After years of going for it during free agency with big moves, Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman has taken a much different approach to the process.
Instead, over the last two years, Roseman has elected to put free agents on one-year prove-it deals and has waited to see how they would play during the season. This past week at the NFL owners meeting, he explained why he has taken this approach with giving one-year deals to former high draft picks of late.
"Sometimes in free agency, because we don't have the most money," Roseman said via The Athletic's Zach Berman, "we're just looking for opportunities, and we understand that the hit rate on that's not going to be 100%. ...We're gonna swing the bat with guys who have traits in their body who show that they can get production, who can translate to the system."
Howie Roseman shares more about quieter free agent signings of late
The Eagles have at least stayed aggressive in trading players, but at some point, they were not going to be able to keep up with that. Most of the big players they traded for or signed in free agency have cost a lot of money.
That leaves Roseman in a situation where he has had to take risks like A.J. Dillon, Adoree' Jackson, and Joshua Uche over the years. A great example of this working in their favor was signing Zack Baun to a one-year deal in 2024, as he turned that into a Pro Bowl season and earned a nice contract extension.
In reality, more have been misses, but that's honestly okay, as home runs are not needed. A lot of them are just depth pieces to the team, so a single from them is just as good as being a home run since there are so many stars on the squad.
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Roseman has talked about his preference for building the roster through the draft and giving extensions instead of being aggressive in free agency. That's led the team to two Super Bowls in four years, so the strategy has been working pretty well so far.