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Rebuild is a word that doesn't exist in the Philadelphia Eagles market — at least according to Vice President and General Manager Howie Roseman.
“I feel like at the end of the day, there's a difference between rebuilding and retooling,” the Eagles executive said this week on the New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce.
No rebuild for Roseman
“And I think one of the best things that is painful at the time, is that when you have terrible years, like we had in 2012, with everything that happened with coach Reid and what we went through that year, or when we had the year during COVID with coach Pederson, and I feel terrible about how that happened. But when you bottom out like that, it actually allows you to flip it quicker.”
Roseman said he detests the term “rebuild,” and it shows. He's built two different Super Bowl teams during his tenure running the Eagles, and only had two tough seasons in the midst of it in 2012 (4-12) and 2020 (4-11).
“Just the word rebuilding, it kind of rubs me the wrong way,” Roseman continued. “Like, we're about competing, and so how do you say that to your players? How do you tell players that [your plan will take three years]? You can't build a culture like that because how do you turn it back on? How do you tell these great players it's going to take us two to three years, and then say now we're ready?”
Learning from mistakes
Roseman explained how he used draft capital and free agent signings to ensure the team bounces back after every disappointing campaign, learning from their mistakes in the span of a year rather than multiple seasons.
“It's one thing for teams to sink to the bottom of the league. It's another to have the management to swiftly pull themselves back out,” wrote Around the NFL's Kevin Patra on Friday. “That's why some of the same clubs have wallowed in the drudgery for generations.”
Most importantly, Roseman said the fans just won't give him the peace for a full-scale rebuild, always expecting to be competitive after a down year.
“Especially in our market, there is no rebuilding,” Eagles' Howie Roseman explained. “It's just as quickly as we can to be a championship team. And that's the goal.”