Adrian Fedkiw
Howie Roseman spent more than any general manager this offseason, handing out massive extensions to lock up the Philadelphia Eagles’ core and bringing in a handful of young free agents. He also wheeled and dealed his way into landing Carson Wentz.
But will his free spending and landing of a potential franchise quarterback produce results on the football field?
ESPN doesn’t seem to think so.
The Eagles are ranked 24th on ESPN’s annual NFL Future Power Rankings, a forecast of where each franchise will be in three years. Louis Riddick, Field Yates and Mike Sando graded each NFL team on a scale of 0-100, using five categories. Each one was weighted with the following percentages.
- Roster (not including quarterback)- 30 percent
- Quarterback- 20 percent
- Coaching- 20 percent
- Draft- 15 percent
- Front Office- 15 percent
Here’s what was said about the Eagles, who received an overall score of 63.5.
High point: In assessing a roster’s future outlook, it’s important to be mindful of the financial side of football. For Philly, a strong core of talent has been locked up to extensions already, which bodes well for the years ahead. Players like Fletcher Cox, Malcolm Jenkins, Zach Ertz, Lane Johnson and Vinny Curry will be in Philly for the long haul. How the QB situation unfolds during the season is a big question mark, but the roster around the signal-caller is steady. — Field Yates
Low point: Chip Kelly is no longer around to be everyone’s favorite whipping boy. Howie Roseman has always desperately wanted to be known and respected as a “football guy,” and now he will get his chance to be responsible for everything that goes right or wrong. That includes the draft, where he gave away a boatload of draft capital to move up and select QB Carson Wentz with the No. 2 pick. He also took a chance on some players with character issues in the later rounds. I’m an admitted nonbeliever. We will see. — Louis Riddick
What could change: I had the Eagles’ future roster ranked among the NFL’s top 10 based on the extensions they have signed. Philly’s roster ranked just 17th once we tallied all the votes, however. The quarterback situation appears muddled for the short term, but the longer-term future is clear. Wentz projects as the obvious starter for 2018. That seems like a good thing. — Mike Sando
The overall plan, whether Roseman meant to land a franchise quarterback like Wentz or not, makes sense. Like Yates explained the Eagles’ core is here for the long haul and still relatively young, as are key free agents Brandon Brooks and Rodney McLeod. When Wentz is ready to assume the full-time reins in a year or two, that core will be in their prime and ready to win.
Where I’m a non-believer is in Roseman’s ability in the draft, which is going to be imperative because the Eagles won’t have a lot of money to spend over the next few years after all of the contracts that were handed out. They also don’t have a first round pick next year. Roseman is going to have to pluck a few starters in the middle-to-late rounds in order for Philadelphia to take the necessary steps forward.
This past offseason highlighted his strengths, the ability to manipulate the salary cap and make trades, but the next few are going to show if he can overcome his weaknesses.
Obviously the key cog in this whole thing is Wentz. If he’s a bust, this entire plan is a bust. I would’ve ranked the Eagles somewhere in the middle of the pack, maybe even somewhere between 10-15. If this was a futures list about where the Eagles will be in five years, I believe they should be in the top 10, because Wentz will be entering his prime by then.
Here’s how the Eagles scored out of the five categories.
- Roster- 67.7
- Quarterback- 66.7
- Coaching- 60.7
- Draft- 58.3
- Front Office- 60.0