Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman isn’t thinking primarily about drafting players who can help the Eagles win as rookies in 2026. Roseman is thinking about players who can help the Eagles win in 2027, 2028 and beyond.
Roseman said that a player who has the potential to develop into an All-Pro by Year 3 is more the type of player the Eagles want than a guy who might be a rookie starter but never take it to the next level.
“To come in and expect 21, 22 23-year-old players to be the best version of themselves, it’s probably a little naive,” Roseman said. “So just like all of us, these players need to be developed. We’ve got to figure out the things they are further along with and developed, and then have a lot of trust in our player development staff, our coaching staff, the people in this building to get the best out of them. Figure out what their strength is, what their weakness is, and work on those, get the best out of the player. A lot of time in the draft, we talk about, What could this player be in Year 3?”
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni echoed those comments.
“As these guys get in here, it’s our job to develop them as coaches,” Sirianni said. “Regardless of the player that we bring in, age — whatever it may be, free agent, draft pick, undrafted free agent, we’re going to work our butts off to help them become better football players.”
Eagles Clips
The Eagles had to make a major change on their coaching staff this offseason when offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland stepped down after 13 seasons with the team.
That term saw the Eagles draft and develop a number of star offensive linemen, which led to a question for General Manager Howie Roseman about how the team will be evaluating offensive linemen in this year’s draft. Roseman said that there would not be a significant shift in that process under new offensive line coach Chris Kuper.
“I probably would want to hold our cards close to the vest here so close to the draft, but I would say we have a system evaluating players that really fits and transcends scheme,” Roseman said at a Tuesday press conference. “The criteria and qualities that we’re looking for in offensive lineman — they fit not only this staff and our last staff, but the way that we’re thinking. Certainly there’s tweaks when you have a new scheme and new coaches come in, but I think that we got a good system that fits the players and the people that we’ve brought in and excited about continuing that.”
Right tackle Lane Johnson and left guard Landon Dickerson both took some time before committing to return for the 2026 season, but their consideration of retirement likely means the Eagles have considered a future without them and addressing that could be part of Roseman’s approach to this year’s draft.
Most of the questions at Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman’s Tuesday press conference were about next week’s draft, but one of the ones that veered away from that topic concerned quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Hurts was the topic of a recent ESPN.com story that was critical of his role in last season’s offensive struggles, discussion of issues with his leadership style and his willingness to make changes that could change the outlook on both fronts. On Tuesday, Roseman was asked about Hurts’s standing with the team and his answer included a reference to those who might have thought that the team had a hand in using the media to make a point to the quarterback.
“If we have any issue with any of our players, we talk to them directly,” Roseman said. “So, from my perspective, from [head coach Nick Sirianni’s] perspective, from [Eagles owner Jeffery Lurie’s] perspective, we’re not hiding behind anything. We talk to our players directly. 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. Yeah, I think it’s unfortunate.”
The ESPN.com article included a team source saying that Hurts is “as open as he’s ever been” to making changes and other reporting about the quarterback included similar sentiments about his acceptance of the overarching message. Whether that’s true and whether the grievances are fair or not, questions will linger around Hurts until the Eagles are on the field in the fall and able to show that they’ve taken steps to improve the offensive production from where it was in 2025.
Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman appears to be getting tired of giving the same answers to the same questions about whether he is preparing to trade wide receiver A.J. Brown.
Asked by a reporter today about the possibility that Brown will be traded, Roseman mocked the question as one that every reporter should know the answer to by now.
“What do you think the odds are that I’m answering this question any different than I answered anywhere else? Like, really? Do you think it’s like 50 percent? Do you think it’s 75 percent? AJ Brown is an Eagle,” Roseman said.
Roseman has consistently answered questions that way, noting that Brown “is” an Eagle — present tense — but not saying whether Brown will be an Eagle when the season starts.
There’s been widespread speculation that Brown will be traded after June 1, when the salary cap accounting changes and the Eagles can more easily make the trade while staying under the cap. That could still happen. But it’s not something Roseman is going to talk about now.
Patriots Executive Vice President of Player Personnel Eliot Wolf knows the questions about trading for Eagles receiver A.J. Brown are not going away, but he’s doing his best not to confirm or deny anything.
Asked today whether he’s keeping the door open to trading for Brown, Wolf said he is — but he’s also keeping the door open to adding any other player.
“As far as players on other teams, gonna keep the door open to anything that we think may improve our roster, whether that’s with the player you mentioned or other players,” Wolf said.
Speculation has swirled for months that the Eagles are looking to trade Brown, and that the Patriots are among the teams with interest in making a deal. Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel previously coached Brown in Tennessee for three seasons, and that strengthens the connection between the player and the team.
A trade likely wouldn’t happen until after June 1, when a deal becomes easier for the Eagles to navigate under the salary cap. Wolf will hear the questions about Brown at least until then.
Ole Miss wide receiver De’Zhaun Stribling has had a busy itinerary.
He has top-30 visits scheduled with the Vikings, Buccaneers, Bears and Eagles, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports.
Stribling played for three college programs in five seasons.
He played two seasons at Washington State and two seasons at Oklahoma State before moving to Oxford for his final college season. Stribling made 55 catches for 811 yards and six touchdowns last season after 50-catch seasons at each of his first two stops as well.
He ran a 4.36-second 40 at the NFL Scouting Combine.
The Eagles have made a trade involving a wide receiver, but it does not involve A.J. Brown.
