What Howie Roseman, Nick Sirianni said/meant about Haason Reddick, Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, new coaches & more

INDIANAPOLIS — After one month of public silence, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman and coach Nick Sirianni met with reporters on Tuesday at the combine. Since they last fielded questions, the Eagles filled their coaching staff, granted one of their best players permission to seek a trade, started laying the groundwork for offseason moves, and stayed mum about the February chatter around how their season ended and some of their high-profile players.

Look for more from Roseman and Sirianni in extended thoughts, notes, and buzz from the combine on allphly.com at the end of the week. But to get you up to speed on the pertinent topics, here’s what Roseman and Sirianni said and what they meant…

…about Haason Reddick

Howie Roseman did not use the podium to publicly negotiate with Haason Reddick, although he also did not commit to the Eagles’ best pass rusher playing for Philadelphia next season. 

“Love having Haason. I think that anything you’re trying to do, you’re trying to blend obviously what you’re trying to do this year and how you’re going to look in the future,” Roseman said. “I think that’s the hardest job. Certainly, don’t want to get into any specifics with any conversations with players, but (I) have tremendous respect for the player and the person.”

The Eagles granted Reddick permission to seek a trade. This is essentially their way of letting Reddick gauge his market value, and if it’s higher than the Eagles are willing to go, then they would try to get meaningful trade compensation back. There’s a scenario in which Reddick returns — see Darius Slay last year — but Roseman would not even commit to a “best-case scenario.”

“I think honest communication is the best-case scenario with all your players and understanding where you stand and not being afraid to have open doors of communication and hearing where they feel and where we feel,” Roseman said.

The Eagles would need to adjust their approach at pass rusher accordingly, and Roseman acknowledged as much. That’s why gauging the market for Reddick is imperative — there’s a domino effect that would result in his departure. Even Sirianni admitted he does not know what will happen.

“Obviously, we’ll see how that plays out. I don’t know how that will play out,” Sirianni said. “Haason’s been awesome for us these last two years. Big reason why we’ve been to the playoffs the last two years is the contributions of Haason. He’s played really, really outstanding football.  We’ll see how that plays out, and hopefully he’s an Eagle.”

…about Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox

Kelce and Cox have a decision to make about whether they’ll return or retire, and Roseman suggested those will be the only options. They won’t play anywhere else.

“Obviously, those guys are unbelievable players, unbelievable people, and they deserve the right to decide what’s best for them,” Roseman said. “We’ll wait and give them whatever time and space they need to make the right decisions. I think the important thing from our perspective is you never want to see them wearing different colors. I think for us, no matter when that is, if they want the opportunity to come back, we’d want to have the opportunity to bring them back.”

The latter portion of that is mildly surprising with Cox, because he’s flirted with playing elsewhere before and the Eagles are committed to their young defensive tackles. So Roseman being as emphatic that it’s Philly-or-retirement stood out. My guess for both is retirement.

…about Jalen Hurts

There’s been much discussion about whether Hurts must be more outgoing with teammates or alter his leadership style, but Sirianni was not participating in that discussion. He defended Hurts’ personality, which Hurts said after the season was praised when the Eagles were winning and scrutinized when losing.

“There’s not a book that is written on ‘this is how you lead.’ People lead in different ways,” Siriainni said. “One thing I learned early about in leadership is that you have to be yourself, because if you lead and you’re trying to be somebody you’re not when you lead, that gets seen through. …Everybody has to lead their way, and Jalen has special qualities that people will follow, and people will want to follow. And he’s gotta do what he needs to do to lead in that way. Some people’s leadership style is loud and aggressive; some people’s leadership style is by example; and some it’s a mixture of both. 

“So, Jalen needs to lead how he needs to lead, right? And A.J. (Brown) needs to lead how he needs to lead. Whoever it is. (Darius) Slay’s got to lead how he needs to lead. Because that’s leadership, right, is being who you are and leading by example. At the end of the day, if you’re leading by example, that’s a great style of leadership. So, Jalen needs to lead how he needs to lead, and I think he’s done a great job of doing so. And he’ll get, just like he has done in other things, he’ll get better at that part of his game.”

This is the type of answer I expected Sirianni to deliver, and he was not going to be critical of his quarterback. I agree with Hurts — his personality is interpreted differently based upon results. However, part of being the thermostat and not the thermometer, as he would frame it, is setting the temperature for those around him. That can happen in different ways, and people can act differently at 30 than at 25. But the Eagles invested in Hurts the person as much as Hurts the player last year, and I don’t expect them to question that investment. It’s reasonable to expect a person to evolve and grow with more experience, though.

(And one correction for Sirianni: There are plenty of books about how to lead. I assume no book for only one way to lead.)

…about A.J. Brown

Similar to his defense of Hurts, Sirianni used Tuesday to stump for A.J. Brown. The criticism of Brown seemed to be more media-generated than anything from the building — the Eagles are not trading Brown, and he’s said wants to be in Philadelphia  — but Sirianni must monitor Brown’s feelings whenever there’s public scrutiny.

“A.J…not only is he one of the best players I’ve ever been around, he’s also one of the best leaders, and he’s going to do anything he can do to stick up for his teammates,” Sirianni said. “That’s why he wears a ‘C’ on his chest.

