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10 Thoughts on the Eagles and Howie Roseman, Who Addressed Every Position of Need on Draft Weekend
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The Philadelphia Eagles went into the 2026 NFL Draft needing an EDGE rusher, a tight end, offensive line depth, and a receiver.
They came out of the NFL Draft with an EDGE rusher, a tight end, offensive line depth, and a receiver.
At a rudimentary level, it’s hard to find fault in Howie Roseman’s performance. The receiver pursuit is based on what is now the worst-kept secret in the world – the pending departure of A.J. Brown, who won’t be a Bird after June 1st, barring some sort of unforeseen circumstance. If the additions of Hollywood Brown, Elijah Moore, and Dontayvion Wicks didn’t make your spider sense tingle before, the antennae are vertical following the Thursday night trade up for Southern Cal’s Makai Lemon.
Dust now settled, the response to Roseman’s weekend haul is mostly positive. You get the sense that the majority of Eagles fans still strongly support the GM, who isn’t going to bat 1.000 every season, but remains one of the top player-personnel executives in the NFL.
Let’s look at his weekend:
1) 1st round, #20 overall: Makai Lemon – USC receiver
The Birds traded up for Lemon, which cost them a couple of fourth round picks to the division rival Cowboys. Pittsburgh, as a result, pivoted to select a project tackle and then went for a receiver in the second round, taking Alabama’s Germie Bernard at #47 overall. They had to react after the Eagles jumped the board.
It continues a pattern of Howie being aggressive in the first round. When he sees a guy he wants, he goes and gets him, and it’s worked out far more often than it’s failed. Case in point – the success of Jordan Davis, DeVonta Smith, Jalen Carter, and Carson Wentz, who looked incredible before the 2017 injury. There are certainly flops, like Andre Dillard, but they are few and far between.
The other thing to consider with Lemon is all of this talk about him being a slot receiver. Did he line up in the slot more than anywhere else in college? Yes. But you know who else did? Justin Jefferson, and look at how much that ended up mattering.
2) 2nd round, #54 overall: Eli Stowers – Vandy tight end
The Birds needs to find the next Chad Lewis, Brent Celek, Zach Ertz, Dallas Goedert, i.e. franchise tight ends who will be here for a long time, catch a lot of passes, and do a lot of run blocking. Goedert’s contract situation has been unsettled now two years in a row coming off the postseason, but he had a career year in 2025 and remained healthy. He was probably the best player on the offense in 2025, and that’s after taking a pay cut to return.
Best case scenario is the Birds settle in with a nice 1/2 punch at the tight end spot, and/or Sean Mannion finds a way to run effective 12 or 13 personnel with his veteran and rookie out there together (along with one of Johnny Mundt or Grant Calcaterra). Then we’ve got a passing of the torch after a transitional year.
3) traded for Jonathan Greenard – Vikings EDGE
The chatter around Greenard seems to be less about the player himself and more about what the Eagles gave up to get him, which was a third round draft pick this year and a third round pick next year. They handed the 28-year-old a four-year, $100 million extension after completing the deal, which includes $50 million guaranteed.
Obviously the Eagles really believe in this guy. They committed a lot of money and used a decent amount of draft capital to get the deal done. But it’s just like the Lemon trade, and Davis/Carter/Smitty, and similar pursuits of recent years. Howie Roseman is not afraid to be aggressive in targeting the guys he wants. And it’s hard to argue with that strategy considering the Birds’ history of recent success.
Naturally, there were questions of why the Eagles didn’t make more of an effort to simply keep Jaelan Phillips on the roster, which is somewhat nebulous:
First of all, the Eagles are going to get back a compensatory pick for Phillips’ departure. He got PAID by Carolina, four years and $120 million, and while he is two years younger than Greenard, he has a more comprehensive injury history and therefore it’s hard to really distinguish one guy from the other. You can’t say one guy is CLEARLY better than the other at this point, and the Eagles needed a legit EDGE, so they went out and got one after losing Phillips to a crazy pursuit from the Panthers. They used draft picks and cap space on a proven player instead of trying to find the next EDGE through the draft, and exited the weekend with an eight-player rookie class anyway.
