Go Birds! Daily, April 15th: Howie Roseman gives interesting answers on Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown

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But not only was it a big day for the three teams outside of the Eagles, the big boy team, the main team, the one with the trophy, had a press conference, and there was a bunch of interesting things to talk about. So normally I feel like I do a lot of random thoughts I had throughout the day, especially if the caffeine has hit me right before I record, then I really feel like I kind of overshare on what's going on with my day. But today, let's get right into it, because there is a lot to talk about. So Howie Roseman and Nick Siriani held a press conference on Tuesday, and they were supposed to start at I think like 11.45, they were about 10 or 15 minutes late, and they talked for about a half hour. Normally during press conferences, it feels like there's so many things to ask that they're like beating us back with a bat to stop asking questions. They talked for long enough that it feels like all of the questions were asked, which means we got a lot to talk about. So let's get right into it. First or a second question of the press conference, and I'm shocked, honestly, it wasn't the first question, but the second question was, from your boy, about how the Dontevian Wicks trade impacts AJ Brown's status on the roster. And so Howie Roseman, in very classic Howie Roseman fashion, just talked about Dontevian Wicks. So here is Howie's answer when I asked that question. Howie, that acquisition of Dontevian Wicks, how does that impact AJ Brown's future with the team? Tays a player that we've followed, obviously, we play Green Bay a bunch of times. You see his skill set. I mean, he's a physical, explosive player at the top of routes. He can play inside or out. You know, so he's the guy that we had our eye on here, and then bringing in some of these Green Bay guys. Some of the hardest part of our job is the cohab part, not understanding who the person is. And so when you get a chance to bring in some of these new coaches and then talk about some of the players and the skill set, and then know how they are in the building, it makes you feel even more confident when you make the acquisition. And I think when you look at our receiver room over the last couple of years, obviously we lost John. You know, we've probably been fortunate about the depth that we haven't really had to dive into. And just studying the league and seeing how many teams, you know, can go pretty deep in their receiver room. You know, that was one of the priorities going into this offseason is an increase in the depth, the quality of talent in the receiver room throughout the room. So that really fit for us. Really excited to get Tay here and think he's a narrow up guy. So later on in the press conference and shout out to Martin Frank always does a good job. I pressed Howie a little bit more on it, right? And there was another classic Howie thing. What Howie does when he doesn't want to answer a question is he makes jokes. Like throughout my years covering Howie, when there's something that he feels he doesn't want to answer, something is a question he needs to think about, he jokes. And well, here's what Howie said when pressed on on AJ Brown's status on the roster after signing Don Tavion Wicks or trading for Don Tavion Wicks. 23 first-round grades in this track. Yeah, I'm not going to answer that question. So look, let's talk about the AJ part of it first, and then we'll get into the Wicks part of it because I'm also excited to talk to you about Wicks and what Howie and Nick had to say about him. So the AJ part. I think it's very noteworthy that when he was asked how Wicks impacts AJ, he did not talk about AJ at all. Like if I would have said, how does trading for Andy Dalton impact Tanner McKee, I think he would have said, not at all. We love Tanner. If I would have asked how signing Damien Pierce impacts Aiquan Barkley, I think he would have said, not at all. We love Aiquan Barkley. I asked flat out, was not a question about what he thinks has done Tavion Wicks. The question was, what does the acquisition of Wicks mean for AJ's status on the roster? And he did not bring AJ up at all. There's a reason for that because he doesn't expect AJ to be on the roster. And then later on, when Howie was pressed about AJ, even further, you could hear him say, what do you think the chances are? I'm going to answer that. What do you think the chances are? And the reason he's not going to answer it is because he knows the answer. If he were to give an honest answer would be AJ is probably not going to be here. Or if he were to straight up lie and say AJ is like, he doesn't want to lie. Now I will say this press conference more than any other press conference of the year, a week before the draft is where Howie is truly holding in any information. Right? Howie in this, in this press conference wants to say as little as possible. He doesn't want to tip what he's going to do in the draft. Doesn't want to say who he likes, what he doesn't like, what positions he doesn't like. So I get that in this press conference, how he's job is to withhold information. But it's the same line we've gotten time and time again about AJ Brown. AJ is part of the Eagles. And that's just his way of saying, AJ won't be part of the Eagles. Like, let's be real. I know that's a silly sentence to read if you're looking at like the transcript of the podcast. Howie Roseman saying AJ's part of the Eagles is him saying he's not part of the Eagles, but that's what it is. Right? So I felt it was important to start with that because AJ is the biggest topic surrounding this team. Right now we talk about it almost daily on the pod. In fact, we probably do talk about it daily on the pod. And