Howie Roseman Responds To Some Questions At The NFL Combine

BleedingGreenNation.com captured Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman talking to the media at the NFL Combine so I was able to take a look at what he had to say in Indianapolis. Roseman revealed some of the Birds thinking as they look at the talent coming into this years draft.

Somebody put Roseman on the defensive about the Eagles refusal to place a high priority on linebackers, but the General Manager refuted that thinking. “You still want to find good players at any position”, Roseman responded. “That doesn’t mean you aren’t looking for good players in the draft or in free agency. When we are evaluating players for the draft or in free agency to make sure we are evaluating how they play. We stack the board based on how they play. So we’re not going into the draft and devaluing linebackers.”

When talking about how the Eagles find their quarterbacks, Roseman says the scouts go out and get the information then take it back to the maestro, Andy Reid, who uses his expertise to make the decision. “I think there are certain things that we’re looking for in quarterbacks, and that comes from the head coach, the offensive coordinator, the quarterbacks coach, to be successful in our offense”, Roseman explained. “You want ’em to be smart, you want them to be athletic, you want them to be accurate, you want them to be able to get the ball out. It’s hard to evaluate quarterbacks. We bring all those evaluations back to our head coach, and then he’s got this expertise that really takes it to another level and makes you feel more confident in your evaluation.”

I must admit that Reid has made some great decisions concerning his quarterbacks. His decision involving Michael Vick and Kevin Kolb have the Eagles in a great position in this year’s draft.

He admitted that the Birds are fortunate that this is a deep draft for offensive linemen because that’s one of the areas they’re shopping for this spring. “I think the talent level overall is probably better than has been the past few years”, Roseman said. “It’s deep. You’ve got some guys who are versatile, who can play tackle or play guard … The more guys that are versatile and athletic, (the better).”

He stressed that the Eagles aren’t going to let their needs influence them to take a player earlier than he should be taken. “Looking back at some of the mistakes that we’ve made, they’ve been when we’ve reached”, Roseman admitted. “We’ve taken guys that we didn’t think were the best players, but we had an area of need. We’ve been determined (since then) to take the best players on our board. You look at last year and the draft, maybe we went in with the intention of taking an offensive lineman or two, but the values just didn’t meet. You look back at those things and you’re trying to get better and you’re trying to improve.”

As expected Roseman was asked about Kevin Kolb and whether the Birds were interested in trading him. “We’re still evaluating all our options and all our positions”, Roseman said. “Obviously we’ve been really fortunate to have good quarterbacks. There’s Michael, there’s Kevin, and we’ve got a lot of confidence in Mike Kafka, so that’s a position that we’re always going to want to be strong at … We don’t discuss any (trade) discussions, external or internal.”

His last words on the possibility of trading Kolb were, “Everything is just projecting.”

In addition to the offensive line, Roseman thought another offensive position was strong.”I think the running back class is really strong. Last year there were 15 running backs drafted, 12 underclassmen have come out, all very productive guys, and there’s a group of seniors.”