Howie Roseman

Howie Roseman: First, I appreciate us doing this today. This weekend’s an emotional weekend for us. Every guy that is on our football team, we select. No one’s allocated to us, so it’s hard. It’s hard to have those conversations, 37 conversations. I feel like a lot of times when we’re doing this, and we’re doing it after, and we have practice squad moves that are coming, that it’s hard to give you guys the full information. [Senior Vice President, Communications] Bob [Lange] had brought up last year after we did this to do this today, and I know it stinks for you guys to come in today when we don’t have practice. I appreciate that, but I think it could be a more worthwhile press conference. Probably still won’t say anything, but anyway, maybe worthwhile. We’ll go with that.

Q. At quarterback, is there a number two yet, do you think, close to naming? (Ed Kracz)

Howie Roseman: Anything that goes into preparations for Washington, we’re going to keep close to the vest. Certainly that’s part of it, the strategy for when we play Washington. Four quarterbacks, the most important position in sports. I feel like all those guys have value for our team. Obviously, some is short-term value, some is long-term value when you think about [QB] Cole [Payton]. As we went through the process here, just thought it was the right thing to do for our football team.

Q. Seems like there was a little bit of a trend there. I think you’re one of four teams that carried four. Any rhyme or reason that you see for that? (Tim McManus)

Howie Roseman: It’s just such a valuable position. From our perspective, last year, obviously we took someone in the fifth round, let him go. He left our practice squad to go somewhere else, traded for a sixth-round pick. These guys are valuable. They take time to develop at the same time. That position is so valuable to this organization over a long period of time. [We] want to be strong there and think both those guys behind [QB] Jalen [Hurts] have value, have shown that over the course of their careers. We kind of take all the information at our disposal to make all these decisions.

Q. No trades this month after a pretty busy August last year. Any reason why? (Dave Zangaro)

Howie Roseman: I think from our perspective, a lot of conversations with every team — almost every team. There’s a couple, maybe not so much. But I think that when we were talking to these other teams, the players they were interested in, felt like we were going to hold on to. The players maybe we were interested in, maybe they felt the same way. With the way that practices went and the games went, there wasn’t an opportunity to do some of the player for player trades. We like to get looks at guys just because of where our numbers were. I think you guys know me well enough to know that I like the action and was trying, but it just didn’t make sense for us at the time. We would’ve just been doing it to make a move.

Q. What did TE E.J. Jenkins show you this summer? (Reuben Frank)

Howie Roseman: E.J. is a great story. When you talk about a receiver at Georgia Tech who transformed his body, he’s 260 pounds, he’s 6’6″, he’s got 34-inch arms. You see in this league where the position is going, where it’s trending. A lot of similar offensive systems to some of the things that we’re running where these wide tight ends, they’re highly valued in free agency, they’re highly valued in the draft. For us to be able to develop E.J. and his skillset, which as a former receiver has really not only turned to, obviously he’s a big target in the passing game, but a point of attack player. His pass protection — when we went over his pass protection, it is really, really good to have a tight end who’s able to pass protect like he is and then in the run game be able to help.

It’s just being highly valued, and he contributed on special teams. Just E.J.’s body of work over time, sometimes you forget he played for us in the Super Bowl in 2024, but great developmental story for our organization, for the people who develop players, and really just excited about the role that he can have on this football team.

Q. Your top two draft picks, what do you think about their ability to contribute right away? (Jeff McLane)

Howie Roseman: Well, again, this is the only business that you look at how guys are doing right away and sometimes there are early judgments made. Any other business, there’s a long-term view and we see it on our roster, how [guys] developed over two, three, four years. I understand there are big resources into those guys, first and second round picks. Tremendous confidence in who those guys are as players, what their skillset is.

Obviously, they had some setbacks here physically, and we looked at that as a staff and a group and maybe can figure out some changes here to get those guys going a little bit sooner from a skill position perspective, but don’t have any doubt about what they’re going to be in the NFL over time and still believe that they’re going to contribute to our 2026 team.