This Greenard thing seems pretty cut and dry to me. Standard Howie operating procedure.
4) 3rd round, #68 overall: Markel Bell – Miami OT
You’d feel a little better if Jeff Stoutland was around to develop this guy. Bell is humongous at 6’9″ and 346 pounds.
What’s nice is that he has a lot of big game experience at the college level despite playing only two seasons for the U as a JuCo transfer. He played Florida twice, played at Florida State, and played Notre Dame before the stretch of Texas A&M, Ohio State, Ole Miss, and Indiana that saw the Canes fall just short of a Natty.
5) 5th round, #178 overall: Cole Payton – NDSU quarterback
No issue whatsoever. You’re in the 5th round at this point and you’ve addressed EDGE, receiver, tight end, and offensive line. So you go for a guy you like and may be able to develop behind Jalen Hurts. The Eagles have never shied away from drafting quarterbacks while having franchise QBs atop the depth chart – case in point, when they drafted Hurts in the second round back in 2020.
That worked out well!
6) 6th round, #207 overall: Micah Morris – Georgia guard
One of the things that turned the Eagles around was when Howie Roseman decided to simply draft from the best schools in the country, namely Georgia and Alabama. Here he is in the 6th round now going back to the Bulldog well with a 6’5″ guard who logged a 1% pressure rate as a guy who started every game for UGA in 2025.
The Birds have question marks at both guard spots. Tyler Steen is a UFA after this season and Landon Dickerson kicked the tires on retirement before agreeing to a re-worked deal that gives him two more seasons under contract.
7) 7th round, #244 overall: Cole Wisniewski – Texas Tech safety
Look, they needed another Caucasian safety after Reed Blankenship left for Houston. Now we potentially have the Exciting Whites 2.0, with Coooooooooooper DeJean and this guy, who is not related to the underrated Super Bowl-winning Stefen Wisniewski.
(Jokes aside, safety looks like a position of concern with Drew Mukuba and Marcus Epps back there, and Mukuba was banged up for a portion of his rookie year).
8) 7th round, #251 overall: Uar Bernard – freak athlete
They’re gonna try to turn this guy into the next Jordan Mailata, but seemingly on the other side of the ball. He’s never played a snap of football in his life but is a freak athlete with a ton of potential and this is the type of situation that makes sense. Why? Because the Eagles are a top franchise and not some bums like the Cowboys. They can afford to take late-round flyers on guys like Bernard because they use their high picks wisely and are smart in free agency.
Look at the dude’s measurables:
9) 7th round, #252 overall: Keyshawn James-Newby – New Mexico EDGE
This guy is kind of like Antwaun Powell-Ryland, the player they took out of Virginia Tech last year. Both have the profile of undersized EDGE players with wildly productive college careers who may or may not pan out at the next level.
10) the undrafted free agents
Here’s the list:
- Joshua Weru, EDGE, Kenya
- Rocco Underwood, LS, Florida
- Deontae Lawson, LB, Alabama
- Dae’Quan Wright, TE, Ole Miss
- Tucker Large, DB, Wazzou
- Jaeden Robert, OL, Alabama
- Maximus Pulley, DB, Wofford
- Kapena Gushiken, DB, Ole Miss
Weru is like Bernard, another raw athlete out of Africa who hasn’t played football. He’s a rugby guy, like Mailata. Good developmental project there. Lawson played 52 games at Bama and logged 283 tackles. Maximus Pulley is a great name so hopefully he makes the team.
The Birds have had more than 30 UDFAs make the roster going back 25 years now. Some of the recent names are Corey Clement, T.J. Edwards, Reed Blankenship, and Darius Cooper. Jamaal Jackson was a great center who was undrafted out of DSU. There’s always a surprise or two with one of these guys in camp every season. Who will it be this year?
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com