Sept. 3, 2026
I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, for something to happen that puts into perspective all of the dubious decisions made by the best GM in sports, Howie Roseman, over the past few months.
What is Howie thinking?
Does he need another hiatus to reboot his muddled mind?
Is he trying to lose this season?
Too harsh? Well, then maybe you can explain what Roseman has been doing with the roster of an Eagles team that won the Super Bowl 18 months ago? Has our exalted leader misplaced his mojo, or is he working on a wild twist that will redeem this depressing summer?
The latest head-scratcher in an off-season demanding the daily application of Head and Shoulders was his non-decision to keep four quarterbacks on his 53-player roster, even though two of them sucked in the preseason and the other is nothing more than a fifth-round curiosity.
I can understand the logic behind keeping North Dakota State rookie Cole Payton, if only for his remarkable mobility. But both Andy Dalton and Tanner McKee, too? Why?
As usual, when the GM began to explain during a news conference on Monday why he refused to cut any of the QBs this summer, he rolled out the old QB Factory logic one more time.
“Four quarterbacks – the most important position in sports,” he began. “I feel like all of those guys have value. . . . “It’s just such a valuable position.”
There’s only one obvious problem with this statement. If Howie values the quarterback position so much, why, in his two decades of roster-building, has he never carried four of them on his initial 53-man roster until now?
Making the logic even more, well, illogical was Roseman’s follow-up remark that “I don’t feel great about” four of his late cuts being claimed by other teams, the most in the NFL. Goodbye, OL Miles Hinton and S Kapena Gushiken, plus two Camerons, TE Latu and OL Williams.
The real story here is that, unlike his championship seasons in 2017 and 2025, Howie is no longer going all-in on any one year. He said after the last parade that he would exercise more long-range thinking in the future.
Well, he was right about that. He allowed seven defensive starters to leave after the celebration last off-season, and then he made what I consider his biggest mistake, trading his best receiver, A.J. Brown, to New England for a first-round draft pick in 2028 – the clearest message yet that Howie is willing to sacrifice the present for the future.
At his news conference after the roster cutdown, Roseman reiterated that “we are committed to patience and development.” Ugh.
Remember how the Sixers begged their fans for patience when they tried to tank their way to an NBA championship? How did that work out? What happened to the Flyers when they preached patience for half a century? They went from an obsession here to an afterthought, a hole from which they are only now (maybe) digging out.
At the same time, which team in sports is the most dominant right now? The Dodgers, who are the embodiment of pushing all of their chips into the middle of the table every season. No free agent is too expensive for the Dodgers, no injury irreplaceable. They are the ultimate carpe-diem franchise.
Spend, spend, spend. Win, win, win. That’s their simple formula, as they prepare for an inevitable third straight World Series win.
It also strains credulity that Roseman is suddenly preaching patience in the most impatient sports city in America. Can you imagine a fan watching another third-down pass drop to the ground because Brown wasn’t there to catch it and saying, “Well, that’s OK. We’re building for the future.”
And let’s not forget about the latest draft, the first in recent memory where Howie didn’t wheel and deal his way into a bounty of new stars. The top two picks are battling early prognoses as busts. WR Makai Lemon has been hurt twice, in between poor performances at training camp and in the third preseason game. TE Eli Stowers amassed a total of 12 yards on 39 snaps in the fake contests.
Based on what they have shown so far, not only aren’t they ready for the NFL; they may never be. Lemon is small and not all that fast, and Stowers has struggled with the mental transition to the pros, has also been slow afoot and likewise got hurt for part of the preseason.
These setbacks should not be happening to the top two picks on any NFL team, let alone Howie’s. They are part of an undeniable trend away from the master strokes that brought to Philly Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Cooper DeJean, among others.
When the Eagles added all of those stars to the roster, it was during an era when they were willing to sacrifice some of the uncertain future to make the present more promising. They understood that even great teams can only be great for so long, and the real trick is to keep that championship window open for as long as they can.
A direct contrast to the passivity of the Eagles right now is the win-at-all-costs approach of the Los Angeles Rams, who made a Howie-like blockbuster trade for All-Pro DE Myles Garrett and then convinced future Hall of Fame DT Aaron Donald to come out of retirement.
They invited future salary-cap problems by kicking the can down the road while trying desperately to win now, this season, while their franchise quarterback (Matthew Stafford) was still among the best at his position.
Hey, maybe it will all work out in the end this season for the Eagles. Maybe OC Sean Mannion will be good at calling plays, maybe Hurts will find a second wind now that ex-OC Kevin Patullo is no longer sabotaging his work, maybe Barkley will resume the ground assault of 2024, maybe the defense will recover from the roster turnover of the past two seasons, maybe coach Nick Sirianni will finally coach as well as his record.
Those are a lot of maybes, though. And if fortunes take a turn for the worse, Howie would do well not to roll out again his pledge for patience. He has been around long enough to know that, especially in Philadelphia, you are only as good as your last season, your last draft, your last news conference.
Just to be prepared for the worst, maybe the Eagles should again spruce up that broom closet where Howie worked during Chip Kelly’s power play a decade ago. The best GM in sports may need someone or something to remind him that fame is fleeting. Especially in Philly.
A few other thoughts . . . .
- This Tony Romo mess just keeps getting worse. His bid for sympathy by citing serious back injuries from his playing days missed the point. His mistake was not drinking to excess – though that appears to be a serious problem in its own right for him these days. No, what was stupid and reckless was him getting behind the wheel with a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit. I’m not sure he realizes that even now.
- And while I’m at it, there was another part of his statement that strained basic logic. “As I have taught my three young sons: when you fall short, you stand up and take full responsibility.” Huh? He pleaded no contest, an option that does not require an admission of guilt. That is precisely the opposite of taking full responsibility.
- What am I missing here? The Eagles have no pass-catching tight end to slot in behind Dallas Goedert, and former Eagle Zach Ertz is a free agent. Hello? Ertz remains a terrific third-down option, even at 35. The Eagles have money under the cap. Ertz would probably offer a discount to return here. So, sign the man, already.
- The biggest games are still to be played, but it’s hard to imagine the Phillies not bringing back Don Mattingly as manager next year after he saved the season. Remember, Rob Thomson was 9-19 when he got the boot, and Mattingly has led the Phils to a 70-42 rebound since then. They have saved their best ball for right now, in the stretch run. Mattingly is still too much of a robot for me, but he has earned a chance to hang around for a while.
- I got an email a few days ago from S.R., with whom I have corresponded for many years. He sent a comment into Philly.com recently pointing out, among other things, that Makai Lemon is small and not very fast. When his comment appeared, S.R.’s negative assessment of Lemon was edited out. S.R. thinks it’s an AI screen. So now AI is programmed only to allow positive comments about the Eagles, too? Seriously?