Howie Roseman is a master at pulling off a big free-agent acquisition or maneuvering the salary cap to benefit the Eagles needs.
His ability to evaluate talent has been called into question and on Monday, the Eagles GM addressed that perceived shortcoming.
During his 2020 exit interview with the media, Roseman addressed the elephant in the room and spoke vaguely on what went into selecting Arcega-Whiteside and Reagor over more acclaimed options.
“We went into the draft trying to find the right guys for our team and in terms of what we thought we needed to have a better offense.”
Roseman provided more insight into Vikings star rookie, Justin Jefferson, without naming names.
“I’d say, one, obviously the guy you are talking (Note: Roseman seemed to mean Jefferson) about had a phenomenal year. It is not like our heads are in the sand and we don’t see that and we didn’t spend a lot of time on that guy. Obviously, I think when you talk to other general managers in this league, if everyone knew what those guys were going to do, they wouldn’t even have been close to the pick we were at, and there were other receivers taken.”
“We went into the draft trying to find the right guys for our team in terms of what we thought we needed to have a better offense. That is with a lot of discussion with our scouts, with our coaches. There was definitely a lot of opinions on this draft class and this receiver class for sure. I would also say Jalen is a very young player. He just turned 22. He missed a bunch of games with injuries. He didn’t really have durability issues in college. And sometimes those things over a period of time, they play out. I think about it this morning, I was thinking about the 2010 draft, and how it went with Brandon Graham and the guys that maybe started their careers fresh.”
Reagor ended his rookie season with 31-catches for 396 yards receiving and just one touchdown while missing five games with a thumb injury.
Jefferson set the NFL record for receiving yards by a rookie after logging 88 catches for 1,400 yards and seven touchdowns.
Roseman admitted that medical grades and other scenarios played a role in passing on Metcalf, but it can’t explain passing on Deebo Samuel and Terry McLaurin as well.
Roseman finished by talking about the Eagles continuing to have big expectations for both Reagor and Arcega-Whiteside.
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