whenever Howie or Nick talks about it, I think it's important to get you guys those answers. So very clear that AJ almost definitely not going to be here. Now, in terms of what he had to say about Dontavia and Wicks, I think what he said should have people very excited about what Wicks can do for this team. I do think it matters that in the building is Howie highlights. There are people that know him, right? People that have coached him, people that have been around him on a day to day basis. Nobody's liking meetings. The wide receiver coach in Green Bay was Ryan Mahaffey, who is the Packers tight, who is now the Eagles tight end coach slash run game coordinator. So the fact that he's been in meetings with Dontavia and Wicks every day, pretty much, I think since Wicks was drafted or at least the past two years, matters. The fact that Sean Mannion has watched tape of Wicks in practice, he's seen every practice rep Wicks has taken, I think matters. And you hear there, at one point, I apologize, I do forget if this was part of that answer. But Howie at one point tells a story about how he's on a plane to Arizona with Nick and they're watching tape of Wicks and he's kind of going back and saying, like, Hey, watch this play, right? So you can tell they're excited about Wicks. And obviously, the contract extension they gave him giving him the $12 million shows their excitement. So I do think, look, Wicks is not almost definitely not going to replace the production age I got. Although honestly, would it shock me if Wicks got a thousand yards? No, I don't think it would. Like, he's going to play twice as many snaps as he normally does. He normally gets around 300 or 400 yards. I think he could get a thousand yards. But I understand that Wicks is clearly not AJ Brown. He doesn't dictate coverages. Teams are not going to gameplay and form yet, right? Like, maybe he will become that, but that's not what he is now. But what I do like about the trade and what I like about what he had to say was that they know a lot about him, right? This is, you know, they do their homework, they call people, perhaps sometimes there's a little bit of crossover, but key people that will dictate how successful Wicks is, no Wicks. And so I thought that was a good point by Howie. And the other thing I would say about the fact that the wide receiver coach in Green Bay, Ryan Mahaffey, is now the run game coordinator, I think speaks to how they think Wicks can block, right? Because if you're now, if you are the receiver coach in Green Bay, you know how hard Wicks blocks as it is. If you're now, if your job with the Eagles is to make the run game work, you want receivers out there who run block. So I thought that was, that was encouraging as well. So I thought what they had to say about Wicks was encouraging. And I thought what they had to say about AJ was obvious. And whenever Howie dodges a question, you know that the answer is not when he wants to give publicly. So thought that was one of the more illuminating parts of the, of the press conference. Next, I think an important question for this team entering the draft is what they're going to do on the offensive line. It's obvious going into this draft that they need to find eventually either via a draft, via the draft, via trade, via next year's draft, their next offensive tackle, right? So Lane will probably play one more year. And by the way, congrats to Lane on getting married. The venue and everything looked awesome. It looked like an unbelievably beautiful wedding. So Lane is probably only going to play one more year, right? Maybe if he's really healthy, he would maybe squeeze a second one out, but I think he'll probably only play one more year. So Howie was asked essentially like about drafting a successor, a successor on the offensive line, how important it is for that player to play and, you know, sitting a year and how that works. So here's what Howie had to say about that. How do you have to consider drafting successors to guys on your O line, like with Kelsey and Brandon Brooks and Beaters, obviously age is a factor, but, you know, how do you kind of decide when's the right time to do that? First, it's got to be based on the valuation of the player that you're picking. Because again, I think it goes back to the question that Tim asked. If you're forcing something, you're not really feeling the need anyway. So, you know, when we draft the CAM, I think that's the easiest example to talk about. You know, the conversation a little bit was, is this guy a Pro Bowl center? You know, do we think this guy can come in and play at an incredibly high level? And so that's even before you get into the question of, well, this guy may be back, he may be taking somebody in the second round who may not play for a year. And so it's so hard to find elite players at any position that you certainly wouldn't want to turn down the opportunity at an important position to get a player that you think has a chance to be a good starter, a Pro Bowl starter. So it starts there with the valuation of the player. And then having guys, you know, like Lane on this team and the elite level that he plays with, I think watching him and watching how he works, watching how he trains, watching how he dedicates his life to this game during the week, during the season, I mean, that's instrumental in understanding what it takes to be a great Pro. You know, and so there's so much value in watching those guys instead of hearing about those guys. You know, I said, when we talked about Kelsey, you know, at some point he was going to retire and then there'd be this legend of Jason Kelsey, but Cam got to see it and he got to see what it took to be a Pro Bowl level player. So there's value like that as long as the player in and of himself is worthy of the selection of wherever you're taking. So later on, Howie