Howie Roseman gives ammo to both sides of the Eagles’ quarterback debate

No crystal clear clarity here but some interesting comments nonetheless.

Howie Roseman will address reporters at the 2022 NFL Combine later today around 1:15 PM Eastern.

But we actually don’t have to wait until then to hear from the Philadelphia Eagles general manager. Roseman recently sat down with Dave Spadaro for an interview for the team’s official website.

By nature of his employment, we know Spuds isn’t going to press Roseman the way that the Philly media contingent is expected to. Still, Roseman offered back-to-back responses that stood out.

DAVE SPADARO: I guess what I wanted to get at was speaking to the young talent on the roster. Do you feel good about the young talent on the roster?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I do. I feel like we have some good, young players. But I don’t want you to feel like we’re satisfied with what we have. There’s areas we could have done better at the last couple of years. And we’ve spent time kind of looking at how we can do those things better.

I think the most important thing for all of us is not being satisfied. Continuing to develop. Continuing to look at areas where maybe we can improve. Continuing to talk and communicate amongst ourselves and find out what is going on in the league. What are the trends, how we can get in front of the trends.

Because … it’s really hard to win a Super Bowl. Right? You see all of these great players who maybe have one Super Bowl win and you look at those guys and you go, ‘Man, how do those guys only have one Super Bowl win? These are great, great players.’

Well, it’s hard. It’s hard to be that last team standing. You need so many things to go right. And, so, if you just do things that are down the middle, the way the league kinda sets this up, yeah, you may win 10 games, you may make the playoffs. But it’s hard to be world champions. It’s hard for the confetti to fall on your head when you do things like that.

So, you have to be willing to at least be out of the box, put yourself out there. And if you do that, yeah, there’s some risk involved in that, but there’s also a tremendous upside.

I found it interesting how Roseman digressed from the original question here. I also couldn’t help but think of his answer as it relates to the Eagles’ quarterback situation.

There’s a common belief that the Eagles should NOT take a big swing at quarterback this offseason. That they should be patient, stick with Jalen Hurts, and try to build the roster around him. That the Eagles are ‘too far away’ to take a risk on spending significant assets to acquire a proven veteran such as Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson, or Aaron Rodgers.

But the idea that there isn’t risk in inaction is misguided. By settling for less at the most important position in all of sports, the Eagles could miss their window to upgrade such a critical spot. Playing it “safe” isn’t a guaranteed path to high-level success.

Perhaps Roseman wasn’t referring to the quarterback position as much as he was making a general point. Let’s take a look at his next answer.

DAVE SPADARO: Howie, one number that fans always obsess over. $208.2 million now. How would you describe where the Eagles sit within that cap?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: I think that when you ask me about where we are, we have flexibility to make moves. But that flexibility isn’t indefinite. So, for us, we just want to make sure that any move we’re making fits with our plan not only in 2022, but in 2023. And, like you said, I’m not looking at 2025. That’s hard. And I’m not saying that like I don’t care about the Philadelphia Eagles in 2025, because I do, and that’s our obligation, to make sure this is in a good place moving forward. But I think that’s too hard, there’s too many moving parts to think that far out.

So, we don’t want to be in a situation where we do something so short-term right now that it really hamstrings us going forward. Especially, as you talked about, as some of those young players come up. Some of those young players that we don’t want to leave here, we want them to have a chance to finish their career here. We’ve got to make sure we’re balancing those two things.

Many would argue the Eagles trading for a veteran quarterback qualifies as “something so short-term” that indeed “hamstrings” the team moving forward. Such a maneuver would put a dent in the Eagles’ cap space and hamper the ability to add more talented youth to the roster.

So, there’s a case to be made Roseman provided ammo to those on both sides of the Eagles quarterback debate. It’s a “My Wife and My Mother-in-Law” situation where you’ll see what you want to see.

Transparency is not the name of the game when it comes to a general manager speaking in a public setting. Roseman shouldn’t be publicly “giving away answers to the test,” as he often likes to put it. That much bears remembering as we hear from his again later on Wednesday.