According to multiple reports, they will send a 2026 fifth-round pick and 2027 sixth-round pick to the Packers for Dontayvion Wicks. Wicks has also agreed to a one-year, $12.5 million extension with his new team.
Wicks was a 2023 fifth-round pick, so he was headed into the final year of his rookie deal before the extension. He had 30 catches for 332 yards and two touchdowns last season and had 108 catches for 1,328 yards and 11 touchdowns over his three seasons in Green Bay.
Brown’s future with the Eagles has been cloudy all offseason and the move to add another wideout is unlikely to dim speculation that the team will move him ahead of the regular season. The cap implications for the move are less onerous for the Eagles if they wait until after June 1 to make such a deal.
DeVonta Smith, Hollywood Brown, Elijah Moore, Johnny Wilson, Darius Cooper, and Britain Covey are also on the receiver depth chart in Philadelphia.
Free agent offensive lineman Kenyon Green will work out for the Buccaneers on Thursday, Aaron Wilson of KPRC reports.
The Texans made Green a first-round pick in 2022.
Green, 25, started 14 games at left guard as a rookie but missed the 2023 season with a torn labrum in his shoulder. He started 12 games in 2024 before the Texans traded him to the Eagles in the 2025 offseason.
He spent time on the Eagles’ practice squad and later joined the Ravens’ practice squad but did not play last season.
Green has started 23 of 27 career games.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has a record of 57-25 in the regular season, and 6-4 in the playoffs. Against the Buccaneers, however, Hurts has gone 2-4.
Former Tampa Bay linebacker Lavonte David, appearing recently on The Arena, explained the Buccaneers’ approach to playing defense against the Eagles with Hurts at the helm.
David said they focused stopping the running game, and forcing Hurts and the Eagles to beat them in the passing game.
“Our whole game plan was just give him different looks,” David said. “It was one year when we beat him in the playoffs. We was playing straight cover zero. Cover one and cover zero made him want to beat us. . . . In 2023, the game prior to that, they had a great run game. They ran the ball over us . . . So our game plan [for the playoff game] was just, like, you know, we’re gonna make Jalen Hurts beat us, you know, we’re gonna keep him in the pocket, make him make his reads, make him understand what defense he’s seeing and stuff like that, and make him beat us.”
David reasoned that the Eagles didn’t ask Hurts to do much in the passing game. Some may say Hurts is the one who wanted to keep it simple. Still, the revolving door of offensive coordinators surely has been a factor.
Whatever the reasons for the inability of the Eagles to take advantage of Tampa Bay’s focus on stopping the run, the Eagles have struggled against the Buccaneers. And the Buccaneers, as David has explained it, have prioritized neutralizing the running game and daring the Eagles and Hurts to beat them through the air.
Tampa Bay surely isn’t the only team to play the Eagles that way. Few have managed to win 66.6 percent of their games against Philadelphia since Hurts became the starter. With the Eagles breaking in another new coordinator, and presumably installing a McVay-style attack, the franchise is at an inflection point that will require Hurts to do more.
Whether he hasn’t been asked to do more in the past or has resisted, this year the Eagles will be putting more on his plate. What he does with it will say plenty about whether the 27-year-old Hurts finishes the decade as the team’s starting quarterback.
Wednesday’s curiously timed report regarding the role of quarterback Jalen Hurts in the Eagles’ offensive dysfunction seemed to be a message. And the message reportedly has been received.
That’s the assessment from Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
McLane’s latest written assessment of the situation contains this quote from an unnamed Eagles source regarding Hurts: “He knows this is the last year of his guaranteed money. He knows the cat’s out on some of his baggage. You’ve got to be able to produce. You can’t be near the bottom of the league in passing two years in a row with the amount of talent that we have. It’s not acceptable. . . . And it’s everybody saying it — from [owner] Jeffrey [Lurie] on down. Everybody is on the same page.”
There’s much more in the latest episode of McLane’s Eagles podcast, unCovering the Birds, featuring a lengthy conversation with Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes. During their chat, it was mentioned that the Eagles use the media in an effort to get through to Hurts — which underscores the notion that the ESPN item didn’t happen spontaneously or without more fingerprints from the organization than a five-year-old eating Cheetos would leave on a glass tabletop.
Hurts is on notice. Coach Nick Sirianni, as Hayes explains, could be on notice, too. Five solid seasons including two Super Bowl berths and one Lombardi Trophy guarantees nothing.
What if last year’s home loss in the wild-card round is followed by a failure to make the playoffs? At the bare minimum, Sirianni would likely be on the hot seat in 2027. And there’s a chance he’d be trying to stave off a pink slip with a new quarterback.
It’s the nature of the NFL beast. Teams are either getting better, or they’re getting worse. For the teams that are getting worse, change is more inevitable than it is possible.
Look at the annual turnover throughout the NFL. Nearly one third of the entire league changed coaches during or after the 2025 season. The higher a team’s standards, the more critical it is to continue to satisfy them.
It is, as former Eagles defensive coordinator and now-former Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon acknowledged when questions about his job security first emerged, the life they have chosen. And they’ve chosen a life of expectations, stress, pressure, and consequences.
In Philly, the expectations remain sky high. The stress remains palpable. The pressure is increasing. The consequences are always lurking.
And the team’s top priority as the 2026 season approaches seems clear. The Eagles want the starting quarterback to understand that he isn’t immune from the possibility of being replaced.
