Transcript: Eagles' Howie Roseman and Joe Douglas

Eagles executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman and vice president of player personnel Joe Douglas held a news conference Friday afternoon to discuss players signed and released in the last few days as free agency began and NFL draft.

This transcript is provided by the Eagles.

Howie Roseman: I want to start off by thanking Connor Barwin. When you talk about people who contributed on and off the field [and] represented our values, Connor is at the top of the list. Thank you to him. When we talk about having our paths cross again, we're sincere about that, and that's what we told him when he left.

When you do free agency and the combine, there are a lot of people who contribute that aren't up here like the two of us. It starts with our scouting staff, our pro staff led by [Director of Pro Scouting] Dwayne Joseph and his team of pro scouts; our contract negotiators, [Director of Football Administration] Jake Rosenberg, his team; [Senior Vice President, General Counsel] Aileen Dagrosa; [Vice President of Football Operations and Strategy] Alec Halaby is [involved in every decision we make and in everything] we do, as well; [Assistant Director of Player Personnel] Andy Weidl; [Senior Football Advisor] Tom Donahoe; our coaching staff, Coach [Doug] Pederson, his coordinators; our training staff, led by [Director of Sports Medicine/Head Athletic Trainer] Chris Peduzzi; our team doctors, [Head Team Physician, Head Orthopedic Surgeon] Pete DeLuca, [Team Internist] Gary Dorshimer; our PR staff here right now – they do a great job with us, as well – led by [Senior Vice President of Marketing, Media & Communications] Anne [Gordon].

So really this is a whole team effort, and we wanted to thank all of them.

We're really excited to add Alshon [Jeffery], Torrey [Smith], Chance [Warmack]; re-sign Najee [Goode] and Wiz [Stefen Wisniewski]. We've got a lot more work to do. Obviously we know that this is just part of the process. We're excited about the draft; we're excited about the next few weeks here to look at what we have, see if there are opportunities to add to our team, and then go into the draft and really be able to take the best available player.

Questions?

Q. How does the cap situation work with a $14 million, one-year deal to Jeffery? You only had about $14 million in cap room, right?

Howie Roseman: Yeah, I think from our perspective, the terms of any deal [are] probably different because usually when you do these types of deals, you're able to prorate. But our cap people, led by Jake [Rosenberg], do a great job, tremendous job of putting us in situations to be successful, and you've got to be flexible at these times.

I think our situation is tough this year, but as we look out, it continues to improve.

Q. Does the recent re-signing of Stefen Wisniewski, also getting Chance Warmack, does that mean that mean Jason Kelce will no longer be on the team?

Howie Roseman: No. In fact, the first thing we talked about this morning was the outstanding depth that we have on the offensive line. When you look at it, you can say you're committed to the lines, but then your actions have to reflect that, and as we look at our offensive line and the depth that we had, we played five right tackles last year. We know we're going to need all those guys. It's a position around the league that people are looking for, so we're really excited, and our plan is to keep all of those guys.

Q. As far as the one-year deal for Jeffery, why was that something you wanted

Howie Roseman: Well, I wouldn't necessarily say it was something that we wanted … But from our perspective it was a win-win situation, and when you have guys on one-year deals, you still have options. I mean, you have tags at your disposal; you have exclusive negotiating rights before free agency. For us, we thought it was a great opportunity to get a player who's extremely talented and has something to prove and wanted to be here.

So it worked out, and obviously you always like to have guys on longer deals, but we also have to look at the opportunities. We said all along that we're going to try to be aggressive if the opportunity made sense, and we just thought the contract made a lot of sense.

Q. A lot of people probably thought Alshon may have gotten a longer deal, more money and everything. Was it a case where as the market started to bear out, you were able to get involved, or was he a target from the beginning? How did it work out?

Howie Roseman: Well, he was a target from the beginning, but like you said, you hear a lot of things when you're in Indy about what guys are going to get, and when the negotiation period started, we called his representatives and told them about our interest, and we were in constant communication with them.