Q. Were you comfortable with exposing DT Uar Bernard, and to a lesser extent, OLB Josh Weru to waivers? You got them both back obviously, but what was the difference a couple years ago when you were willing to carry T Jordan Mailata before he was ready versus – (John McMullen)

Howie Roseman: I don’t know that there’s a comfort level in exposing anyone. We’re not sitting there and cutting anyone and going, ‘Woohoo, this guy, we’re definitely getting back.’ You don’t know what other teams are thinking. We put a lot of time and effort during this week, not only to looking at what’s going to be out there, but by taking snapshots of what other teams are seeing in our guys, and saying, ‘They don’t have the practices, they don’t have the individual periods, they don’t have these guys in the meeting rooms just like we don’t when we’re looking at other guys.’ Going back and watching the tape and just evaluating the tape and what other teams are seeing, and that’s not an exact science. Certainly didn’t want to get four guys claimed. That doesn’t feel great. But from our perspective, development is real. These guys have tremendous ability to be developed. They want to be developed. They have tools in their body, they’ve got great character, but it’s new to them.

I think that Jordan, with all due respect to Joshua and Uar — I don’t know, whoever’s the youngest person in this room probably could be doing this for 30, 40 years, and nobody’s going to see a Jordan Mailata ever again. I mean the person, the player that that guy is, that story, it’s an unbelievable story. He had just a unique combination of size, strength, athleticism and pro experience as an athlete. I think sometimes we forget Uar has never played organized sports before. It’s a different bar. I think if we’re just judging everyone through the lens of Jordan Mailata, it’s going to be hard to give these guys a fair chance. Still very excited about them, really glad that they did get through. Certainly wasn’t certain about that, but I’m glad they’re back here.

Q. You’ve been around long enough to have a good pulse of how you want your roster to look and have those gut feelings at this point in the season. Just from a broader point of view, how do you feel about this group heading into Week One? (Jason Dumas)

Howie Roseman: I think this is a humbling game, and every time you feel good about something, something comes up that makes you feel not so good. I would say from our perspective, what I feel good about is that we have conviction about certain areas of our football team that we want to keep strong. It shows up in our roster. That will show up over time during the season. What that means, we’re going to have a lot of things happen during the course of the season. Adversity will strike us. Unfortunately, injuries are part of the game. Who that is, when that happens, all those stories are not yet written. I just sit here and I’m just going to take it one day at a time, continue to evaluate opportunities to continue to get better, and just make sure that we’re putting our players in the best position to have success and our coaches do a great job of that.

Q. Where is DT Uar Bernard in his development? I know he has never played organized sports, but where might he be making progress? Good things and bad things that he’s done so far. (Chris Murray)

Howie Roseman: Well, it’s all new to him. I mean, every single thing you think about, even the first preseason game, for him to go play that game for the first time in front of that stadium. Tremendous work ethic, tremendous character. Obviously, he’s got some God-given ability there in terms of strength and power, but when you think about this game and blocking schemes and getting off the ball and all the things that guys have taken for granted, those are things that come with time and reps. He’s got a great coach in [Defensive Line/Senior Defensive Assistant/Associate Head Coach] Coach [Clint] Hurtt there working with him.

Again, I think the expectations have to be a little bit reasonable. We saw two days ago that there was a trade of an IPP guy who came into the league in 2023, and for the first time, he’s making an active roster in 2026. I’m not saying that’s a timeline for anything, but it’s just a reminder that things take time. We live in a world where there’s not a lot of patience, and what we are committed to is patience and development.

Q. You had four guys claimed, as you referenced. What was your interpretation of that? And as you put the bottom of the roster together, it seems you have more vested veterans this year and you’ve kind of used those spots for developmental purposes in the past. Am I right in that? Is there a change in that thinking? (Zach Berman)

Howie Roseman: No, I think that you’ve got to look at the roster as 70 guys. I think when our practice squad comes out, you’ll see that maybe it’s a little bit younger than it has been in the past. From our perspective, when we’re looking at the bottom of the roster, we’re kind of looking, we’re trying to do our best to see who we can keep. Some of those guys — I think in a vacuum, it’s easy to say, ‘Hey, put this guy on the practice squad and you’ll get him back and he’s a vested vet,’ but understanding that those guys have other options to go other places. When you say that to a veteran and they say, ‘Hey, I’m going to score my options,’ and you’ve got 31 other teams and they say, ‘We’ll give you a 53-man spot,’ now you lose that guy. You’re trying to combine that with the knowledge of how guys are doing, try to make an educated bet on losing guys. From our perspective over the weekend, probably anticipated we would lose a couple of guys. To be fair, we always anticipate that. The rate of claims in the league is about 4%.

