Howie Roseman joins Mike Florio to discuss the challenge of resetting at 0-0 after coming so close last season, explore initial reactions to the schedule, provide insight on trading up for Jalen Carter and more.

Video Transcript

MIKE FLORIO: Joining us now for a little conversation post-draft and whatever else comes up, our good friend, Howie Roseman, the PFT Executive of the Year. He's back in a studio with real-- is that real brick, or is that fake brick to you right?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: It's definitely a fake brick, but I think the con of the brick, the whole motif really works for this studio. I think it's a great job they did designing it. And, you know, speaking of that, I appreciate your donations to those charities. Great causes. Really cool of you to do that. Hopefully, we'll make it some annual tradition from someone from the Eagles, hopefully, winning some award that PFT is given.

MIKE FLORIO: Well, I think one of the charities was the Eagles Autism Foundation, and that's my first question. Have you explained to AJ Brown that he should not try to do Instagram Live while riding a bike, that he could get hit by a car?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Well, it's funny you say that because it reminds me of when like I'm trying to multitask while I'm, like, riding bikes with my kids, and I'm trying to, like, hit the garage opener at the same time, and got the phone. It's a hard thing to do, but we're just lucky AJ is good. We just saw him here a couple of minutes ago, and that's a guy we need. So no offseason Eagles Autism injuries. We came out of it scot free from those injuries, and we're ready to roll.

MIKE FLORIO: AJ Brown and some other players recently addressed the challenge of basically going back to 0 and 0 after getting so close to the top of the mountain and having it not work out. What's your concern as it relates to the organization, having a great year that ended so close and now having to start over again and climb all the way back up?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Well, I think you look at the history of teams who lost in the Super Bowl, and it's not a great read when you look at of what happens next year. And we know we've lost a lot of good players, a lot of good people from this organization over the last few months. We got to start from scratch. You know, it's a long way to go even before we get to the first game, let alone, before we could be talking about teams who are playing in meaningful games later in the season.

And so that's got to be the attitude and the energy that comes from everyone in this organization. I think it starts really well with Jeffrey and the expectations he puts on us and the process we have from him, and then it goes with Coach Sirianni. And so it's going to be very tough. We got a tough schedule. Obviously, our division is extremely competitive with three teams making the second round of the playoffs and later. And so for us, it's about day by day and doing the right things each day so that we can put ourselves in a good position when we start camp and then doing everything right from there.

MIKE FLORIO: And I look at your specific experience last year. You guys were great. But at times, maybe it was a little too easy, especially in the postseason between the blowout of the Giants, the-- don't raise your eyebrows. Let me finish-- the win over the 49ers when they lost their quarterback early. Do you hope this year maybe there's a little more adversity along the way to help the team be better prepared for facing, if you get there, a team that comes out of a meat grinder in the AFC with all these great teams that are vying for the chance to get to the Super Bowl?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Well, I would say, a lot of the adversity for us and our football team last year came through the competition that we had with each other and the standards that we set internally. And so I don't know that there was ever a time-- we had a two-game losing streak late in the year. I don't think there was ever a time that we felt like we had arrived, or that we weren't facing some sort of challenge weekly and the competition that we felt.

And so am I wishing adversity on us? No, I'm not wishing adversity on any of us, Mike. I don't wish adversity on you. But do I think in the normal course of the season that you're going to have adversity and you're going to have something that affects you that you're going to have to come out of? I think even last year, you saw that with this football team. And so I think that's a natural part of how long the season is, that you're going to have some down times and how you work through them. And I think a lot of that goes to the players and the coaches that you have and the people that you have who are overcoming those moments.

MIKE FLORIO: What was your first reaction when you saw your schedule?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: You know, it's always hard for me to read into the schedule when we're talking about May. So much changes on our football team, on the football teams around the league. When you think about a game that's in November and December, the dynamic changes so much through the course of the year. Now, I look at it a little bit more like, all right, where are we starting the season, those first couple of weeks? Because it's hard to go too much further than that. Almost like when you're building a team, Mike, like, it's hard if someone says, hey, what about three or four years from now? Three or four years a long time away.