But you know, I think the other thing when we talk about all these guys and Alshon in particular, [Vice President of Player Personnel] Joe [Douglas] was with him in Chicago. Dwayne Joseph, our pro director, was with him in Chicago; our wide receiver coach [Mike Groh] was with him in Chicago; [running backs coach] Duce Staley, we all know about him in South Carolina. We had a lot of information on him, and he wanted to be here, which is always a good thing to have, and he was excited about the direction we were going in. We've got a long way to go and a lot of things to do, but we felt like yesterday was a good day.

Q. You're very familiar with Torrey from Baltimore. He was one of the top receivers in the league from 2012 through '14 and then he goes to San Francisco and only has, I think, like he was targeted 103 times in two years. What did you see in San Francisco that changed for him?

Joe Douglas: You know, I can't speak about his personal experience in San Francisco, and I don't want to throw any other team under the bus from a performance standpoint. Obviously his targets fell down. I think his down-the-field targets fell down and production fell down, as well. So that was probably the main thing I saw.

Q. All three of these guys that were brought in yesterday have ties to the coaching staff or to the front office. How much does that help you guys in bringing them in, and also in regards to Carson Wentz, what does it say about him that receivers want to come here to play with him?

Howie Roseman: Well, it's a great compliment to Carson, and I think the rest of our offensive staff and the team. When we've talked to these guys, they're excited about our offensive line. They're excited about some of the skill position guys that we have here that can help them, too, and complement each other. And then again, it's hard in free agency, the history of high-priced free agents aren't good. We've looked at that. We've had experiences with that ourselves, but when you know the guy really well and when people who have been around them see the day-to-day, see how they are in the building, on the practice field, in the meeting room, it's a huge advantage. We feel like we know our players really well because of that, and so when guys come from other places and have worked with those guys and are able to tell us exactly what they are, it takes some of the risk involved out of it.

Q. Describe if you can the dynamic with working with Joe really for the first time through this process, particularly with respect to Torrey, obviously somebody who he had known really well.

Howie Roseman: Yeah, I think that Joe and I share this – we have passion. We have passion, and Joe and his staff do a great job about is standing on the table for things that they think are really important and having conversations. We're collaborating about everything, we're talking about everything, but when you talk to Joe about a guy like Torrey and what he is and what he can bring to our football team on and off the field, what his skill set is, how he is every day in practice and how strongly he feels about that, it makes you feel really good about making a move like this.

"It's been a lot of fun, and obviously, again, we're really excited about the draft and working on that together as a group with his staff. But the past few days have been great, and really it started since he's been here and going through the cuts and getting his opinion on everything.

Q. Did you talk to Alshon and his camp about what a long-term deal might look like, and are you confident he's in this for the long haul and not just one year?

Howie Roseman: Did we talk about what a long-term deal may look like? I'm not Nostradamus, so I don't know where we're going to be in January. There are too many scenarios that can happen to talk about a long-term deal for next season at this time. But we had in-depth discussions about a lot of scenarios with them in terms of before we signed him to the one-year deal, and we feel really confident that when Alshon gets here and sees the passion this city has for our football team, gets around the people on and off the field that this will be a place he'll want to be.

Q. Obviously signing two veteran receivers helps the team in general, but in terms of Carson Wentz' development, how big of a motive was that in getting these guys, and were you worried about maybe stunting his growth if you didn't make these kind of signings?

But then when you talk about Carson and being able to help him, and also you have guys, Alshon for a guy like DGB [Dorial Green-Beckham] to watch Alshon and see his skill set and the traits he has, and for Nelson [Agholor] to get a chance to see Torrey and to see how he is every day. That was one of the big things that Joe has talked about since the day he walked in, about having guys in the room who have done it before to help the younger players.

It was a great example for us just watching Atlanta and seeing [Vic] Beasley with Dwight Freeney. Those sort of things, too. Now, they have to be good players because obviously you have a coaching staff, too, to help those guys, but when guys are still productive and also have that leadership and are able to help our other guys, it's really a positive.