was kind of asked a similar question about ceiling versus quick impact, right? If you're going to draft someone, do you need them to play right away? And how do you balance the ceiling of that? And I thought his answer was also a very good one on this. And here's what Howie had to say. At times he views day one, day two, days on players who might not have a clear path to seeing the field a bunch early. How do you balance that part of it, like getting a high ceiling for a player with also maybe not maximizing a year or two of that for your contract? Again, I think it depends exactly where you're picking. I think when you're talking about the first round picks, you're hoping you're getting a two contract player that has Pro Bowl potential. And so you're looking at it over hopefully eight, nine, 10 year period. And then I think as you go through the draft, those expectations change just based on really the research on those picks. When you're in the fifth round, can you expect that you're going to get an eight, nine, 10 year player based on the resource? Maybe not. Obviously, that's what we're looking to do and that's what we're looking to hit on. And so I think those come into account based on the players who are available. And if there's a player that's available at a position that's perceived that we're strong at right now, and we think this is going to be an elite player in the NFL, we're going to take that player. So he uses Cam Jerrigans as an example there. And Cam's an interesting example to use, right? Because Cam played as a rookie, Cam played as guard, which is crazy to think in retrospect, we lived through a whole year of Cam Jerrigans at guard. It was pretty good at it, by the way. But Cam Jerrigans played guard as a rookie. So he's always been on the field since he was drafted with a high level asset, which is a second round pick. He's been on the field. So how he's point though is if you feel a player has Pro Bowl potential, all pro potential to be one of the best players in the league at his position, you draft him, right? And I think there's true to that. But the other truth to it is they want their first or second round pick to play. So when we look at guys like Monroe Freeling out of Georgia, Caleb Proctor out of out of Alabama, right? Like those guys, if they're drafted to be the next lane, have to find a way to get on the field this year. So as much as how he says, you're okay, if a player sits, if he's special, and I do believe that they think the succession plan and learning from that player is very important, right? You've seen them do it like Nolan learned from Brandon Graham, you know, Lane learned from Jason Peters, Zach Erz learned from Brent Selick, Dallas Goddard learned from Zach Erz. Like you can go down the line and Quinn Yon learned from Slay. They do, it is something they believe in, Cam learned from Kelsey. But it's also important when you're investing a high level asset into a pick that he is on the field quickly. So that is a tough question they'll have to figure out. And this is something that obviously they would never say on a public podium, but can Caleb Proctor play guard for a year? Is Caleb Proctor maybe not the best tackle, like if you compared Monroe Freeling and Caleb Proctor to each other, maybe they think Proctor can play multiple positions, but maybe they think Freeling is the better offensive tackle prospect. That's an interesting situation and decision to make because if you're picking somebody for a job that they will do for, you know, hopefully 10 years, right? Then you want the best person for that job. Do you pick somebody if for one year they'll do a different job and then a year from now they're switching positions? Like I think on surface it sounds silly to hire someone that way or to make a pick that way, but I do think it's something they'll have to think about. Like if they take an offensive lineman in the first round, that player will start like he will be ahead of Tyler Steen at guard. I'd be very surprised if he wasn't. So yeah, I think that looking at it, it's a tough decision that they will have to make for sure. Now, one thing Howie has definitely been clear about through these past few times we've talked to him is trying to move the expensive contracts from the offensive side of the ball to the defensive side of the ball. We've talked about this at length. You guys all know what's happening there. They want to get younger and cheaper on offense because they're becoming expensive on defense and they're frankly a little old and expensive on offense. So Howie was asked about drafting for offense versus defense and how you factor into Hey, we want to go offense, but maybe we're on the clock right here and our best player is defense. And here's what Howie had to say. How you've been honest about wanting to get younger and less expensive on the offensive side of the ball. How rigid are you going to be with that? And as a second part to that question, none of your last 11 picks in the first three rounds have been on defense. How much do you think 10 last 12, I think? How much did you think about previous draft classes and the resource allocation when you're on the clock because you can't dictate the board? Can't dictate the board. And I think that for us, that's something we have to be aware of. We have to understand that the best player who may be available, maybe a position that go into the draft we didn't necessarily want to take. And I've come to grips with that, probably expecting that, expect the worst hope for the best. And I think that at the end of the day, we're going to improve this football team. We're going to improve this football team over the course of three days next week. I'm excited about that. Will there be needs after the draft? Yeah, there probably will be. But I think that we'll be able to address