You talk about week eight, week nine, we tend to start focusing on that when we have so far to go to even get to that point. It's hard to do.

MIKE FLORIO: When you see you're going to New England week one and they've already announced it's Tom Brady day, is that something you look at and say, couldn't we have gone there a different week?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I mean, anything, that's not positive for us. I wanted it happen to another team. There's no doubt about it. We're selfish about that. But I think that's one of the things you get when you're playing in New England week one, and, obviously, it's going to be a fired up crowd. Great test right off the bat for our football team.

MIKE FLORIO: And is it better to have your short week early like you do week two? Do you like that and get that out of the way? You can plan for that Thursday night game, or would you rather have it peppered in later in the year?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, again, I think there's pluses and minuses about it. When you have it later in the year, then you almost have like a little mini bye to get through it, but on the front end of that, you're kind of struggling with it. So, you know, I think for me, I'm a big what is guy, not what if. And so for me, it is what it is, and we'll deal with it and hopefully have a good process throughout.

MIKE FLORIO: Last schedule question. You've got the Giants sandwiched at the end of the season-- week 16, week 18. Do you like that, playing a team that close in time twice?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: You're going to hate these answers because I'm going to tell you it's-- for me, it is what it is. That's when we're doing it. To complain--

MIKE FLORIO: You either like it or you don't, though. You either like it or you don't.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: I don't think about it that way. Why can't you? I don't think about it that way. You know, I think about it like this is--

MIKE FLORIO: I don't believe you.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: --what the schedule is.

MIKE FLORIO: I think you don't like it.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: You're calling me-- You're calling me a liar? Is that what you're doing?

MIKE FLORIO: I'm not calling you a liar.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: That's early in the relationship to call me a liar.

MIKE FLORIO: No, no, listen, we have a relationship that goes back years. I think that you don't want to say anything that's going to create a soundbite. So you're very neutral.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: And I think you want me to create a soundbite, so you're the opposite way. So we're on opposite angles right here.

MIKE FLORIO: OK. Let's talk about something maybe you'll give me a soundbite on. Why did you trade up from 10 to nine to get Jalen Carter?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: I think when we looked at it, I think one of the things just going back, and, you know, me, personally, made a lot of mistakes here throughout the process in the draft process, and looking back, and sometimes it's about getting cute with picks and not really going in and getting the outcome that you desired, as opposed to kind of being a little bit more conservative. And so for us, where we were in the draft at that moment, we felt like that was the right thing to do to get Jalen here.

Obviously, we know the story and the background behind Jalen, and we're not-- we don't feel so confident in our abilities to know that we can make everything right, but we do feel like in this specific situation that we have a good environment. We do think Jalen loves football. He wants to be great. And so we're excited to get him here, and, obviously, work from there.

MIKE FLORIO: Help us understand what happens during those conversations. You're talking to the Bears about doing a flip-flop between nine and 10. Are they landed on thick, like, you better do this, or we got somebody else ready to come up to number nine, or you just kind of left to your own devices to guess whether or not that's what they have behind door number two?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I think you're left to your own devices in those situations, and you're putting yourself out there when-- I mean, there are situations where you're trading for nothing, right? I'm not saying it was in this situation necessarily, but you're doing it, and you have to be comfortable with the outcome either way. And so you have to be comfortable with the outcome of, hey, I traded fourth round pick and understanding that could be a good player for your team a year from now, but at the same situation, being OK with not getting the player and who is next.

And so that's not to say we wouldn't have been OK staying at 10 and taking another player, we just felt for us and our team and where we were that Jalen Carter was the right selection for us.

