Howie Roseman, executive vice president/general manager for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League, was picked by 5 NFL agents as the smartest in his league, The Athletic reported Monday (NFL agent survey: 30 reps rap on transactions, front offices and current events).
One agent said, “If I was gonna go into the lab and build a GM, it’s a guy that can deal with the media, a guy that knows personnel and a guy that knows money. Those are the three things. Howie Roseman is a guy who I think is very good with the media from what I can tell. I know that he knows the money game very well. And I’ve known him for 15-18 years and he’s worked incredibly hard to learn football and how to evaluate to the point now where he’s really good. I give him a lot of credit that he can handle all three parts of the job.”
Another agent suggested “he knows how to put teams together. And he’s working with a limited amount in terms of the cap. He knows how to maneuver and get players that he feels like will fit the scheme even if he doesn’t have to pay them top dollar. He’s very smart in terms of chess moves. I’m not a huge fan. I will say that, as well. But he knows what he’s doing in terms of putting things together.”
Roseman, who was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Marlboro Township, New Jersey, said in 2011, “When I was 9 or 10, people would ask what I wanted to be when I grew up and I told them I wanted to be the general manager of an NFL team.”
According to a 2013 KYW-TV, Roseman started pursuing his dream by sending letters to every NFL team while he was still in high school. “His persistence stepped up when he was an undergraduate at the University of Florida through his time at Fordham University School of Law. His job inquiries led him to connect with Mike Tannenbaum, then the pro personnel director of the New York Jets. Tannenbaum interviewed Roseman for a player personnel intern position in 1999, but he did not get the job.”
Roseman was hired by the Philadelphia Eagles as an intern to work on salary cap issues in 2000. In 2003 he was promoted to director of football administration and in 2006 was promoted to vice president of football administration. He then served as the vice president of player personnel for two years before being named the Eagles general manager on January 29, 2010, after Tom Heckert had been hired away by the Cleveland Browns.
In his first season as general manager, Roseman turned the Eagles’ roster into one of the youngest in the league, resulting in earning an NFC East division championship in 2010. In 2017, the Eagles Executive Vice President of Football Operations, now in his 19th season with the team, was named Executive of the Year by the Pro Football Writers of America for his role in constructing the franchise’s Super Bowl LII winning roster. In addition, Roseman was voted The Sporting News NFL Executive of the Year by fellow league executives.