those as well as we go forward here and just trying to match having the best possible three days that we can have and understanding that there's going to be other times that we're going to have to address other things here as we get into the 2026 season. So I think it is a true tough question. And I think it's one, just to be honest, where I'm not sure I completely agree with just taking the best player on the board. And I know that sounds silly to say, but if you look at how we, what an objective of the off season is, it's to find players on offense that can start going into the draft. Their objective is to find players on offense that can start at receiver potentially at tight end. If you know, Goddard's on the fifth year of a one year deal, right? At guard at tackle, like we just talked about, I get, if you find a stud player on defense, it helps the team in a positive way overall. But you can't tell me if your best player on the board is a cornerback that you are going to pass up a guard or a tackle or a tight end or a wide receiver that you perhaps have graded similarly. I understand if he has graded way better, but if there's a similarity, I do think you have to lean off offense. And it goes back to the kind of the age old question that always happens this time of year, which is, do you take the best player available or you take the biggest need? Because you can say take the best player available, but if that best player available at 23 is a quarterback, that's obviously an impactful decision to make. And we will talk about Jalen in a second. So if your objective of the off season is to get cheaper and younger on offense, then I think you have to use the draft as a place to go and try to make that happen. So I understand what Howie's saying. I do think it's a tricky question. I think Howie deserves a benefit out making these decisions. I think Howie does a good job collecting information. I think the more he's done this, the better he's gotten at it. He talked at one point in his press conference about how much missing draft picks hurt him, like the Miss First Round picks and he thinks about him every day. And I do think that's true. I think Howie has learned from mistakes and is operating at a very high level right now. But I also think you have to prioritize the offense in this side, in this draft, because otherwise you're going to miss out on making a big time objective of the off season and not using the resources from the draft to do so. All right. On the other side, Howie Roseman was asked about the Jalen Hertz articles that we talked about for so many days here. So on the other side, we'll get into that. But first, a word from our sponsors. from Wayfair. Or what if it's that material that makes that noise? It was a sofa, I swear. With Wayfair, there's no what it just style you love quality you can trust and furniture that actually fits your life. Visit Wayfair.com or download the Wayfair app. Let's check in on the Serda counting sheep. Why aren't we counting anymore? Well, the all new Serda Perfect Sleeper has the Q4 support system that helps relieve aches and back pain. We'll never get counted again. Uh, nope. Serda, we make the world's best mattress. I'm Spencer and I work at United Healthcare. So Spencer, why do you care? I care because my daughter Adeline has special needs. I am motivated by Adeline who inspires me every day. I am driven to help families like mine navigate the healthcare system. I'm so blessed to lead an amazing team at United Healthcare focusing on the member experience and making that better. I'm Spencer and I'm committed to care. Okay, so we were about 15-ish minutes, 20 maybe minutes into the press conference, and I'm sitting there and I'm thinking like, what have we not asked, right? We only get them so many times. What are maybe some obvious things we haven't been asked? And it hit me like a ton of bricks. Nobody asked about the Jalen report. Obviously, in case, and I say in the question to Howie, if you have been living under a rock, you remember that earlier this off season, right after the NFL annual meetings, less than a, so less than a month ago, there were two articles that came out back to back days, ESPM one day, the inquire the next day, uh, basically highlighting all the faults that the Eagles feel Jalen Hertz has. That's probably a simplistic way to put it, right? And we've talked about these articles at length. You might feel the way you feel. I can have my opinions. I wasn't having other different opinions, but the bottom line is the articles were written and they were written in a way that was critical of the franchise quarterback. So I asked Howie, I said, you know, what do you think of them? So here's what Howie had to say when asked about Jalen Hertz and the articles. Since the last time we talked, there's been, um, you know, a few articles and a lot of reporting about Jalen Hertz and how the organization might view them. I was wondering, since you don't live under a rock, if you saw those reports, you had any comment on where Jalen's standing with the team? Yeah, um, I have seen those reports. You know, Bob and our PRSF do a great job of showing us what we need to see. I would say that, um, we have some faults. One of them is not being directed and honest with our players and the conversations with our players. So for us, if we have any issue with any of our players, we talk to them directly. So, you know, from my perspective, from Nick's perspective, from Jeffrey's perspective, you know, we're not hiding behind anything, you know, we will talk to our players directly. And, you know, I think that it's unfair. It's unfair to have these articles written, but I understand it's also what sells at this point. So, yeah, I think it's unfortunate. So I got a lot of thoughts on his response. Um, and I, you know, interested what