‘A True Process’

Closing in on a week until the 2025 NFL Draft kicks off, Eagles executive vice president/general manager Howie Roseman and head coach Nick Sirianni held their annual pre-draft press conference Tuesday, setting the table for what’s ahead.

Currently armed with eight selections — including four in the fifth round — the Eagles have the ammunition to maneuver up and down the draft board, if they choose.

While the defending Super Bowl champions have pressing needs at positions such as interior defensive line, safety and linebacker, you can expect team brass to maintain composure, opting for the “best player available” mentality while the board works itself out.

The Eagles have arguably the top general manager in all of sports — with aggressive tendencies being part of his DNA — so it’s reasonable to expect fireworks at some juncture.

Here are some of the notable takeaways from Roseman and Sirianni’s 28-minute availability:

GETTY IMAGES: The Eagles try not to let uncertain futures of players influence draft decisions.

Dallas Goedert’s Future

Sooner or later, the Eagles must make a decision on whether or not to proceed with tight end Dallas Goedert.

Goedert, 30, carries a sizeable 2025 charge and has been snake-bitten by injuries throughout his career. At every turn, it seems, Roseman and Sirianni’s comments suggest it’s not a matter of “if” but “when” there will be a parting of the ways.

“The way we look at the draft is it’s a separate entity to anything else that’s going on,” Roseman said. “We’ve got to make good decisions in the draft based on who the players are that are available in the draft. We can’t make up any positions and make them better than they’re not. We have to really have a true process.”

Roseman mentioned that he aims to provide enough depth in free agency to avoid situations like Goedert’s uncertaiun future impacting the draft decisions.

”Of course, we’re not a perfect team and there’s always going to be areas that we’re looking to improve, and honestly, that’s going to happen even the day after the draft,” he added. “We’re going to continue to have areas that when we look at our depth chart, we’ll go, ‘Man, it would be great to add a player here.’ The player acquisition period is a huge part of it, but it’s certainly not the end.”

While it’s true the Eagles have draft-proofed the roster to ensure they go into the draft absent of glaring needs, the moves made to sign free-agent tight ends Harrison Bryant and Kylen Granson suggest an upgrade in depth rather than bridge starter.

Goedert serves a critical role in the offense, being one of the three players the passing game runs through, and provides solid in-line blocking to spring the run game.

He’s also developed a strong rapport with Jalen Hurts, making it vital that the team adequately addresses the position in the draft if they move on from Goedert.

Penn State’s Tyler Warren and, presumably, Michigan’s Colston Loveland will be off the board before the Eagles are on the clock, but there are several enticing options in later rounds.

Perhaps the team stands pat and selects Mason Taylor at 32, though it could also trade down and land the LSU product within 10 or so picks later.

Miami’s Elijah Arroyo could be another option, slotting around where they’ll pick at 64. Regardless, this feels like a changing of the guard.

Trade up?

When it comes to aggression and taking calculated risks, few — if any — are better than Roseman at doing it.

If a move can be made to improve his football team, he’ll explore every option.

Roseman expanded on understanding the value of trades, and where that thought process stemmed from.

“Maybe that’s an example of being an outsider and looking at the league when I was studying it before I got into the league, and then coming into the league and understanding that there were opportunities to maybe get aggressive,”he said.

“With that also comes risk, right? All those moves don’t always work out and it’s probably more conservative to just stand pat and stay where you are, whether it’s with players on your team or during the draft and kind of see what comes to you.”

“When you trade up in a draft, you’ve got to deal with the consequences of who ends up being there with the slot you move out on. Sometimes you say, ‘Man, I could have sat there and got this player,’ and so you have to deal with that, too.”

Roseman seemingly left the door open to move up in the event the board falls a certain way, but this draft lacks for top-end talent. There isn’t a huge discrepancy in talent outside the top 18 or 20 picks.

Who might be a prospect Roseman would be willing to shake things up to secure?

Several options include EDGEs Mykel Williams (Georgia) or Donovan Ezeiruaku (Boston College), or defensive tackles Derrick Harmon (Oregon) or Walter Nolen (Ole Miss).

Loveland or safety Malaki Starks (Georgia) would be obvious choices, though each play positions the Eagles typically don’t value as premium. Perhaps the team breaks the mold this year.

Value of “30” visits

The Eagles, like most NFL teams, exercise the option to utilize 30 prospect visits.

Each team is allowed to bring in 30 prospects up until the April 16 cut-off date. This allows teams to bring a player into their building and do their diligence, observing everything from how these prospects interact with staff or conduct themselves.

It’s a long-standing process used to gather additional information during an extensive draft cycle that is all but an exact science.

Roseman said the Eagles “have changed a little bit in how we approach” the visits since he first became in charge of personnel.

“Like everything, it’s an information-gathering process for us. Nick and I are on the phone all the time talking to people that we know in college football, trying to get to know these guys as well as we can so we can make good decisions,” he said.

“So for us, it’s really just trying to fill in a lot of the blanks and the more we get to know people, the more that we expose them to not only us but people around us, the better we get a feel for them. So we think they’re incredibly valuable for us.”

Roseman noted other teams have “their own way of looking at things” – some teams don’t use any of their visits – and emphasized that visits are just a fraction of the entire scouting process.

“But, we like that process and we really like involving everyone in the building,” he said. “We have a really good building, we have really good people who have good instincts on people, good instincts in their field, and being able to utilize those people in our building, see how they operate with the people that they would have to be dealing with every day, we think is a valuable part of the process.”

The Eagles have reportedly brought in around 25 prospects, ranging from offensive tackles to cornerbacks.

All standard procedure, to be sure, as staffs are able to have the extended face time and observe a prospect in a setting that drastically differs from the hasty combine meetings.

It’s also far more personal than a virtual meeting. In the past, some of those visits have proven to be prophetic, as the Eagles appear to be a team that doesn’t care to waste those valuable slots.

But whether or not Roseman’s approach to the visits has changed from year’s past will reveal itself next week.

– Andrew DiCecco (@AndrewDiCecco) is a Staff Reporter/Content Producer for InsideTheBirds.com.