Is Howie Roseman the smartest guy in the room?
He thinks so. He also has convinced a large percentage of the fan base to accept the possibility of a losing season for now and maybe the near future. It is what it is and now we have to accept it. It could have been different though. Howie is smart. He took a low profile during the Kelly era and survive by kissing up to Laurie, who happens to be the only one that really matters.
Was it only one year ago that the fans were all agog over the potential of an amazing season. Do you remember the excitement of the preseason, I do. I too was excited with the roster that had been assembled. They seemed ready to go but fate deemed otherwise. The season ended in failure and drastic change. Change due to the high expectations of the assembled talent. Talent that included Sam Bradford.
So it was decided that nothing was any good from Kelly’s team and a complete house cleaning was in order. The smartest guy in the room was now making the decisions.
Howie pulled the trigger and rid the team of Kelly’s choices but kept his earlier draft picks despite the poor to midling output of those guys. He moved up by decimating the future drafts and got his replacement QB making Bradford a lame duck.
Let’s look at what is left before game one of the 2016 season. An offensive line that is a big question mark, now and into the future. An untested running back situation. The “star” is good but has a history of injury. Everybody else is mid level at best. Receivers are a big question mark and Howie is still throwing the discards from other teams into the mix hoping to find something, anything that can help. Linebackers? Your guess is as good as anyone’s. Talent, yes but not proven and oh so thin. An honest appraisal of the talent level of the entire team will show only a few genuine articles. Guys that could start for any team in the NFL.
The starting quarterback is either a career sub or a rookie recovering from an injury obtained in his first few minutes of NFL exposure. A recent radio interview described him as having a lot of intangibles. It made me wonder what Sam Bradford’s “intangibles” were before he played his first NFL game. Can you build a team around “intangibles”? I think it’s not likely that all the things you hope for become reality when it comes to athletes. Let us not forget the coach. The Eagles fired this coaches mentor for not being able to get the team into the upper levels of the playoffs. Now they expect his pupil to succeed where he failed.
Prediction: The Eagles have regressed and they are betting on the future. A future that is not likely to become reality. The Eagles will be lucky to win five games this year. We need to hope for teams on our schedule to take us so lightly that they never generate the necessary enthusiasm needed on any given Sunday.
I wonder what might have happened if the smartest guy in the room had done nothing at all except for the typical changes that every team makes every year. What if it had not been so important to make his mark by maneuvering up to get Wentz. Would he have had the core of a playoff team? We all seemed to think so last year. A coaching change was in order. Howie would have had his say on personnel. Consider the draft and who on this list might have helped. Bradford was counting on a better offensive line as a result of the draft.
In the NFL East the level of competition is surely not so great that even an imperfect team might win the division, then who knows.
Now we have an interesting season of “what might have been”. We can look at the contributions of players that Eagles did not choose from the draft. We can look at the performances of the players that were traded away and see if they were really as bad as they seemed. We will see if Sam Bradford who is now with a better than average team can deliver. Last but not least, I can see if my predictions are accurate. Win or lose I’ll get something from this season.
skepticalron 