you think of it, but my first opinion of it was, ah, he didn't really, didn't really defend Jalen in that, right? Like he didn't come out and say, no, it's not true. Jalen doesn't want to go under center. No, it's not true. We're definitely not going to pay him. No, it's not true that he sometimes doesn't listen to coaches. No, it's not true that he can be standoffish to his teammates to paraphrase that part of that report or like, no, we don't call him little Jordan or whatever. Right? Like, no, we, we, we win games with him all the time. He's a Super Bowl MVP. The fact that this could be written is crazy. Right? So I thought it was interesting that how he came out and said that in, and did it really like go to bat for Jalen. So that was my initial take. It's like, wow, that was kind of a, a soft defensive Jalen there. Um, and he says at the end, it's unfortunate, which whatever. Right? And then I thought about a little more. And I think what, how he's saying here is kind of responding to the idea that kind of, kind of responding to the idea that maybe these articles were leaked by the Eagles to, to reach Jalen. Right? And I don't know who he could be responding to specifically there. Um, but WIP has talked about it. Spikes talked about it. Obviously, spike, what he says reaches the Eagles. Um, and I just think overall, like nationally, I haven't seen all the coverage, but a thought process after those articles came out was the Eagles are trying to reach Jalen to get him to see this. Right? If you listen to what Howie says, he says, you know, we have faults. One of our faults is, is not like talking to our players. Right? So he says there, we talk to our players. They know what they need to do to be better. So I feel like Howie is responding to this idea that they don't, that this thing was leaked by the Eagles. Right? And then he says the article is unfortunate and blah, blah, blah. So I think that there is truth to this. And I think a lot of the theories about them trying to reach Jalen through the media are interesting. I think it's a conversation worth having. And I don't think it's like some crazy theory, but I also think that the Eagles don't really benefit from this. I guess they benefit from it. If Jalen becomes a much better quarterback as a result, but I think mostly they don't benefit it, but benefit from it because now everyone nationally is kind of like trashing their franchise quarterback and saying he's not as good as people think. And this is what I said, blah, blah, blah. And I do believe that the Eagles tell their players what they need to be better at. That's one thing you always hear about Nick specifically, right? Is that Nick is harsh, harsh is maybe not fair, but Nick is very open to being critical of his players in meetings. So I don't think they're like hiding from Jalen what he needs to do or hiding these things. I think the truth of how they feel about Jalen came out through these articles. And I think Howie acknowledges that a little bit, right? Like we tell our players what the fault is. He didn't say in that answer, the faults that were listed in these articles are not true. And Howie acknowledges it like, I'm sure how he read every word of the article, I'm sure how he knew about the article before it even came out. I'm sure Nick came out, read the article. Now, also think it's a little interesting. When I asked the question, I did put it to Howie and Nick. And Nick was pretty quiet there in the way that he didn't answer at all. Maybe he felt how he answered it perfectly, whatever. But I do also think that there is, if I was up at a press conference and someone said to me, hey, I'll use, this is going to be a terrible analogy. But like let's say me and somewhere else were giving a press conference and they said, hey, like an article was written about your wife, Kristen, right? And the person next to me answered it. I would want to jump in and be like, and just so you know, like, I love Kristen, right? And so I think it's a little interesting that Nick didn't jump in and go, and I just want to defend Jalen here. And I want to just point this out. And I'd like to add on that, you know, Jalen's won a lot of games. And I always think that, and I do think Nick is a Jalen guy. So I think there's a little bit there of just Nick didn't talk much in the press conference. He didn't feel like jumping in. I think that's part of it. But I also think, you know, when they're up there, they are, they are representing the franchise. And the fact that he didn't jump in, I thought was a little noteworthy. So if I'm Jalen and I see that answer, I probably feel a little underwhelmed in the defense that they gave me. Now Jalen also probably knows everything that's in that article is how they feel. Because if how he says it, and I believe how he here, they tell him, they tell Jalen how they feel. It's not a secret how they feel about Jalen, right? But I do think if I'm Jalen, I'm probably underwhelmed by that answer. So yeah, just thought it was an interesting response. I don't think it does much to silence the idea that the Eagles know Jalen needs to have a big year, that the Eagles know Jalen needs to improve. And that if Jalen doesn't have an improved year and an improved player, that they will, I think, seriously consider moving on from him after the 2026 season. So that will do it for today's DailyPod. Got a pod coming out with me and James later on today. So we will talk much more in depth about everything, how he and Nick had to say, but I felt those were the important things you need to know. And maybe throughout the week, we'll go get into a little more of the secondary topics that they had to talk about. So go out, enjoy another sunny day. It's going to be an exciting few weeks here for the Eagles. Until next time, he's Elliott. I'm James. Talk to you guys later.