Howie Roseman has given the Eagles great depth on the football field, and he said the team has tremendous depth in the front office too.
They need it now.
Roseman hinted strongly on Monday that the Eagles will fill Joe Douglas' role internally.
Douglas, who spent the last three years as the Eagles' vice president of player personnel, accepted the Jets' general manager position on Friday.
Douglas, who won two Super Bowl rings with the Ravens and a third with the Eagles, was an exceptionally valuable member of the Eagles' front office these last few years and instrumental in helping build the roster that won Super Bowl LII and has the second-most wins in the NFL over the last two years.
We're very fortunate we have a LOT of talented people in this building and we prepared for the day we were going to lose someone," Roseman said Monday. "We certainly did not want to lose Joe. Joe's just been a great asset to us and a great resource, but we are deep. We are deep in the front office.
Roseman identified the following people from the scouting and operations departments when asked about the team's front office depth:
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Andy Weidl: Director of player personnel
Tom Donahoe: Senior football adviser
Anthony Patch: Senior director of college scouting
Ian Cunningham: Director of college scouting
Brandon Brown: Assistant director of pro scouting Brandon Brown
Andrew Berry: Vice president of football operations
Jon Ferrari: Vice president of football operations and compliance
Alec Halaby: Vice president of football operations and strategy
Jake Rosenberg: Vice president of football administration
Bryce Johnston: Director of football administration
Aileen Dagrosa: Senior vice president, general counsel
Weidl, who was with Douglas in Baltimore, would be most likely to fill Douglas' position here, although nobody would be surprised if Douglas tries to poach him from the Eagles.
Patch is very highly regarded and has been with the team in various roles since 2010.
"We have good people here," Roseman said. "That doesn't mean we're not going to miss Joe, but it's everyone else's opportunity to step up a little bit."
Roseman and Douglas have enjoyed an extraordinary working relationship since Douglas came aboard in the spring of 2016. I wrote about that just before the draft (see article).
It's like losing a good player," Roseman said. "I'm happy for him that he got the opportunity, but why does anyone have to take our talent? But I'm happy for him. We've had so many conversations about this (and) he's going to do a great job. Glad they're in the AFC.
The Eagles do have plenty of capable scouts. You don't build a Super Bowl-champion roster without strong scouts across the board.
But there's no way to sugar-coat this. The Eagles are really going to miss Douglas. And one of the most important decisions Roseman will make all year is figuring out how to replace him.
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