MIKE FLORIO: And then three spots after Carter at nine, the Lions take Jahmyr Gibbs at 12. Did you have any inkling that they were going to go running back because, obviously, that led to a chain of dominoes that brought D'Andre Swift back home to Philadelphia?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I don't know that-- it's hard to know exactly. You hear a lot of rumblings. You're trying to sift through it throughout the draft process and get a sense of it. I think what you felt, like, was there was a lot more love in the league for Gibbs that maybe was portrayed in the mock draft community. And so, obviously, everyone's looking for game-changing players, not necessarily sure that we knew it was going to be Detroit in that situation. And things happen in the draft where you go in different directions based on the players taken in front of you.

And so I think once that happened, obviously, we knew D'Andre. We know him for a long time. I mean, this is a Philly kid that we knew when he was in high school, as a high school player at Saint Joe's Prep. Followed him at Georgia. And then we saw him firsthand last year in the first game of the season what kind of player you could be. And so just trying to figure out a win-win situation for us and the Lions and hopefully it works out that way for both teams.

MIKE FLORIO: You're on a tight schedule today and I fully intend to respect it, but I got a couple more minutes. Before I let you go, what can you tell me about how the Jonathan Gannon tampering situation came to be? How did you find out about it?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I think for me, personally, obviously, extremely appreciative of JG and his contributions to our football team, helped us win the NFC. That was handled as we discussed before at the ownership level. And I think the more we look in the past, the less focus we are on the future. And so for me, that's over with. Wish him well in Arizona, and we're moving on.

MIKE FLORIO: Did you guys actually make a complaint, or was this the Cardinals raising their hands saying we realize we screwed up?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: I'm really appreciative of JG's contributions helping us win the NFC, and that was handled at the ownership level. And I think we need to move on. And the less we focus on the past the better we'll be in the future.

MIKE FLORIO: You're doing a good job reading--

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Did I say that line the same time twice? Because I don't think I did. Can you just--

MIKE FLORIO: You got it. You got it right. You're talking points are on point, but--

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Thank you.

MIKE FLORIO: Do you not realize that answers like that make people like me think there's a hell of a lot more to this than anyone is ever going to tell us, and it was a much bigger deal than anyone ever let it on to be? Don't you see that as a reasonable conclusion?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: If I was making a list of top five conspiracy theorists around the National Football League, you would be-- I don't know that you'd be one, I don't want to appoint you as one, but you would definitely be top five.

MIKE FLORIO: You're deflecting. You're deflecting. Should it not be taken as a surprise that the announcement was made minutes before round one began? Didn't you even chuckle at that? Good Lord, they're announcing this to the world literally minutes before the draft starts.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: It is possible that's when resolution came, right?

MIKE FLORIO: Well, I guess that's possible. Is that when? Is that when it came?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Again, I don't want to get into any details, but I'm saying there are answers for some of your conspiratorial-- is that the word-- conspiratorial theories.

MIKE FLORIO: Well, that's good. It's good that I got something out of you. I thought you were just going to read the talking points again. We have about 30 seconds. Do you want to read the talking points one more time?

HOWIE ROSEMAN: I feel like there's sarcasm involved in that.

MIKE FLORIO: All right, Howie, I'll let you go. Nice fake brick. I have fake brick up in my studio, but I am surrounded by real rock down here.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Well, I do have a question for you. Are any of those pots, are any of those glasses ever used, or are they just con props? You've got a lot of stuff going on that's just for show.

MIKE FLORIO: No, they're actual there for use, they just rarely get used. This is a working portion of the house, but the only work that's ever done is me sitting here talking to folks like you. And thank you.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: I picture-- I picture your family, that's like your bunker. If anything's coming bad, they're all going down to that bunker area right there.

MIKE FLORIO: You're absolutely right. There's a safe-- A giant safe walk in that's just around the corner that would be the place that we go to if there's ever a code red or code black or whatever code is for get the hell out and go save your ass.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: I personally over this kind of softer time during the summer, I would love to see a Mike Florio Cribs. I'd love to see that, like, with your cars through your house.

MIKE FLORIO: Come down.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: I would love that

MIKE FLORIO: Come down. It's not that far. Come down and we can talk about Jonathan Gannon.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: Thanks for having me, my man.

MIKE FLORIO: See ya.

HOWIE ROSEMAN: See ya.