Howie Roseman got jeered at the Phillies game the other night, and wasn’t even there physically, so that tells you all you need to know about his current lack of popularity in town.

The Birds’ GM spoke with the media on Wednesday, flanked by Vice President of Player Personnel Andy Weidl and head coach Nick Sirianni. The pre-draft availability ran nearly 40 minutes, but you don’t have to listen to the entire thing. This is why the media exists, to parse and package this thing into something you can more easily digest.

I went through and pulled five of the most intriguing questions and answers from the session:

 

On criticism of recent drafts, and what they would say to the fans:

Roseman: “We’re proud of our group of scouts and our front office, who have contributed to our team. It hasn’t always been perfect. The draft is an inexact science. When you look at hit rates throughout the draft and where you’re picking, whether it’s in the first round and going down less,* and when you look at the rest of the league, it’s certainly an inexact science. We’re constantly striving to do better, but at the same time we’ve got a lot of good players on this team, who have been through those drafts and part of the draft process. This process, this year, with the coaches and the scouts has allowed us to sit down and talk about a lot of these things and figure out the best way to maximize our 11 picks in this draft. Obviously I’m looking forward to next year and already four picks in the first two rounds. That’s really exciting. We’re excited about the opportunity to add to this football team next week.”

(*I don’t really understand what he means by “going down less”)

Recent reports about picks not matching up with the scouting board, and whether they’ve tweaked that process:

Roseman: “When you talk about how you arrive at a final grade, I think you’re trying to (take into account) what the guys who have been on the road and done all the work have done. And also there’s the perspective of fit and vision from the coaching staff. At the end of the day, they’re on the field as the coaches, and the vision has to fit what they’re looking for at each position. For us, going through that last week, and being able to do that, and having these guys in person next week, which – we haven’t had the scouts in the building since last February – I think it’s been a good process and we’re excited about the conversations we’ve had. Difficult conversations and open dialogue about some of the disagreements and where the fit is. After that, we get back together and talk about where those guys go on our board. I think we’re all on the same page here and excited about the opportunity next week.”

(interestingly enough, Howie didn’t dispute the assertation that scouts and front office were not on same page last year… question was from T Mac)

Why did they trade back from six to 12?

Roseman: “The reason we traded back from six to 12 was because flexibility creates opportunity. For us, having an extra first-round pick, when you go back and look at things that are hard to acquire, that’s one of the hardest things to acquire, is a team’s first-round pick in the following year. What we really had to do is sit there and go ‘who are the 12 players in this draft we would really feel good about?’ Are there 12 players in this draft we feel really good about? I think that’s what we’re gonna do throughout this draft. If you move back it’s because you feel like you have a lot of guys who have the same value and you’d be happy getting one, and getting the extra volume from that (first round) pick. If you move up, it’s because your board drops off at that point. If you select, it’s because you feel like it’s the last player in that sort of range. Those were the things we were discussing, about moving back. When you move back early, you have to feel like you’re getting a premium, and we felt like we were getting a premium to do that.”

…

“When we get the call and we’re having the discussions with Miami, you have to figure out who they’re trading with to be able to answer the question of whether we’d move back. Once we found out it was San Francisco, we knew three quarterbacks would be off the board in the first three picks. So it allowed us to lock in even more on which guys would be available at 12. When we had our last media opportunity, we said we’re gonna evaluate every player, and nothing is off the table. ”

Is Jalen Hurts the starting QB? 

Sirianni: “To name any starters at this particular time, we’ve been working with these guys for two days. Right? My biggest thing is competition. We’ve talked a little bit about my core values and that’s my second core value. It’s this team’s second core value. Competition is a huge thing and we’re going to have competition at every position.”

On Jeffrey Lurie’s involvement with the draft:

Roseman: “Jeffrey’s involvement is the same as it’s always been. He’s there to make sure he’s looking through our process, and if he has any questions about why we’re doing things, we’re gonna go and have those discussions, about why the process looks the way it does, about our draft board just based on the descriptions the coaches and scouts are giving of a player. He’s taking notes on those. Those aren’t his evaluations. Those are based on the coaches and scouts and making sure they fit in terms of what he’s looking for. If we’re talking about a guy in the first round and we’re talking about him as a role player, he may stand up and say ‘wait a minute, is that really what we’re looking for in a first round pick?‘ He’s not saying ‘this is my opinion, this guy is a role player or not.’ In terms of his role in the draft room, 90% of the time the work is done. It’s all done and you’re just picking guys based on (the board). Now, you may get into a situation where you have a couple of guys and you’re trying to decided (between them) based on having the same grade. In terms of his role, again, he’s listening to conversations we’re having. And if he hears something that doesn’t make sense, he may say ‘hey, I remember in that meeting, Jonathan Gannon felt like this was a guy who didn’t fit his system.’ I’m making something up, but he may jump in like that. But he’s not saying ‘hey I have this guy higher, so let’s go and select that guy.'”

Other notes:

  • Nick Sirianni is a maniac. Guy loves football and got totally carried away multiple times in this press conference. He said that he’s been playing rock/paper/scissors and Jeopardy! with draft prospects to gauge their competitiveness.
  • Roseman said he’s already talking to teams about the possibility of moving up or moving back on draft night.
  • RE: not drafting Bama players, Howie said his wife is from Mobile, which I didn’t know. They’ve had Alabama guys on their draft board and they would be “excited to add players from the University of Alabama.”
  • Sirianni said the X receiver in his offense doesn’t have to have a specific body type. He talked about Dwayne Bowe and T.Y. Hilton playing that spot for him in the past.

Here’s the video: