Howie Roseman Is Continuing His Incredible 2022
It’s mid-November, which means the year 2022 is coming to a close soon. There’s one man in Philadelphia who will certainly look back on his calendar year fondly. Howie Roseman has had a banner 2022 season, putting together a near perfect offseason with the acquisitions of AJ Brown, Kyzir White, Haason Reddick, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, James Bradberry, and the 1st round pick of the abysmal New Orleans Saints. That list is a who’s who of impact players for the Eagles so far this season, and we have Roseman to thank for their being here. That being said, though, the work of a GM in the NFL does not end when the season begins. Great teams also address needs throughout the season as they reveal themselves, and this week has shown that Howie Roseman is capable of that as well.
Monday night against Washington was a clear wakeup call for a lot of reasons, one of the main ones being the Eagles’ absolute inability to stop the Commanders running game. It’s something we had seen glimpses of through the birds’ first 8 games, but on Monday night, it cost them their perfect record. Lesser franchises would’ve seen their criticism of their team’s deficiencies fall on deaf ears, but not here in Philly, and not with Howie Roseman on the case. With the trade deadline already passed, options have been limited, but that didn’t stop the king of roster construction from making two great moves that will hopefully stabilize the Eagles’ run defense. Chip Kelly didn’t get many things right in his time as Eagles head coach, but he did have one thought that still rings true: “Bigger people beat up little people”.
Well, Howie went out and got some bigger people. This week, he addressed the Eagles troubles in the middle of their defensive line by going out and signing 6’4”, 323 pound Linval Joseph and 6’4”, 307 pound Ndamukong Suh. Those are some large men, who also have a track record of success in the NFL, Suh in numerous places, Joseph most notably with the Minnesota Vikings. Now, those men are 34 (Joseph) and 35 (Suh), so they’re not exactly spring chickens, but that is why Howie signed both of them. As an individual, Joseph or Suh might not be huge impact players at this point in their career, but in tandem, the Eagles defense looks much harder to run against today. There are plenty of GMs that would’ve sat on their hands and let their coaching staff try and figure out a workaround for their on-field issues, but Howie Roseman continued an incredible 2022 by going out and making an improvement himself.
