and reached the final twice.
Hurts’ shadow was too much for Wentz. Wentz started the first 12 games of 2020, got benched at halftime of Game 12, and never played another snap for the Eagles.
Wentz then forced the firing of coach Doug Pederson a week after the 2020 season ended. Not satisfied, Wentz forced a crippling trade to the Colts when the Eagles wouldn’t get rid of Hurts.
Roseman traded Wentz, absorbed an NFL-record $33 million salary-cap hit for the 2021 season, and forged ahead with a player who didn’t have Wentz’s cannon of an arm but had a backbone made of steel.
Roseman and his staff saw that backbone when they scouted Hurts. Of course, they never envisioned that, two years later, it would be Hurts, not Wentz, leading them in Super Bowl LVII.
Roseman, on Monday, was justified his decision.
Wentz struggled as a player and a leader with the Colts in 2021, who traded him to the Commanders in 2022. There, Wentz played badly, got injured, returned, but was benched for the finale. He likely will not have a starting job in the NFL next season.
Hurts, meanwhile, will be the starter for a team favored to return to the Super Bowl.
“Our job is to bring in as many good players as possible,” Roseman said. “If you’re not better than a guy that we drafted, how are you going to be better than the best players in the league?”
