Howie and Doug spoke at the NFL Combine today.

There wasn’t a ton of salient information shared, and Howie obviously did not address questions about the status of specific players, but I transcribed some of the more interesting things for y’all:

Howie Roseman:

On the talent level in this year’s draft:

Roseman: From our perspective, you look at the running backs, great class of running backs here, really excited to see those guys work out. Maybe the tight end class is a little deeper while it’s lighter along the defensive line than it’s been in the last couple of years. Offensive line took a jump again this year. And the safety class is strong. Excited to get to know these guys here more this week.

On the future Nick Foles: 

Roseman: We’re trying to keep as many good players as possible and you’re talking about a Super Bowl MVP. He’s been unbelievably successful for us. He’s got great character and great leadership. That room is exactly what we’re looking for; we have a franchise quarterback, a Super Bowl MVP, and a young quarterback (Nate Sudfeld) that we’re excited about as well. That’s kind of how we’re looking at it as we enter the offseason. We’ve got a lot of areas we have to address and we’re getting started behind these other teams and we know in this league if we don’t get to work and get serious about it, we’re going to get our butt kicked.

On if he intends to keep Foles: 

Roseman: Our intention is to keep all of our good players.

On Nate Sudfeld: 

Roseman: Nate Sudfeld has a tremendous skill set, not only to be a #2 in this league obviously but we think he has potential to develop into a starter. He’s incredibly smart, athletic, good frame, can make all of the throws. All you have to do is ask some of the defensive players on our scout team. We’re excited about him, excited to see him in a full offseason in our program and then through training camp.

On avoiding players with red flags:

Roseman: (answer begins with talking about strength of locker room and how everyone got along) …there were a lot of questions about Jalen Mills when he came out in the draft. I think anyone who’s been around Jalen and seen his work ethic, his leadership, how much he cares and what he’s done, would say he’s erased all of those questions. That’s part of what our scouting staff, led by Joe Douglas, does, and it puts us in a position here to answer a lot of those questions.

On Jordan Hicks:

Roseman: We have tremendous confidence in Jordan. He’s doing a great job. He’s overcome these (injuries) before and come back really strong. He’s got the skill set to be able to do that.

On Corey Clement:

Roseman: Corey is an unbelievable story, local kid who came out of college with a lot of questions. People had a lot of questions about him and his character. When you talk about what he did this year with his work ethic and his attitude, another guy who answered all of those (questions). We had a little secret weapon with Corey. Dom (DiSandro), our VP of Security, and Corey go back a long way. We were able to ask Dom any questions we had. He assured us, like he does on a lot of things, that we were missing the boat on this with some of the information we had. He certainly proved us right. Joe Douglas and I tell Dom that he deserves a lot of credit for Corey.

 

Doug Pederson:

On Mike Groh and Duce Staley:

Pederson: Mike is, well, first of all, lemme say that I couldn’t have gone wrong with either he or Duce (for offensive coordinator). I talked to both of those guys at length, felt comfortable with Mike being in the coordinator position. He’s a sharp mind, he was involved in our passing game quite a bit and he’s a former quarterback, things of that nature. It just made it a nice fit for me. And Duce, as you know, is promoted to assistant head coach, which I think is well-respected. I respect the hell out of Duce and what he’s done and what he’s brought and how he’s managed that running back room for the last two years with some of the dynamic personalities in that room. He does an outstanding job in the run game with (offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland). Couldn’t have gone wrong with either of those guys and I feel blessed to have them both.

On what Staley’s new role entails:

Pederson: One of the things I want to do is grow his input in the game planning a little bit. He’s really involved in the run side of it. And if there’s a time he needs to speak to the team in that position, he can do that for me, and just continue the day-to-day management of that running back room. Not a lot is going to change but we’ll try to increase his role some.

On whether the strong culture inside the locker room makes it easier to bring in outsiders or guys with question marks:

Pederson: It does. We obviously have to pay attention to our city and our fans and the respect there. But the culture is established and our veteran players understand it. A great example is Jay Ajayi and bringing him in midseason like we did. The guys embraced him, loved on him, rallied around him and he was tremendous, pivotal in helping us win that championship. So with a culture like that, you can do that, maybe take a gamble here and there, and have a guy come into the organization that’s coming into a winning, championship organization. They seem to change their ways in a hurry. That’s empowering the rest of the team to sort of provide that nurturing.

 

Here’s the video: