Do the Eagles have a Howie Roseman problem or is it overblown?

You may have seen a teenie little tweet a few days ago that I put out regarding Howie Roseman. If you didn't, here it is:

As you can see by the comments, likes, and retweets, it made the rounds pretty quickly.

People like me, and like everyone on Philly Sports Network and sites alike, work hard to earn the trust of people around the league so we can build credibility. Whether it is agents, coaches (both former and current), players, or reporters, we do our best to earn their trust so we can earn your trust. We get bashed by the "known" guys, we get called "internet scouts" and lousy "bloggers". That's fine with us. We care about your opinions.

That being said, let's get down to business, shall we?

The tweet

My tweet above was in reference to Jeff McLane's point on 97.5:

Of course, many people are down on Jeff McLane because he always seems to have a report like this. He had his "Jim Schwartz has a lot of power" article last year.

To see just how accurate this information was, I contacted someone I have been in touch with for over a year. This source has provided us at Philly Sports Network with very accurate information about a few different things within the organization, so I wanted to see if he knew about this.

Let's dive into this information.

Clarification

After I put out that tweet, a reporter I greatly respect contacted me and said that it's not uncommon for GMs to have say on that matter, but that coaches know about it throughout the week. So I asked my source to go deeper.

Normally how operations work with a team, in cases of injury, the GM may go to the head coach and say we’re going to bring this guy in or that guy in or we’ll move this guy up. But most times with the roster, who you play and who you want to play, most times that’s the head coach that’s making that decision. Usually that’s the head coach or the positional coaches if the head coach wants to know who they want to play.

In terms of how Howie's involvement is different:

Comparing Howie Roseman to other GMs, he’s more involved than most. Most GMs would meet with the coaches and see what they need and do what they need and then get the hell out the way and let you coach.

Could this be the reason why we saw so much of Mack Hollins last year over Ward, or JJAW this year over Fulgham, as suggested in 97.5's tweet?

What about L.J. Fort? He was cut to make room for the Orlando Scandrick signing, but this was a move every non-player in the building knew was coming. But above all else, Howie Roseman wanted the compensatory pick that came with cutting Fort. The fourth-round pick that came with cutting Fort was nullified when the 49ers cut Jordan Matthews in late October. To gain that pick back, Andrew Sendejo was cut prior to the Week 10 deadline.

Note: Sendejo was bad and deserved to be cut.

Now you're seeing Fort doing great things in Baltimore, and may very well be a huge factor in Sunday's game. The Eagles' linebackers? Well..

Linebacker issues

too reliant on LBs who were ST guys to now play defense. Howie Roseman doesn’t believe in strong LB play, he believes you can get a LB from anywhere. Jim goes from having defenses with strong LBs to what he has now, because elsewhere he had GMs who would get who he wanted.

Prior to joining the Eagles, Jim Schwartz spent one year with the Bills as their defensive coordinator. There he had Preston Brown and Nigel Bradham both have over 100 tackles. He had three players on the defensive line combine for 34.5 sacks. He had a top-five defense that dominated almost everywhere.

Before Buffalo, Schwartz was the head coach of the Lions for five seasons.

Linebacker play each year:

2009: Larry Foote 99 tackles. DeAndre Levy 85 tackles.2010: Julian Peterson 83 tackles. DeAndre Levy 72 tackles.2011: Stephen Tulloch 111 tackles. DeAndre Levy 109 tackles.2012: Stephen Tulloch 112 tackles. Justin Durant 103 tackles. DeAndre Levy 82 tackles.2013: Stephen Tulloch 135 tackles. DeAndre Levy 118 tackles

Jim had one or two dominant linebackers in every season as a head coach in Detroit. How about his time in Tennessee as defensive coordinator?

His last few seasons as DC had the likes of Keith Bulluck, Stephen Tulloch, and David Thornton collecting massive amounts of tackles. With his history of linebackers who were above average to great, can we really doubt that Jim doesn't have say on who he has at LB for the Eagles?

When questioned about the LB play, Jim had this to say:

His "I don't make those decisions" was clarified:

So if Schwartz isn't in charge of who plays at linebacker, who does?

Note: this does NOT excuse Schwartz for playing #47 as much as he is.

Continued on the page below.

Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire

#47

Ugh I guess I have to write out his name.

Nate Gerry, as everyone knows, was a safety at Nebraska. At that position, Gerry had 273 tackles in four seasons, along with 13 interceptions, and two sacks. After the Eagles drafted him, Bleacher Report's Matt Miller gave an interesting scouting report, denoting his limitations.

