Eagles' Roseman looking to surround Wentz with select talent
MOBILE, Ala. Howie Roseman was reminiscing this week about being here at the Senior Bowl a year ago, and seeing Carson Wentz practice for the first time.
MOBILE, Ala. – Howie Roseman was reminiscing this week about being here at the Senior Bowl a year ago, and seeing Carson Wentz practice for the first time.
"That was really the start of the process to try and move up, was here, in Mobile," Roseman said. "The first thing was the physical ability. Just seeing the ball come out of his hand, and the size and the athleticism, and the leadership. He had juice with his teammates inside and outside of the huddle . . . Then we met with him in the hotel. He had a photographic memory. He was just able to really talk about his offense in a way that was unique. Then, he had a presence about him.
"We left the interview, and he reminded us of Brent Celek – kind of Midwestern roots and the tough-guy persona."
A year after that revelatory experience, Roseman bragged that he hasn't even looked at the quarterbacks (and that's a good thing, at least at the Senior Bowl, there is no one here who will see the first round of the draft unless he's watching it on TV). Now Roseman, the de facto general manager, and player personnel vice president Joe Douglas face a task at least as daunting as the one Roseman undertook in 2016, when he maneuvered from 13th in the draft to eighth and then to second in order to select Wentz.
Now, the Eagles need to procure crucial ingredients to build a long-term contender around their 24-year-old quarterback. In this draft, with picks in every round, plus an extra fifth-rounder that becomes a fourth if Cleveland is awarded an anticipated compensatory pick, they want building blocks, guys who will someday stand smiling with their arms around Wentz during a Lombardi Trophy presentation.
Roseman has acknowledged the brass has given Wentz input into assessing and addressing needs. It's his team, after all. They can't just text or call the QB randomly, now that they're in a "dead" period under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, but before the team went away for the offseason, there was a dialogue.
"We met with him the day after the season . . . we talked to him a little bit about our team and us going forward and some of the things we're looking at," Roseman said. "We're not allowed to talk football with him" right now.
Douglas called it "a unique situation, an opportunity to find guys that love football as much as Carson and have 'em come in here and grow with Carson, and develop as a team."
That's why you'll probably see a continuing emphasis on the long-term free agents who figure to have several good years left, rather than one-year Band-Aid solutions. Offensive skill position draftees who fit the culture the team wants to build around Wentz.
Wentz spent 2016 proving himself to management, and he did a solid job. Now management needs to prove itself to the QB.
"We gotta make sure that we don't sit here in Philadelphia five, 10 years from now and say, 'You know what? We did a disservice to Carson Wentz.' We take that very seriously," Roseman said Monday in his 94WIP appearance. "We wake up every day, we come in and we talk about making sure we surround this guy with the right talent, to give him a chance to play in games like (last weekend's conference championships)."
@LesBowen
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