Philadelphia Eagles: Why Howie’s best move might have been dumb luck
1. More often than not, he hasn’t gotten the job done for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Here’s the general consensus on Howie. G.M.s are judged on two things, their drafts and managing the cap, and Howie hasn’t done either job particularly well.
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Howie can’t evaluate talent to save his life, particularly at the wide receiver position. He then has to overspend on free agents to mask the fact that Philly is normally either dealing with a lack of talent or a lack of depth. The entire 2017 draft class is gone minus Derek Barnett and Nathan Gerry for goodness sakes, and they both seemingly have one foot out of the door, even if Philly seems to be the last to learn when their guys can’t play.
Howie hands extensions out like they’re lollipops at the bank, and every time you look around Philly’s over the cap and can’t be competitive when talent becomes available that actually could help this team win.
In less than 16 months, at some point, Jadeveon Clowney, DeAndre Hopkins, Yannick Ngakoue, and Jamal Adams have all been available. All have expressed interest in coming to Philly. We were told Howie was at the negotiating table in each instance, but he didn’t land anyone. It becomes even more frustrating when you see what the teams that actually landed them gave up to get them.
Seriously, Philly couldn’t have sent a running back, a 2020 second-round pick, and a 2021 fourth-round pick to the Houston Texans for DeAndre Hopkins? That’s only half of the story though. It gets much deeper than that.