The Eagles' prep for the NFL Draft works from the worst-case scenario and back, Howie Roseman said during a pre-draft press conference alongside head coach Nick Sirianni at the NovaCare Complex on Tuesday.
They know they'll be leaving the first round at the end of next week with a good player at minimum, the Eagles' general manager continued, but "obviously it depends on how things go…
"You go through a lot of hypotheticals, you try to put yourself in any possible position so that you're ready to execute. Just even looking at last year, the guys that we thought were the most realistic being available at 22, we feel like we got fortunate to get one of the guys that we didn't have in a lot of the scenarios."
That guy last year was Toledo cornerback Quinyon Mitchell. A round later, at 40th overall, they picked up another cornerback in Iowa's Cooper DeJean, and in the third, they found an edge rusher in Jalyx Hunt out of Houston Christian.
The former two became key starters, and by the end, all three had made crucial plays on the Eagles' way to their second-ever Super Bowl title, and with that, the last pick in this month's draft at 32nd overall.
But you'll hardly find anyone on the Eagles complaining about the latter. It's part of the territory of standing at the top, and will just take some adjustment in their approach to the board.
"It's not my best quality, patience," Roseman said. "But I think in this situation, understanding the reality of where we are in the draft, what's going to be available to us potentially, and making sure we know those guys backwards and forwards…"
They'll try to keep the train moving.
Here are a few more takeaways on how they might do it next week…
Talking around the tight end situation
Roseman and Sirianni fielded a couple of questions from the media regarding the tight end position, which were no doubt crossing over into Dallas Goedert's uncertain future with the team.
They both tried to dance around it.
Roseman said the draft stays separate from whatever other roster decisions might be looming, so that the Eagles can make the best possible decision with whoever might be available to them by the time they're on the clock. He also said that free agency is the better avenue to try and address immediate team needs.
Sirianni was asked about what he looks for out of a potential NFL tight end on tape, and he gave a pretty lengthy answer, but one that mostly keyed in on "big, strong, fast, physical, tough, and usually succeeds."
"That's pretty much the case with every position," Sirianni said. "So looking for a lot of different things, but always looking for a guy that can make plays with the ball in his hands, and then have the ability to be a factor in the run game."
So the situation surrounding Goedert is staying vague, for now.
The 30-year-old has one more year left on his contract for 2025 before becoming an unrestricted free agent.
There have been rumors, and a couple of tight end prospects of interest in the past month or so, but from where things stood as of Tuesday, Goedert is still an Eagle.
The value in training tomorrow
The point that, eventually, the Eagles are going to need to identify a successor to star right tackle Lane Johnson was also brought up, along with the All-Pro lineman's interest in training them up over the next couple of years to take over when the time does finally come.
Finding their next right tackle could be one of the potential routes that they take early into the draft next week, and they've already had similar succession scenarios at other positions turn out to great success.
Jason Kelce helped bring up Cam Jurgens at center, and the position hardly missed a beat; Fletcher Cox was there on the defensive line to help Jalen Carter break out; Darius Slay was there from the start for Mitchell at corner; and then Brandon Graham, in his last two seasons, was vital in helping to bring Nolan Smith along as a much more complete pass rusher.
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There's a lot of value in having the longtime vets next to the young players catching up behind them, along with the willingness to make sure that they do.
"That is a huge, huge tool and advantage that we've been able to have here for the past, you know, since I've been here, because of the great players that we have," Sirianni said. "It's just such valuable information to be able to watch the tape, but then have the guy that's actually doing it on there sitting right next to you in the meeting."
And while Johnson has said on numerous occasions now that he has a few more good years left in him, he does appear ready to help prepare the Eagles for when those years are up, whether that process starts with this draft or the next.
A lot of cards in hand
The Eagles are putting in as much research and preparation as they can for the draft next week, but it hardly seems like their offseason work will stop there.
"At the end of day, as it stands now, we'll have eight chances to select guys off the board, and then we'll have somewhere between 12 and 20 free agents – can't give you the exact number – that we'll sign after the draft," Roseman said.
He went on to allude to waiver wires, trades, and practice squad signings as the calendar pushes into the summer, too, which was calling back to how the Eagles have used those avenues in the past to acquire former first-round talent that they scouted but couldn't immediately draft at the time.
But he also acknowledged the fact that the Eagles have 20 draft picks combined between this year and 2026, and how that's a lot of hidden capital to get creative with throughout the next week or so – and especially with a good chunk of their roster already set and with a championship window very much open.
"Where we are right now, we have a lot of good players who have earned their paychecks," Roseman said. "We have others coming up through that will be in position to earn paychecks, and so we want to get as many young, talented players on this roster as we can – to add competition, which is one of [Coach Sirianni's] core values, and also because of the financial situation that we're gonna have going forward in our effort to try and win another champinship."
They're just going to have to get creative to do all of that.
The Eagles standard
Roseman made waves a couple of weeks ago when he appeared on Todd McShay's podcast and said that players who have a history of violence against women are a "dealbreaker" for the organization, regardless of talent.
Howie Roseman says the Eagles will not even scout players who have been violent against women:
“I won’t even watch them…It’s just a deal breaker for us. ‘He did it 10 years ago and he learned from it.’ It just doesn’t work for us.”
pic.twitter.com/hGxf5QmC3p— SPORTSRADIO 94WIP (@SportsRadioWIP) April 2, 2025
He was followed up on about that Tuesday, getting asked what the Eagles' standard is for what they judge that by, for when it comes to variations between accusations, charges, dismissed charges, settlements, or pleas.
Roseman said the organization has a process, and one they try to keep as objective as possible.
"We try to abide by the judicial process," Roseman said. "But I think to get into the kind of details of what we do, that's part of our internal dynamics that I probably wouldn't want to get into."
The GM did say, though, that he never wants to get stuck in the pitfall of liking a player in the face of something serious and be left trying to make excuses for them.
"We try to have objective criteria when it comes to the issues that you're asking me about," Roseman told the reporter who posed the question, and added that good character evaluation from the beginning goes a long way toward avoiding those issues altogether.
"It is important to us, the people that we bring into this building, and that we know we can win with really good people," Roseman continued.
"We also know that young people make mistakes in other areas," the GM said, calling back to his initial podcast comments. "But that was one that was on my heart when I was talking about it, and something that we believe in as an organization."
It's a dealbreaker.
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