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Flying beer cans. The NFC East. Super Bowl opponents. Nothing is stopping Howie Roseman
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- Flying beer cans. The NFC East. Super Bowl opponents. Nothing is stopping Howie Roseman
Editor's note: This story is a part of a series by USA TODAY Sports called Project: June . We will publish at least one NFL-themed story every day throughout the month because fans know the league truly never sleeps.
Howie Roseman was not about to let a flying beer can spoil the moment. Never mind the blood gushing from the semi-circle gash on his forehead. There was a Super Bowl championship to celebrate.
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Besides, Roseman, 50, has absorbed more blows than that, at least figuratively, over the years in his love/hate role as the Philadelphia Eagles general manager. So, after the projectile connected while Roseman and his suddenly stunned family cruised on a float during the downtown parade in mid-February, it seemed natural that the fearless GM was determined to shake it off.
Hey, it's tradition for champs to be showered in confetti. In Philly, they hurl beer cans, too.
"I saw one of my friends from college. He said, 'I can understand why you dropped it,'" Roseman reflected during a recent interview with USA TODAY Sports.
"I didn't drop anything, bro. And it was with enough velocity and force that it put me down. My family, they got scared s---less. I was like, 'Get my trainers, let's clean it up and keep going,' and I'll deal with it after."
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A short time later, Roseman turned it into a message for fans during his speech at the championship rally. As he aptly put it, "I will bleed for this city!"
The episode was not only classic Philly. It was also quite a metaphor for the resilience that Roseman has exhibited in climbing to the top of his profession.
Roseman has spent his entire 25-year career in the NFL with the Eagles, but this is actually his second stanza as GM after he was stripped of roster-building power (a long time ago) during the Chip Kelly era in the mid-2010s.
And look at him now. In assembling teams that reached the Super Bowl three times in seven years, twice claiming the crown, a strong argument can be made that Roseman – a wheeler-dealer grounded in the old-school principle that winning is built in the trenches -- is the NFL's best GM.
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After all, the team that blew out the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59 in February contained just 21 players (and only 10 starters) from the 2022 team that narrowly lost to KC three years earlier. Last year, Roseman's free agent haul included 2,000-yard rusher Saquon Barkley; Zack Baun, a former New Orleans Saints special teamer who blossomed into first-team All-Pro linebacker; and since-departed right guard Mekhi Becton, a New York Jets bust who switched from tackle. He traded for since-departed safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who led the team in interceptions; traded up in the second round to draft cornerback Cooper DeJean and made Quinyon Mitchell the franchise's first first-round cornerback since 2002.
"He doesn't get enough credit for re-tooling," Chiefs coach Andy Reid told USA TODAY Sports. "That is so hard to do."
Reid sensed that Roseman was something special way back when. After Joe Banner, then the Eagles president, hired Roseman for his first job as a front office intern in 2000, Reid was the coach with GM power who ultimately found a role for him in the personnel department as his era evolved with the Eagles.
"Even when he was working with Joe, you could see that he was passionate about the personnel side of it," Reid said. "So, I brought him over to the personnel side and he jumped on, dug in and was willing to do anything and everything. I thought that was a positive."
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In 2010, Roseman became the NFL's youngest GM at 34. But in 2015, Kelly (for whom Roseman led the search to bring to Philadelphia in 2013) was given the GM power. It was a huge test of his resilience. Roseman told his wife, Mindy, that it was likely that they would move on.
"It's the nature of the business," Roseman reflected. "I was resigned to that fact, but also at that time I realized that I wasn't being true to the vision that I thought was important to build a football team. And that if I ever got the opportunity again, I wasn't going to have any regrets."
Brandon Graham remembers. The longtime defensive end, who announced his retirement in March, was Roseman's first draft pick.
"That had to be a dark time," Graham told USA TODAY Sports. "I know inside, he couldn't wait to prove himself when he got another shot. That's what it's all about. It built that chip on his shoulder.
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"And kudos to Mr. Lurie for keeping an ace in the hole."
Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman (center) holds a cigar high in the air during the team's Super Bowl championship parade on Friday February 14, 2025.
Roseman looks back at the manner in which Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie handled his case as a "a gift." Lurie made Roseman an executive vice president, then gave him the freedom to find ways to grow personally and professionally.
"I wanted to do what a lot of fired coaches do, which is basically improve on myself," Roseman recalled. "He said, 'I'll support it; just bring everything back.' "
Roseman met with leaders of Fortune 500 companies. He picked the brains of executives and coaches of European soccer clubs, NBA teams and Major League Baseball teams. The connective theme was team building. He said insight gained from San Antonio Spurs president R.C. Buford – "Maybe the best executive of all time," Roseman said – was pivotal.
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"It was really self-exploration," Roseman said. "And I certainly didn't count on coming back as Eagles GM in a year."
Yet that's exactly what happened. Kelly was fired before finishing his third season and Roseman regained the GM job.
A rising star coach. Will the NFL let him shine?
"In a way, Jeff and the Eagles were lucky," Banner told USA TODAY Sports.
Sure, there have been high-profile hits and misses during both GM stints. Yet Banner's early impressions of Roseman – a fearless risk-taker with supreme confidence who reminded him of himself – have stood up over time.
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"He took a lot of heat for a long time," Banner said.
Roseman knows. In some ways, the heat can fortify the resilience. Yet he is also quick to point out that there have been more hits than misses. And the criticism that came with the second-round selection of Jalen Hurts in 2020, followed by the stunning trade of Carson Wentz in 2021, turned into an NFL version of a rose garden.
While Hurts has developed into a star, the Wentz deal parlayed into draft capital that resulted in receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, and D-tackles Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis. In other words, heat can be so sweet.
After preventing the Chiefs from achieving an historic three-peat, the Eagles are favored by oddsmakers to repeat as Super Bowl champs. Of course, now is not the time to plot any victory lap – or even to ponder look-out moments at a championship parade.
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"This is such a humbling business," Roseman said. "We've had our struggles as well. So, you've just got to keep moving forward and figuring out the best ways to improve your team."
Which, given the track record, keeps the Eagles in very good hands.
Follow Jarrett Bell on social media: X: @Jarrett Bell
Bluesky: jarrettbell.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nothing can stop Eagles GM Howie Roseman. Not even flying beer cans