Q. Yesterday you signed the two wide receivers and Chance, but you didn't really do anything on defense, and you have the possibility of losing both your starting cornerbacks from last year. Is that still something you can address in free agency? Are you looking at that spot in the draft because of its depth at cornerback?

Howie Roseman: Yeah, and you don't want to go into a draft having to have something. But by the same token what we said last week is true. We're trying to minimize risk and make smart decisions, and if a contract gets out of hand, and we've set a number and a price point for it, we're going to walk away. What will happen the next couple of days with some of the guys who are out there, it's hard to predict. Obviously people have expectations when the market opens, but we have to be uncomfortable with some things here. We're not going to address everything right now, and if there's a particular position that we don't address right now, that doesn't preclude us doing something before the season starts, and certainly not in the draft.

Q. Everyone thought you were going to target a wide receiver in free agency, but yesterday you got two. How did the outcome of yesterday relate to your goals heading into the day, and how pleased are you with the fact that you came out with two wideouts for Carson to throw to?

Howie Roseman: Well, I think we're pleased about the guys we brought in, the specifics of those guys, Alshon and Torrey. In terms of what we were looking to do, we were obviously looking at that. That's why we got those guys, because we were negotiating with them. But again, we had walk-away numbers. There were other guys that we talked to, and it just didn't make sense from our team perspective of what we're trying to do here. So it fit, and those guys were the right guys for us. They have a complementary skill set, and we're excited to get them in the fold.

Q. The tone of your messaging heading into the off-season seemed to be about taking the long view, making sure that you build it the right way through the draft. How does the signing of one of the top wide receivers at a high number for one year kind of mess with that philosophy?

Howie Roseman: Yeah, we think it's consistent with that philosophy. I know when we talked about band-aids, I think I didn't explain that well. I found that out a couple of times here this off-season. But for us, a band-aid is a guy who's in the twilight of his career and doesn't have a lot of time left and probably not someone that you would want to extend going forward. But in terms of what we got here, you know, we got guys who are in their 20s, mid-to-late 20s, which is always stuff that we talked about, and guys that we have an opportunity if they do a good job to keep here for the future. I think it's consistent with what we've been talking about. We're excited that we were able to get those particular guys.

Q. When you signed QB Chase Daniel last year, he made sense from the perspective of knowing the offense and being able to help QB Sam Bradford along and whatever quarterback you were going to draft, but with Carson going into his second year, is that mentorship sort of less important in year two than it is in year one?

Howie Roseman: Well, I think it goes back to the point that Joe has talked about since he's been here. Having someone in the room to rely on and to talk to about things is important. It's important for a starting quarterback to have. Does it change from year one to year two? When you talk about Carson, he's the guy now, and having the ability to do that through the mini-camps, through the whole off-season, through training camp, his leadership is going to show, and he's been through it. He's gone to Seattle, he's gone to Dallas, Washington, New York, so he's seen all those things, so he has that. But you still want someone who's been through it, and Chase certainly provides that.

Q. What does this say about if you had any negotiations with WR Jordan Matthews but also the ability to sign him next year, bringing in two other receivers?

Howie Roseman: I don't know that this says anything other than this will help Jordan Matthews. Having those guys and having the attention from Jordan, from [TE] Zach [Ertz], from our running backs, the more good players you can have, the more that it'll help those guys get free and not see as much attention. We want to keep our good young players -- Jordan is a good young player who's been tremendously productive, has great character, and so from our perspective, nothing has changed in that respect.

Q. Joe, you have on paper it looks like the starters and the top three receivers will be Jordan in the slot and then obviously Torrey and Alshon on the outside. All three have very different skill sets. Is that important to you when looking at that position when you have three guys in the field that you want to kind of cover all your boundaries in terms of what they can do on the field?

Joe Douglas: Yeah, no doubt. You don't want to have three receivers that do exactly the same thing, and I think it's something that we discussed earlier with our offensive coaches from Doug to [Eagles offensive coordinator] Frank [Reich] to now [Eagles wide receivers coach] Mike Groh, [Eagles quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo]. I think it's very important that each of these guys bring in their own individual skill set.

