Howie Roseman. Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Eagles GM says there is no rebuilding in their market, only retooling

By Adam Gretz | Last updated 3/31/23

General manager Howie Roseman has had to retool the Philadelphia Eagles on more than one occasion during his tenure running the team, and that might be happening again this offseason after some key departures from their Super Bowl roster. But Roseman wants to emphasize that there is a difference between rebuilding and re-tooling.

Because in his mind, the football fans of Philadelphia would never stand for a rebuild.

Roseman talked about that process on Jason and Travis Kelce's podcast this week, highlighting how the team was able to quickly turn around from their brutal 4-11-1 performance during the 2020 season.

The key, says Roseman, is that sometimes it is okay to have a truly terrible year.

Via NFL.com:

"I feel like at the end of the day, there's a difference between rebuilding and retooling," the Eagles general manager said. "And I think one of the best things that is painful at the time, is that when you have terrible years, like we had in 2012, with everything that happened with coach Reid and what we went through that year, or when we had the year during COVID with coach Pederson, and I feel terrible about how that happened. But when you bottom out like that, it actually allows you to flip it quicker."

Roseman noted that following the 2012 season the Eagles were able to draft Lane Johnson and Zach Ertz with top picks that helped quickly transform the roster and that he challenged the front office after the 2020 season to do it quicker than they did following the 2012 disappointment.

That resulted in the Eagles using their draft pick assets and salary cap space to land veterans like A.J. Brown, James Bradberry, and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, while also still having enough prime draft picks to land impact players like DeVonta Smith, Jordan Davis and Landon Dickerson.

The Eagles have lost several key players from last year's team, including Javon Hargrave, T.J. Edwards, Marcus Epps, Isaac Seumalo and Gardner-Johnson at the top of the list. Fortunately for the Eagles, they still have an extremely deep roster and an outstanding quarterback in Jalen Hurts that still has another year of relatively cheap football against the salary cap on his contract.

All of that should allow the Eagles to remain a top Super Bowl contender in the NFC for the foreseeable future.

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