“Just a great teammate, a great person. In my opinion, the best receiver that’s been in Philadelphia, and I grew up a Terrell Owens fan…I was a huge Mike Quick fan, and it’s pretty cool that I get to do some interviews with him every once in a while. But you look at the stats and you look at what A.J.’s done in a two-year span, he’s had the two most productive years ever as an Eagles wide receiver. Man, like when you have one of your best players being also one of your best leaders, that’s special.”

Sirianni should be ensuring Brown is happy. Brown is the Eagles’ best player. As far as the charge that Sirianni treats some players differently than others, he would admit as much. It’s part of how he leads.

“That’s leadership also is figuring out what buttons to press with different guys,” Sirianni said. “You don’t treat everybody the exact same. The standard is what it is, and you hold everybody to that standard, but you don’t treat everybody exactly the same of how you get to that standard, how you correct that standard, or how you praise that standard. Everybody’s a little bit different. I think A.J. understands that.”

…about playing young players

Roseman made clear that the Eagles must let some of their young players take the field after two seasons of slow-playing their rookies’ entries into the lineup — sometimes for replacement-level players, such as Sydney Brown behind Justin Evans or Tyler Steen behind Sua Opeta. This even applies to Nolan Smith’s limited snaps.

“I think when we look back, and Coach and I talk about it a little bit, it’s okay to play some young players,” Roseman said. “It’s okay for them to get experience and kind of see what you have. Based on where some of our guys were, they had the ability to sit back and learn a little bit because of the situations that we were in. I think going forward it’s going to be harder to do that. Obviously just as you look at our team and who is making a lot of money, and we had a little bit of extra picks over the last couple years. So, I think that for us to play our young players, to develop them, I think that’s something that Coach and I have talked about to not be afraid of. That’s why you draft them. That’s why you sign them.

  “So, you have that, and you’ll have a depth chart where they’ll be a little bit uncomfortable about this guy necessarily hasn’t shown it, but we believe in this player. I think that will be an area for us to kind of maybe grow on, and I don’t want to say improve because we have good players at those positions, but it’s exciting, I think, in a lot of ways.”

The one problem here? Sirianni decides who he wants to play. And Sirianni continued to insist that the player who gives them the best chance to win will play. Maybe that’s the coach in him saying it, and presumably, that’s what the conversations with Roseman were about. But the Eagles need to have a better idea of some of their picks in the first three rounds in recent seasons. Otherwise, development and evaluation is stunted.

…about Kellen Moore

The Eagles hired Moore as the offensive coordinator to invigorate a stale offense, but Sirianni insisted Moore is here to build an offense as much as he is in Philadelphia to bring an offense. This distinction is important, because the Eagles maintained staff continuity on offense so they could meld Moore’s ideas with the way they played the past two years.

“As far as us kind of creating our Philadelphia Eagles offense going into 2024, that will be thoughts that we’ve done in the past really well,” Sirianni said. “That will be thoughts that Kellen’s done in the past really well. So, we look forward to building that together. …We brought in Doug to be the quarterback coach, and then we…stayed pat in a lot of different areas as well with (passing game coordinator/associate head coach) Kevin (Patullo) and with (tight ends Coach) Jason (Michael) and (run game coordinator/offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland) Stout. Obviously, we know those are really good coaches. I have a lot of faith in them.

“And it’s meshing of two systems, to grow in both systems so we can put the best product on the field. So, that’s why that’s kind of stayed similar is because we’re going to be doing a lot of different — we’re going to be doing different things, but also we’re going to be doing things that we’ve been successful at as well. Obviously, those guys that I just mentioned on offense have been here through the success and look forward to growing from that.”

You can add Aaron Moorehead to the group, too. This will be important to watch. The Eagles clearly didn’t want to shake up their offensive coaching staff, and Moore can bring creativity that the offense was lacking. But I also don’t think you hire Moore to call somebody else’s offense, so the big question during the summer will be how the schemes are blended.

“He’s been highly successful, and we’ve been highly successful, and I think that I’m really looking forward to meshing what he’s done really well together with the things that we’ve done really well,” Sirianni said. “I think it’s going to be a really good match, and Kellen’s track record speaks for itself.”

…about Vic Fangio

On defense, the Eagles overturned almost the entire staff. This was intentional. Fangio is in charge, and Sirianni wanted to give Fangio his own assistants.

“I think it’s important that Vic had some of his guys that he’s worked with before and that know his system and know the things that he requires,” Sirianni said. “There’s a reason why there’s some change there on the defensive side, because he needed some guys that were familiar with that, which Sean (Desai) didn’t have last year. So, I thought that was important.”

Fangio’s experience was a clear draw in hiring him. The Eagles have gone with younger coordinators during the past three years. The objective with Fangio was to get someone who doesn’t require on-the-job training. Sirianni said that Fangio discussed when the combine was held in New Orleans, which shows how long Sirianni has been coaching.

“As well as we’ve done on defense in the past, dating back to  Jonathan (Gannon), Jonathan was a first-year coordinator and I was a first-year head coach.  Sean [Desai] was early on in his — I think it was his second year as a coordinator. So, I’m really looking forward to that experience that Vic will provide. Vic’s a great play caller. Again, like I said, he’s done it for a very long time at a high level. I’m really excited for that experience we have.”

When Roseman was asked if Fangio would have increased influence in personnel, Roseman joked, “I’m sure he thinks that!” 

“I think, when we talk about how we build a team overall, obviously that’s something that’s important to us,” Roseman said, “but by the same token, knowing what’s important to the coordinator and the system so that it can be successful is important as well.”