Even former players, big ones, were skeptical of the Gerry selection:

Brian Dawkins wasn't a big fan of Gerry when they took him in the draft. 'They took that kid and want to put him at linebacker. I just don't see it.'

Ron Jaworski also gave his two cents on Gerry on the latest Inside the Birds with Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan:

You can't just ignore the LB corps in today's NFL. Nathan Gerry has just been getting crushed. ... He's not a good cover LB. He's just not. If I had a big camera in the end zone, I would've seen a big smile on Ben's face [in regards to when he saw Gerry's positioning]. You can see the CB yelling at him to back up, back up.

If a vast majority of analysts, players, and coaches are questioning the ability of Gerry to play linebacker, then why is he still starting?

With the run defense struggling this year, while having essentially the same defensive line group (additions of Hargrave and Jackson), it begs the question: Why is it different than the top rush defense last year?

The Eagles are allowing 114.2 rushing yards per game this season, up from 90.1 in 2019, and 96.9 in 2018. The reason?

Run defense was good last year with pretty much the same linebackers, but Bradham was there [12 games] and KGH [10 games]. Run defense this year suffering because LBs are supposed to make it right if DL gets blown up. LBs can’t cover TEs, at some point you need to invest. The misdirections are killing the team because the LBs aren’t good.

You can question the impact of Bradham last year and/or KGH, but they also had a healthy T.J. Edwards, and also Malcolm Jenkins helping in that regard.

Just how much did Jim Schwartz try to improve his LB prior to the season? Well..

So to go back to the "So if Schwartz isn't in charge of who plays at linebacker, who does?" question above, do we have our answer?

Note: this does NOT excuse Schwartz for playing #47 as much as he is.

Yes I know I said that earlier. Just needs to be said again.

The Draft

I asked my source how the drafts usually work with Howie Roseman. The answer was damning:

Howie does all the talking in draft meetings, would be aided by Joe Douglas and Andrew Berry. Doug’s preferences barely considered.

With how the draft went this year, can we assume this was the case with Andy Weidl?

Maybe this year was the year they took Doug into account, with Reagor being the first pick. But Hurts in the second? Over players that can immediately help the team? More from my source:

A pick in the first round and second round should be a player that can contribute immediately. Should’ve gone wide receiver or linebacker in 2nd. Maybe go Queen in first and WR in second. Get someone who can help from day one, not a player who is standing on the sideline. Three years of “developmental” player: Mailata, Miller, Hurts/Taylor.

Of course, Mailata is helping right now, but it took a few years. Shareef Miller was known as a "developmental" player in the draft, but didn't do enough to stick around. Right now, we see Hurts as a gadget player and Taylor has yet to register a defensive stat in five games.

It also appears as though Howie doesn't know when to cut losses with a failed pick:

Personnel guys around the league mention how you need to know when to cut your losses and know when you drafted a guy that doesn’t fit. Arcega-Whiteside can’t separate, he can’t run. He’s still there though.

Coaches

Over the course of a few weeks, we saw Doug's demeanor in Zoom calls turn from "throwing player/coach under bus" to being confident. On the contrary, we saw Jim's demeanor go from "this is on me" to "I don't make those decisions." These differences made people assume that Jim and Doug don't have the greatest relationship. However:

Any media portrayal of a rift between Jim and Doug is wrong, they have a great relationship. However, Doug doesn't have any say-so on his staff. He didn't want those assistants fired last year. Howie made those decisions.

If you remember, Doug said "yes, both those guys will be back” in regards to Mike Groh and Carson Walch. A day later, Doug is releasing a statement about making a change at those coaching positions.

During Doug's tenure, the team goes from Fletcher Cox's college DL coach, to his assistant, to a coach that has never coached defensive line before.

On Howie Roseman & his relationship with the coaches:

Grigson/Pagano-like

The Colts famously went through a very bad relationship between their GM and their head coach. Things look like they're trending in that direction.

On if the coaches will be let go first or if Howie will be let go first, if a move is made:

Coaches will probably go before Howie. Somebody’s gotta be the scapegoat.

Many reporters have speculated that Howie is the safe one over Doug, Jim, or any of the coaches.

But let's look at Jeffery Lurie's comments prior to the 2017 draft on Howie's promotion:

"One of the main things Howie Roseman and I discussed when he was going to be in the football operations role was he had to have a top-notch player personnel department," Lurie said. "Or we were going to find somebody that could find a great player personnel department. That was his responsibility."

Has Howie done enough in that regard to keep his role? Recent developments and team performance give plenty of evidence that he has not fulfilled that description.

There you have it. All that I was told about the ugly situation going on in the building. Of course, you will choose on your own whether to believe it or not. We are providing you with what we were told, we'll see if this all comes to light soon.

Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire