Eagles' GM Roseman speaks after season of silence

Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Posted: 12:53 a.m.

By Reuben Frank
CSNPhilly.com

Other than a brief session with reporters to discuss the Jerome Harrison-Mike Bell trade, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman has been invisible lately.

After the Eagles made their final roster cuts back in September, Roseman did not make himself available to the media the entire season. His reasoning is that his job is to find the coaches players. Once that job is done, he likes to go back into the shadows.

Now that the offseason is here, Roseman has re-emerged. With the NFL scouting combine set to begin on Thursday, Roseman sat down for an interview with the Eagles official web site.

Certainly not ideal circumstances, considering that Roseman was interviewed by another employee of the company he works for.

But so far, its all we have.

In a 40-minute interview at the NovaCare Complex, Roseman discussed the roster, the teams overall direction and some of the teams biggest needs this offseason.

Here are excerpts from Rosemans first interview in nearly six months:

Talk about the general direction of the roster and the teams youth:

What Andy has always said to me is the future is now, so we ... think we can win with young players, good young players, to supplement some of our veteran guys. But over the past few years, we had a lot of internal discussions about the fact that a lot of our core players from early on in this decade were getting up in age and their contracts maybe were expiring and at some point we would ... get this new youth movement in here. But by the same token, we wanted to keep winning, we wanted to keep going while we have those guys. So that was the primary focus, to make sure that we werent taking a step back to take a step forward, that the train kept rolling.

What do you expect from last years rookie class?

We think the biggest jump comes from Year 1 to Year 2, and we had a lot of first-year, a lot of rookie players on this team that we think are going to get better. Theyre not going to have to go through this process, which is really a time-consuming process for young players to go through. Thats why its hard as a rookie to contribute in this league, because youre going through the bowl games, then youre going to the all-star games, then youre going to the combine, then youre on all these tours through the league, then all of a sudden you get to the draft, then the minicamps, then the workout program -- its a lot. Its a lot for someone whos 21, 22, 23 to go through, so you take a jump when everything stabilizes and you take a jump, and were looking forward to that, just like we had with Jeremy Maclin and LeSean McCoy last year.

What about the health of Brandon Graham and Nate Allen coming off late-season injuries?
I think Id be insincere to tell you I know where Brandon will be in August right now, but I know what kind of work ethic Brandon Graham has, I know what kind of competitor Brandon Graham is, and I know what kind of training staff and doctors we have, so whatever is the best possible situation for a player to be in, Brandon Graham will be in that situation, Im confident of that.

Nate had a different injury than Brandon. Nates said publicly, and we agree with this, that his timetables right, he should be ready to go certainly for training camp and get back out there. Nobody works harder than Nate Allen. Ive been here on off days where theres nobody is in the building, and I see Nate Allen working out and you have to tell him, Go home, but he doesnt want to. He wants to be a great player, he wants to get stronger, he wants to get better. Hes not happy about how he played this year, no matter what anyone else says, he wants to be great, and the only way to be great in his mind is to work.
But can Graham be a big-time defensive end after a disappointing rookie year?

I went back and watched Brandon when he was 100 percent, and hes got really an incredible talent. He can get off the ball, this defensive scheme that we now have in here fits him. If you ask Jim Washburn about the best defensive ends in last years draft, he says Brandon Graham. He saw him the same way we did. Hes been incredibly productive wherever hes been. I thought he was dominant in training camp -- thats part of being a rookie, thats part of kind of growing up in this league is the seasons a little bit longer, you have to feel what you can play through and what you cant play through, But he has the tools to be a really good defensive for us.

Will the defensive personnel, especially all the young guys, fit Juan Castillos defensive scheme?
This is all Jim Johnson. This started with Jim, Sean McDermott worked for Jim, Juan worked with him, so were not starting from scratch. In terms of the players we drafted, I think that Coach Reid has always been in favor of speed. Athletic guys. Guys who run to the football. and thats what we tried to do in last years draft, and theyll fit what we do here now. We try to find guys who can do multiple things, and really we want this to be a fast, attacking style of defense, and when you do things like that, sometimes the whole picture doesnt come into complete focus. You cant do everything the first year. Now, we were going to try. But when youre retooling on the fly, it doesnt always come out perfect that first year. And, for us, now with these coaches, theyve had a chance to evaluate our personnel, and I think the strengths of our personnel are going to fit the strengths of this defense.
Do you feel like you have the players on the roster now to win a Super Bowl?

I want to present the best 53-man roster to our coaches, so were not going to be satisfied with the talent at any point, no matter what our record is, no matter what we end up winning or not winning, because weve got to constantly get better. This league, if you dont improve, youre going to get passed by very quickly, so were focused on improving our talent level at every position, no matter how talented we think that position is. Thats our challenge.

How disappointing was the defenses performance last year?

We want to have a great defense, and were not going to settle for anything less, other than a great defense. Thats typifies the city, the passion this city has. Were about having a great defense, so were going to try to build that, and were not going to stop until we have a defense thats out there and people are thinking not only that we have an explosive offense but when we play Philadelphia, thats going to be a tough, tough fight against its defense.
Will you continue to go after undersized players?

We just want good players. Theres something to having guys who have good size at certain positions and in certain key areas, but the way we build this thing, we also want to make sure we can run. We just want to make sure theyre good players and we dont get too caught up in the measurables. Is really the difference between being 6-2 and 6-4, is that two inches really going to affect things so dramatically? Well go back and study that and well look to see if 6-4, 6-5, how many more pass defenses are you going to have in a year? Four or five? Whats that, one every four games? Well, if you have a better player and hes making three more tackles, is that more important than that he disrupted a passing lane one more time every four games?
What do you need at cornerback?

Were going to add competition all along the defense. Cornerback is one of those positions. We have a couple free agents, Ellis Hobbs obviously has some medical issues that he has to deal with and then Dimitri Patterson is a free agent, so were potentially losing two guys from that corner position, and we had six corners on the roster and one was primarily a returner in Jorrick Calvin, so obviously thats probably a position where were going to have to add some players.
Why did Jason Babin and Chris Clemons have success with their new teams after struggling with the Eagles?

Obviously, when you let players go or you trade players, theres something there that you saw to bring them here in the first place. We had a lot of enthusiasm for both those guys when we brought them here, and we felt like we had opportunities to add other players at that position and maybe turn it over a little bit, and they did a great job on their teams, and obviously theyre talented individuals.

Would you be OK bringing Winston Justice back at right tackle?

We believe in Winston Justice. We have a new offensive line coach, Howard Mudd, and hes had an opportunity to look at our tape, and he see he seem that Winstons a talented individual, hes a good athlete, Winstons a really hard worker, he wants to be better, and we have a lot of confidence in Winston Justice.

What goes into whether to trade Kevin Kolb or keep him?
We think Kevin is going to be a very good starting quarterback in the NFL, and thats why we committed to him last year, and obviously Michael Vick played like one of the best players in the NFL last year, and we are very fortunate to have two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and thats a position that were going to constantly try to reinforce. ... You cant talk about trades unless theres a CBA, but we want players who want to start and are confident in their abilities. We view it as a positive and we have a lot of respect for Kevin as a player and a lot of respect for Kevin as a person, but were in this business to win games and get the best possible players for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Related story: Part 2: Roseman discusses last year's rookiesBuy Eagles gear
E-mail Reuben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com