Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman spoke to Jon Marks and Ike Reese Monday afternoon, answering questions about the NFL Draft and CONTROVERSIAL second round selection of quarterback Jalen Hurts.

He was back on 94 WIP this morning, with Angelo Cataldi throwing him a bunch of softballs, and before they even got into the Hurts stuff, Roseman said this about Jalen Reagor and trading up in the first round:

“Only one team was willing to move off their spot and it was ridiculous (the asking price) and it would have put a lot of things in jeopardy”

That’s an interesting quote, though it begs the question of what constitutes “ridiculous.” Is trading pick #53 “ridiculous?” Maybe, maybe not, and we’ll probably never find out.

Cataldi then asked Roseman about conversations he had with Carson Wentz, regarding the selection of a QB in the second round:

Well it’s not comfortable, and I get it. What helps the team the most at this moment, in his mind, is probably another player at another position, because we have a great player there (at quarterback). My job is different, and I don’t want to keep saying the things I’ve said, but I believe in this. When we make these kinds of decisions, I talk to people that I really trust and that have won world championships, and I say, ‘this is my thought process.’ I have to do everything I can to make sure Carson Wentz is standing on that podium and holding that trophy. When I say that, I see it. I see him doing it and I really believe it’s going to happen.

But I also have to make sure that this organization is protected and that our fans are protected. That his teammates are protected. I’ve seen it, we’ve seen it, and all of us have seen it – when you don’t have protection at that position, how miserable it can make all of us, and I don’t want to go through that. We have too many players on this team, our fans are too important, I don’t want to go through that. There’s nothing more important than making sure we’re able to roll (with a backup). That’s a hard decision and certainly it’s easier to make a different decision, we have to do the right thing sometimes and that’s me making sure we’re protected at that position.

Cataldi also brought up the idea of Roseman “outsmarting” himself and overthinking the move, asking for his response to those claims:

My response is that if you look at the history of taking a quarterback on the third day, if you look at the hit rate of quarterbacks on the third day vs. other positions, we’re always looking at combinations. Let’s use safety, the combination of Jalen and K’Von Wallace vs. safety and quarterback in the fourth round, we felt like, for us, that was a much better combination. We’re excited about this kid from Clemson, and I know there are a lot of expectations because of the position he plays and school he plays for, and nobody should be compared to that guy (Brian Dawkins).

So you try to think about those kinds of things. I don’t think we out-thought ourselves, this is always a priority to us, to fix the quarterback position to make sure we’re strong. I’m never going to say again what I said after the draft (the QB factory quote).

Those were the only two quotes worth transcribing, and it’s a lot of words to say “look, we needed a backup quarterback, we have concerns about Carson Wentz, and so we went for a cost-controlled guy on a rookie contract at #53 overall.”

It also signals a philosophical shift for the Eagles. If they don’t want to pay a veteran backup $5 to $8 million because Carson Wentz is now hitting the cap at $18/$34 million, then it makes sense. However, that’s the philosophy that brought Nick Foles back to Philadelphia and helped you win a Super Bowl. Question is whether Roseman and others think Foles’ success was an outlier, which seems to be the case.

Going this route, you now have Wentz on a big-money contract and Hurts backing him up on a rookie deal, but you could have used the #53 pick on a cost-controlled safety or linebacker and saved money in the same fashion, so the margins here really are not too significant. You’re just arranging slices of the pie in a different fashion to accommodate.

I think we all agree that the backup QB spot is incredibly important, and the Eagles have said it outright over the last three days. Dissenters like myself felt like they could have continued with the veteran/Foles route and used the 2nd round pick on a linebacker, safety, or receiver, which would not have caused a fan and media controversy in the process.

Full interview: