Howie Roseman was on Angelo Cataldi’s show this morning.

Angelo kissed his ass for a little bit to start the interview, then jumped into a variety of topics, including:

Free agency

  • Malik Jackson is a “quick-twitch, explosive pass rusher.” Howie thinks he fits the scheme and can get off the ball, notes that he’s won a Super Bowl and fits in well next to Fletcher Cox and Tim Jernigan.
  • Jernigan can play, is an “A-Gap player and has a different skill-set than the other guys.” He’s excited about the group of defensive tackles. Vinny Curry brings familiarity to the defensive end position. Chris Long has been a great Eagle and integral part of the defense. They are going to “keep those conversations between us and him,” RE: whether or not Long returns for another season.
  • Need young guys like Josh Sweat and Daeshon Hall and Shareef Miller to push at end. Howie also loves Joe Ostman.

On DeSean Jackson:

Have you seen him run? Have you seen the games he’s played against us the last few years? Did everyone in Philadelphia not know where that ball was going on the first play of the game when we played in Tampa last year? And he ran right by us. And I think the thing about DeSean is that all of us need time to mature. And DeSean’s got a family. He’s got two kids. He has been here every day in the offseason program. He looks great; he’s excited about the opportunity. He knows is legacy is going to be defined in Philadelphia. Our conversations with him about what he wants his career to be remembered as, it’s as an Eagle. He embraces the city. He’s got an unbelievable skill set. He’s got chemistry in this building. We couldn’t be more excited to have him back.

More after the jump:

The draft

Angelo buttered Howie up with some statement about how NFL.com highly rated the Birds’ draft:

I think they’re giving us too much credit. When you have a player like (Andre) Dillard, who we had in the top ten in our draft room, you think everyone’s going to take him. So we kept trying to trade up and get him, and we were fortunate to make a trade with the Ravens to get in front of a team that, you know, we knew were looking at offensive linemen through the draft process. We were concerned that if we didn’t get in front of a bunch of these teams, we’d lose the player. But it wasn’t just one team. It’s not common to get a guy that we think is the best left tackle in the draft and to have him fall into the late teens and early twenties. We were trying to be aggressive because I look at it, like it’s the Packers. They went from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers. When you can do that at a position and have that continuity and just go from great player to great player, and really, for us in Philly, we’ve been spoiled. Because we went from Tra Thomas to Jason Peters. And now we have a chance to go from Jason Peters to our first-round pick. And obviously he’s got to get here, he’s got to work hard, he’s got to do all the right things to become the kind of player he can be. But that’s a position, that’s a special position, protecting your blind side of your quarterback.

Zach Brown at linebacker

Cataldi asserted that Roseman did not seem to value or put enough thought into the linebacker position (I agree), then asked about the Zach Brown signing:

Roseman: Rhea – when did Angelo turn into this analytics guy?

Cataldi: Well I try to do my homework but you’re making it harder to rip you.

Roseman: Look at this.

Cataldi: I love Zach Brown, too.

Roseman: (inaudible) 2019.. I am impressed.

Cataldi: Thank you, thank you. Trying to move up in times a little bit. What did you like about Zach Brown?

Roseman: When you play a guy twice a year, you’ve got a pretty good scouting report on him. You’ve got a good scouting report from obviously your personnel department but also your coaches. We’ve played against him. We know that when we were playing the Redskins that he was one of those guys that was making plays. And our fans know that when we played that team that this was a good player and we brought him in and we had a chance to visit with him. When you get guys who haven’t had an opportunity to win a lot, and he’s been in a couple places, and he played college football at North Carolina, he wants to win. His desire to have an opportunity to win is something you can feel. And when you get guys like that who have hunger, who have this kind of fire in their belly to try to win, those are guys that we love bringing in here man. We love having those guys who have this burning desire to compete and win. We just keep trying to bring in any many of those guys as we can to compete and build a fire within us. I don’t know, Angelo, we want to win so bad. We want to win so bad and to have guys that we feel that from, it’s exciting.

Carson Wentz

Two questions about Carson Wentz, first his injury history:

I’ve got to be honest: I have so much faith in Carson Wentz. Obviously, we put a lot on the line to draft him. He’s someone that we have total confidence in. You see him around the building every day and he’s out on the field. It’s just, this guy is going to be a great player for the Philadelphia Eagles for a long time. Sometimes you get biased. I’m sure you do it. I see my kids on the baseball field and sometimes I think they’re the best player, so you’re a little biased. You look through it with rose-colored glasses. But that’s how we roll here and we couldn’t be more excited about him and his future in Philadelphia. And he looks great. Continues to work hard. We’re excited about this season with him leading our team.

Confident enough to do a long-term deal with him?

Yeah, for us, this is something that we’re planning to do. And if the deal is right for us and the deal is right for Carson, we wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger on that. That’s just the amount of confidence that we have and we want to build this team knowing kind of what that piece is in place and go forward. I think it’s kind of funny because we have all these meetings around here with our personnel staff and our coaches and our front office, and we talk about ‘hey, we have to at some point go and maybe get more picks and get volume.’ And then we get these opportunities and I kind of get into a moment where I can’t deny the opportunity because we just want to win. But we’re balancing what we’re doing this year with also the opportunity of continuing to compete for the foreseeable future. We always want to be in the race but maybe I’ve got to stop with all my aggressiveness at some point.

Here’s the full audio of the interview: