Howie Roseman’s Masterclass: How Eagles Turned Draft Bust into Championship | 4 Downs
How Carson Wentz Built the Super Bowl Champion Eagles
Two of the most important figures in the Philadelphia Eagles’ stunning 40-22 Super Bowl blowout of the Kansas City Chiefs wear No. 11.
Yes, wide receiver A.J. Brown has become an indispensable part of the Eagles’ offense and Super Bowl MVP quarterback Jalen Hurts’ arsenal, and he caught three of his five targets on Super Sunday for 43 yards and a touchdown.
And, you’d be correct in saying that this 2024 Eagles roster, arguably the greatest assembled in franchise history, is the culmination of several offseason masterclasses from General Manager Howie Roseman.
But to assemble the game-changing talent that delivered the Lombardi Trophy to Philadelphia, you have to go back to another No. 11.
Carson Wentz.
Yes, that same Carson Wentz who was Patrick Mahomes’ backup quarterback Sunday evening. And, of course, the promised franchise savior turned pariah that Roseman and Co. selected No. 2 overall in the 2016 NFL Draft.
That’s because when Roseman dealt Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts shortly after the first COVID-19 vaccines were going into arms across this nation, the Eagles received a 2021 third-round pick and 2022 conditional first-round pick in return for the embattled quarterback who at the time was in desperate need of a change of scenery, and Philadelphia a course change.
Roseman and the Eagles wound up acquiring far more and far more important players than those two selections could have been earmarked for had they invested them in those two draft classes.
It was the third-round pick in the Wentz trade that was part of the package for Philadelphia to move up and select DeVonta Smith at No. 10 overall in the 2021 draft.
Smith caught four passes for 69 yards, including a 46-yard dagger of a touchdown that signaled it was time for NFL staff to start packing the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl LIX gear for its final destination in Mozambique. The 26-year-old who may have the best chemistry with Hurts of any player on the roster, is signed through the 2028 campaign, and has already amassed 4,011 yards and 27 career touchdowns.
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Roseman’s foresight and deal-making skills were also on display when he pulled off a deal with the New Orleans Saints, using the Colts’ first-round pick, Philadelphia’s own first-round pick, in exchange for the No. 18 pick in 2022, along with 2022 third- (No. 101) and seventh-round (No. 237) picks, and a 2023 first-rounder and a '24 second-rounder.
The Eagles wound up flipping the Saints’ first-round pick, which they acquired in exchange for the Colts’ first-round pick, to the Tennessee Titans in exchange for A.J. Brown in a shocking draft night blockbuster.
Brown’s impact on the Eagles has been well documented, and his signature moment will be immortalized as his pivotal touchdown in Philadelphia’s Super Bowl win.
If you think Roseman had squeezed all of the juice out of that Wentz trade stone, you’d be mistaken.
Armed with those additional picks acquired from the Saints, the Eagles moved up in the 2023 draft to select Jalen Carter and, in 2024, moved up the board to select Super Bowl hero Cooper DeJean in the second round.
Roseman deserves credit for maximizing a pair of draft picks well beyond their expected value. He also should be lauded for bucking long-standing trends across the NFL and making Saquon Barkley one of the highest-paid running backs in the sport, as the missing piece of the Eagles’ championship puzzle.
This Eagles Super Bowl team is the result of Roseman’s aggressiveness as well as the organization’s long-standing philosophy of dominance along both lines of scrimmages holding the key to championship success.
Just two years removed from their Super Bowl loss to Kansas City, the Eagles had eight different starters on defense Sunday night from the team that walked off the field amid red and gold confetti in Glendale, Ariz.
Roseman’s front office has experienced its own turnover, and the Eagles had two different coordinators on head coach Nick Sirianni’s staff from their prior trip to the Super Bowl.
Surviving and thriving under that much change is a rare feat in professional sports. To withstand it and win the Super Bowl is a testament to this organization’s ability to build sustained success, which is seldom seen or experienced across the NFL.
A.J. Brown doesn’t dump the Gatorade on Sirianni without Carson Wentz.
First Down: The Offseason’s Cautionary Tale
The circus folded up its tent and skipped town after the landlord told them to get lost.
The Jets actually posted the above photo across their social media platforms, though no confirmation if the “send” button was pressed with a straight face.
And with that, another woeful chapter in the long, disastrous history of the New York Jets comes to an end. If the other 31 teams have any self-restraint—not to mention working eyeballs—Aaron Rodgers’ career should, too.
Rodgers arrived in Florham Park, NJ with fanfare often reserved for the Pied Piper or Bruce Springsteen or Jon Bon Jovi, around those parts, but after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon on his fourth snap in a Jets uniform and then struggling through a miserable turned irrelevant 2024 campaign, it has become clear that instead, Rodgers is the Emperor With No Clothes.
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