How Eagles’ GM Howie Roseman Turned a QB Bust Into a Juggernaut

When the Philadelphia Eagles take the field on Sunday there will be a quarterback on the other side of the field that by default, is responsible for the seemingly endless layers of talent, winning culture, and high character that the Birds will have on full display for more than 130 of the 195 countries on this planet to see.

Two years ago as the Eagles were preparing to play the Kansas City Chiefs, Birds’ General Manager Howie Roseman finally unburdened his chest of the obvious disregard he has for his former franchise “savior” in Kansas City’s back-up quarterback Carson Wentz.

History will say that the Wentz era in Philadelphia was a complete debacle,  but it certainly didn’t start out that way as Wentz, in just his second year was the favorite to take home the league MVP award, as he led the Eagles to an 11-2 record before blowing out his knee in a win over the Rams in week 13.

Best Ability is Availability

But things went downhill every year from there primarily because Wentz’ lack of durability ergo availability.  Because of Wentz’ inability to stay on the field Roseman felt the need to draft Jalen Hurts in the second round of the 2020 draft just a year after the Eagles and Wentz agreed to a four year extension worth $128 million.  

“We were making sure that we had depth there.” Roseman said during Super Bowl week back in 2022. “We had played, at that time, six playoff games and Carson had played a total of 12 snaps in those games.”

It still seemed like a waste of a high pick, considering the other needs the Birds had, and good money spent to protect an already huge investment. The Eagles sunk a boatload  of assets to draft Wentz No. 2 overall in 2016, and Wentz had been an MVP candidate in 2017.

But then Hurts arrived, calm, confident, and capable. He’d led his teams at Alabama and Oklahoma to three College Football Playoff appearances and reached the title game twice.

Ten Cent Head

Wentz had a million dollar arm but a 10 cent head.  He couldn’t handle being upstaged by his understudy Nick Foles in Super Bowl 52 and the specter of Hurts looming in the shadows was too much for Wentz to process and his insecurity played itself out on the field.  Wentz started the first 12 games of 2020, got benched at halftime of Game 12 against the Green Bay Packers, and never played another snap for the Eagles after tht. He finished with a 3-8-1 record that season and was statistically the worst quarterback in football that year.

Roseman traded Wentz to the Colts following the 2020 season and absorbed an NFL-record $33 million salary-cap hit for the 2021 season, and not only forged ahead with a player who didn’t have Wentz’s gifted arm talent but had a an unflappable mindset and a backbone made of titanium.

Wentz’ career path since has justified Howie’s decision to move on from Ginger Jesus.

The following year Wentz struggled as a leader with the Colts losing his last two games while only needing one win to qualify for the postseason a three point home loss to the Raiders and then a 26-11 loss in the season finale to a Jacksonville team that finished the year 3-14.  Colts’ owner Jim Irsay was so furious with Wentz he traded him to the Commanders that off season. There, Wentz played poorly, got injured (shocking), returned, but was benched for the season finale. He likely will not see a starting job in the NFL again.  He did get a start this season with the Chiefs in a meaningless season finale and completed 10 of 17 passes for just 98 yards in a 38-0 loss to the Broncos.

Hurts, meanwhile, will be starting in his second Super Bowl in the last three years this coming Sunday. 

“Our job is to bring in as many good players as possible,” Roseman said. “If you’re not better than a guy that we drafted, how are you going to be better than the best players in the league?”

But rebuilding a team from ashes in just two seasons takes more than just having a steady and capable quarterback at the helm.

Roseman traded Wentz to the Colts after that 4-11-1 season in 2020 for a 2021-third-round pick and a conditional 2022 second-rounder.  The 2022 conditional second-round pick became a first-rounder after Wentz played over 75% of the snaps that year. 

Homerun Howie

Roseman arguably pulled off his best-ever deal when trading Wentz because he parlayed the draft capital into a series of moves that have set the Eagles up to be a Super Bowl contending roster with an infrastructure built for longevity.

Being hyper aggressive and never known to take a pitch Roseman turned what he received from the Colts in the Wentz trade into this:

The Eagles received: DeVonta Smith, A.J. Brown, Kyron Johnson, Jalen Carter, Cooper DeJean, Jalyx Hunt, Jeremiah Trotter Jr, a 2025 fourth and fifth-round pick.

The Colts received: Carson Wentz, Matt Pryor, Alec Pierce, Jelani Woods, Bernhard Raimann, Andrew Ogletree

The Saints, who were also involved in the trade received: Chris Olave, Trevor Penning and Jordan Jackson.

The Eagles clearly won the deal, with Brown, Smith, and Carter being the centerpieces and Dejean playing lights out as a rookie corner.  The Colts moved on from Wentz after a year, banking on four draft picks from the 2022 draft to salvage that deal. 

The Saints gave up a lot of assets for three draft picks, ultimately giving up eight picks for two first-round picks and a sixth in 2022. Olave is a star, but Penning has been a disappointment. 

Roseman deserves a lot of credit for setting the Eagles up to win with all the moves he’s made, creating a core juggernaut of endless talent in Philadelphia that should set the Eagles up for Super Bowl contention for many years to come. 

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