Q. I know Torrey obviously brings speed to the offense, but both he and Jeffrey are both excellent red zone receivers. How important was that when you guys were considering them, considering the problems you've had in the red zone?

Joe Douglas: Yeah, I think if you look back at our season, red zone was a part of our team that really needed improvement. I think both of these guys are major weapons when things get tight down on the goal line. You have guys that have the length, have the catch radius, they can go up and get the ball and make plays for you in tight situations.

Q. As a follow-up, are there corresponding moves you need to make to have pen on paper today?

Howie Roseman: Yeah, you know, I think from our perspective, we're going to have to look at things as they come through. Obviously as the draft comes, two things kind of change. But we're going through all that now. Again, I think that as we look past this moment, we're going to be okay. But it is a unique situation that we've had, and I think when you look around the league, people have had it, so we're looking at that. I'm trying not to be too specific because I don't want to get into strategy here.

Q. For Joe, this was your first time setting the free agency board. How was that process for you, and how did Alshon stack up on it?

Joe Douglas: Yeah, I know Howie mentioned this term again, collaborative. I mean, it's a process very similar to the one I talked about in Mobile about setting the draft board. There's different sets of meetings with our pro scouts, and then with our coaches. Everyone is involved, and everyone has a say. There's a lot of reports in the system on all these guys. Alshon was a player that we talked about, and relationships matter, and us having guys in the building that had relationships with Alshon, guys like Mike Groh, guys like [Eagles director of pro scouting] Dwayne Joseph, I was only there with him for a short time, but he was a guy that was highly regarded in this building.

Q. When you talk a little bit about defense and how you guys haven't really made moves there yet, in terms of cornerback, you're really young there right now. Would you feel comfortable staying that young, and even if you draft a couple kids, it's a deep class, but would you feel comfortable staying that young at cornerback with your starters?

Howie Roseman: Yeah, I think we look back to 2004, and certainly not comparing this team to that Super Bowl team, but we went into that year with Lito [Sheppard] and Sheldon [Brown] hadn't started, and there were some of those same questions. We would be comfortable if that's how it turned out. Again, we've got a long period of time before we play a game, before we report to training camp. We're going to look at every option to try to improve this team, but certainly we'll be comfortable if that's how it shook out.

Q. Joe, can you talk a little bit more about your experiences with Torrey Smith and what you saw up close and what attracted you to him to bring him in?

Joe Douglas: Torrey is a player that I've had my eye on ever since his Maryland days. Obviously we drafted him in Baltimore in the second round. You know, I just hope this city knows that they're getting a resilient person, a great teammate, a person who shows up in big games when it matters most, a guy that's definitely going to help this offense as far as taking the top off of defenses.

Howie Roseman: I think the other thing with Torrey that people don't realize is he's a big guy. People when they think of just vertical threats, guys who can take the top off, they think of smaller guys, but he's a physically tough guy, as well, and I think when people see him out there and how he plays and that kind of edge, you see it over a period of time, led the league in pass interference yards, I think that's the other thing when you talk about Torrey to bring into the equation.

Q. How much in going after Chance, just his sheer physical size, along the line that maybe in the middle of it might be lacking a little bit of that was a factor in going after him?

Howie Roseman: I think, first, again, you go to the guy who coached him in college, and having him here and the job, [Eagles offensive line] coach [Jeff] Stoutland has done with our offensive line since he's been in Philadelphia, he is a tremendous football coach, and his ability to get the best out of people. There's no doubt Chance is extremely talented, and he's another guy who wanted to be here, who had better offers on the table, but he felt like for him, he wanted to play up to the ability that he had coming out of the draft, and there was no person better than the guy who coached him and made him the tenth pick in the draft. We're very fortunate to have Chance, but we're very fortunate to have Jeff Stoutland as our offensive line coach.

Q. Do you still have any shot of keeping DT Bennie Logan in light of the cap situation?

Howie Roseman: Yeah, we're hopeful. Bennie is a good player, and we're in communication with his representatives, and we'll just see how all this shakes out here.