Howie Roseman took little time in letting the rest of the world know how he felt about Chip Kelly.
Before free agency even started, Roseman had sent Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell to the Miami Dolphins for a first round pick swap, moving up from 13 to 8 in April’s draft. Just like another team in this town, the Eagles went after the most incompetent front office they could find, and bullied them. They gave the Dolphins the most overpaid corner back in the league and Kiko Alonso, who also is not as good as advertised, in order to move up 5 spots in the draft and get out from under those two contracts. Usually, you have to give up a future first, a coupe of seconds, a third, an arm, and a leg in order to move into the top 10 of the NFL draft. Now they have a chance to grab a special player in this draft that can fill a need. For the Dolphins, this was the worst move by a front office member since Triple H had Roman Reigns win at Fastlane (my WWE fans know what I’m talking about). For Philadelphia, this was a very impressive move by Roseman.
Another trade that Roseman executed was sending DeMarco Murray to the Titans for a fourth round pick swap. I do not mind this move because the Eagles got out from under another bad contract. At the same time, I thought that Murray could have really helped the Eagles this season. It was clear that he was a terrible fit in Chip’s system, so I thought with a more conventional offense under Doug Pederson , Murray could be return to a pro bowl level. So Roseman has gotten rid of Murray, Alonso, and Maxwell. All of whom were brought in by Chip Kelly. The only “Chip Kelly guy” they are keeping is Sam Bradford , and that is because they have too.
The Eagles were also active in free agency, like they have been in most years. All of the moves were very safe to me. They signed safety Rodney McLeod from the St. Louis Rams, who was rated as a top 10 safety this past year by Pro Football Focus. I do not know too much about McLeod, I just know he did this to Emmanuel Sanders . They also signed guard Brandon Brooks which I am in favor of since the Eagles offensive line was all kinds of horrid a season ago.
The one move by Roseman that I had a serious issue with was the Chase Daniel signing. Now, I have no problem with Chase Daniel. He is a backup quarterback and have no problem with the idea of him being a backup. I do have a problem with him making a total of $36 million dollars over three years if he plays out his entire contract. I will just never get why you would waste that much money on a backup quarterback. This move just made no sense.
Overall, Howie Roseman did a very nice job in his first season (back) on the job as primary decision maker over personnel. He got someone to take Byron Maxwell which I did not think was possible and moved up to the 8th spot in the draft without giving up anything. They also acquired depth along the offensive line and secondary. This is a nice start to the off-season for the Eagles.