The Eagles returned to the practice field at the NovaCare Complex for the 2023 edition of NFL training camp.
A team with Super Bowl aspirations and NFC title hope will return most of the league’s most explosive offense while revamping a talented defense with elite veterans up front and in the secondary.
Before the first practice, GM Howie Roseman and head coach Nick Sirianni addressed the media, answering several intriguing questions.
With Philadelphia participating in a walkthrough on Thursday, here are takeaways from Roseman’s first press conference of the season.
Howie Roseman on signing Dennis Kelly
Even with the NFL’s top offensive line, the Eagles won’t rest, as Dennis Kelly was added to the roster’s offensive tackle depth.
Kelly has 54 career starts, including 15 in his first stint with Philadelphia from 2012-2015.
I think obviously we have experience with [T] Dennis [Kelly]. We drafted Dennis [Kelly] here in Philadelphia. We know what kind of person he is. We know what kind of work ethic we have, and we know what kind of player he is, just by watching his tape. Obviously, we followed his career for a long time starting in college at Purdue. We’re always looking for offensive line depth. We’re always looking for guys that can come in and have versatility and play a bunch of positions. For us it just made a lot of sense to bring him back, and excited that he’s here.
The veteran Kelly filled in as a swing tackle for the Colts in 2022, starting three of the 16 games he played, logging 240 snaps (192 left tackle, 48 right tackle).
Howie Roseman on Super Bowl loss
Like Sirianni, Roseman was asked about avoiding a Super Bowl hangover.
I think every situation is different, and for our situation and the messaging that starts with Coach is this is a different year, and we have to do everything we possibly can to maximize this team, this moment. Whatever we’ve done in the past doesn’t matter; it’s what we do going forward. From a roster building standpoint, from a personnel building standpoint, we can’t just rely on what’s happened to other teams who have lost a Super Bowl. We have to do what we think is in the best interest to reset, start over and put us in the best possible position. I think that’s the mindset. That’s the mindset from our coaching staff and from our players is that none of what we’ve done in the past matters. None of what anyone else has done in the past matters. We have to start from scratch and keep our process in place and give us the best possible opportunity to have a good season.
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Roseman on light workload
Once considered one of the most injury prone teams in the NFL, the Eagles have reduced their workload since hiring Nick Sirianni.
I think for us, you’re always trying to balance the short-term and the long-term, and I think also learn lessons from some of the things that you’ve done that have worked and haven’t worked. I think for us it’s very important that we balance our team with younger players, and also bring in guys here who have a history of being healthy. Health is a huge part of what we do. Obviously, we had tremendous success with that last year, but that doesn’t guarantee any success this year. For us when we’re looking at guys and we’re looking at the injury history, we know the best indicator of future success is the past. So we’re trying to balance that and make sure that we have great people in place on the performance staff, in the training room, with our doctors, by also giving them a chance to be successful in bringing in the right people here.
Roseman on re-signing Deon Cain
Cain was signed after a successful USFL season and Roseman was asked about re-signing the 2022 training camp darling.
He continued to grow with his opportunity. He had an opportunity to be featured a little bit more than he had been in the NFL. When [Head] Coach [Nick Sirianni] came from Indianapolis, he had told us about kind of his work ethic and who the guy was, and when we had an opportunity to bring him here, we saw that last year. He had a good preseason, and he kind of built upon that preseason and put himself in an opportunity to come here and continue to get better. Looking forward to seeing him.
Howie Roseman on running back position
Roseman bypassed drafting Bijan Robinson, preferring to build a running back by committee approach.
I would probably say it a little bit differently. We’ve taken — I think in the last 10 years we’ve taken — we took [former Eagles RB] LeSean [McCoy] before that 10-year period, but we gave LeSean a second contract in that situation. Obviously, [former Eagles RB and current Panthers RB] Miles [Sanders] was a great player for us. Miss him, wish him the best in Carolina. For where we were this year, we had to make some hard decisions. That was one of them. I don’t know that we’ve necessarily been in that situation. I don’t know that we want to make any absolutes on anything. We’re looking for really good players. We’re trying to keep the guys that we draft for as long as possible. I think the way we look at our running back room, it just worked out that a lot of these guys are on one-year deals, but we value the running back position. Really excited about the guys that we have here, and I don’t think that for us, we would be against signing running backs to long-term deals in that situation, and we have those conversations. It was hard for us to let Miles go. I think it’s all individual. It’s all team-based, and obviously here with the amount of guys who are on long-term contracts, we have to make some hard decisions.
Roseman on what makes Nakobe Dean so special
Roseman allowed T.J. Edwards (Bears) and Kyzir White (Cardinals) to depart in free agency, and Dean’s pedigree is a major reason why.
I think what we learned from Nakobe was the same thing that we saw in college, the same reason that made him such a highly recruited guy coming out of high school. The guy has tremendous passion, tremendous love for the game, tremendous work ethic. He was around the ball in every opportunity he had. I think both of our off-ball linebackers last year played really well, and it’s a credit to them and how well they played. When guys are playing really well, Coach will say all the time, you don’t make changes just for change sake. I don’t think it was anything that Nakobe did as opposed to kind of what those guys were doing, and we have high expectations for Nakobe, but no higher than the expectations he has for himself.
Roseman on linebacker position
Even with Nakobe Dean, Roseman says he won’t shy away from addressing the linebacker position.
We’ve got a lot of young players at that position. We’re excited to see those guys, evaluate them on a daily basis, and again, like anything, we’ll keep our options open. We’re never going to close the door on an opportunity to improve our team, so we’ll constantly be looking at that position and every position.
