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Howie Roseman defends roster-building strategy at linebacker originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Eagles are unapologetic about their roster-building strategy. They build through the trenches.
Sometimes at the expense of other positions — namely, linebacker.
“I feel like we’ve had a long history of success here building the team a certain way,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said on Wednesday. “And I think maybe there are some preconceived notions that at the linebacker position, that we don’t care who we play at linebacker. Again, our two Super Bowl teams over the last six years, the linebacker play was good from those guys.”
Aside from the nice reminder that the Eagles have indeed been to two Super Bowls in recent years — slick move, Howie — Roseman isn’t wrong. The Eagles did have had good linebacker play in those Super Bowl years.
And it still hasn’t changed their roster-building philosophies. They still don’t put a ton of resources into that position.
In 2022, the Eagles got a big season from former undrafted free agent T.J. Edwards and a really solid year of play from free agent Kyzir White on a one-year deal. Then they let both of them walk after the Super Bowl — Edwards went to Chicago and White followed Jonathan Gannon to Arizona.
The Eagles clearly put all their eggs into the Nakobe Dean basket and that didn’t work out in 2023.
“I think if anything, it’s my belief in the players that we have, the young players that we have. I have a lot of belief, and I know Coach does, as well, in Nakobe Dean,” Roseman said. “I believe in the player. I believe in the person.
“We lost two linebackers at that spot, two good players from our Super Bowl team, and we had Nakobe waiting in the wings. We drafted him for that role. Obviously, it didn’t work out perfectly for him this year. That doesn’t change the belief we have in the player.”
It’s understandable why the Eagles would have wanted two rely on Dean entering 2023….
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/howie-roseman-defends-roster-building-120000186.html
Author : NBC Sports Philadelphia
Publish date : 2024-01-27 12:00:00
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