Certainly, those percentages didn’t apply to our roster over this weekend, unfortunately, but that’s the risk of doing business and don’t feel good about that. Don’t feel good about losing those guys. We lost two draft picks. We lost a special teamer, a tight end who had 10 special teams tackles for us last year and a blocked kick. Don’t feel good about that. We lost a young defensive back that we liked. That goes along with this. You can’t sit here and feel tremendously good when you’re losing players. We’ll do our best to try to replenish that. I told [Special Teams Coordinator] Coach [Michael] Clay, I owed him one, so I’ll do my best to help him make up for it. But yeah, certainly would like to say wish those guys well, but don’t feel great about it.

Q. What are the conversations like with a guy like RB Dameon Pierce to try to get him to come back on a practice squad? (Reuben Frank)

Howie Roseman: Sometimes you just run out of time. You run out of time in terms of guys get nicked during camp, they miss some time, you see in flashes and you realize that and you have the conversation that maybe if you’re there for three games that the conversation will be different. I think when you’re talking about some of those guys that those conversations — like Pierce, you can just run out of time, but you want them. You want them part of the team. You know that if called upon, they can do their role at a high level. We had a few of those guys where they understood availability’s a huge part and it doesn’t mean they’re not going to be available going forward, but it’s just the way it worked out this summer.

Q. The term ‘patience’ with the younger players and letting them develop. When it comes to the new offense, how much does that factor into you and making potential trades, signing guys off the street and waiting to see how things pan out? (Jeff McLane)

Howie Roseman: I think in terms of trade, the opportunity has to be right for us as well. Don’t want to do something just for the sake of doing something. I think that there has to be a level of patience about how guys are going to look. We’re not showing everything in the preseason. That’s not what anyone’s doing. You get an opportunity. The first four games of the season have always kind of been kind of another ramp up period for your football team. You get an opportunity to evaluate. The trade deadline’s a long way away. We have the resources to continue improving the team. We’ll continue to do that over the next couple of days as well. Competition is huge. The 70 guys that are going to be on our team here in the next 24 hours, we like, we’re excited about, but at the same token, we’re not handing out any scholarships.

Q. Have you had any conversations with TE Zach Ertz, any interest in bringing him back? (Jimmy Kempski)

Howie Roseman: First, I’d say what an unbelievable player, what an unbelievable person, tremendous respect for him. At the same time, love what we have going in our tight end room, too. I would say, have talked to Zach over a period of time, obviously rehabbing his ACL and the relationship, just like a lot of our former players who’ve been here. But like anything else, wouldn’t get into any conversations about anything other than from a big picture perspective. In my opinion, one of the greatest tight ends to play the game and just tremendous respect for him, and also excited about the tight ends that we have here.

Q. On the defensive side, OLB Jonathan Greenard, with him missing the time. Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio said that he’d be learning some new things in terms of coverage. Just what do you make of him coming back and how much it would take for him to kind of get into speed? (Brooks Kubena)

Howie Roseman: Us not having him on PUP and missing time here shows that we anticipate him playing sooner rather than later. What that timetable is, again, we’ll keep close to the vest. The guy’s a tremendous football player. He’s got a tremendous ability to affect the quarterback. He’s going to come back in tremendous shape. I think that you saw the D-Line’s obviously a position of emphasis for us always. The guy fits what we do. Yeah, there’ll be some things that will be a little bit different and we’ll get him up to speed, but we expect him to have a high impact on this team this season for all accounts of what he’s done and how he works and how he leads, he’s as advertised. We’re excited to have him.

Q. The decision to keep WR Elijah Moore on the 53, and if you could just hit on the state of the wide receiver group overall. (Tim McManus)

Howie Roseman: Elijah Moore had a great camp. He was able to separate. He knows how to get open. He catches everything. This is a guy that we really liked coming out of Mississippi. [Senior Vice President, Player Personnel] Joe [Douglas] drafted him with the Jets. When he traded him to Cleveland, we were interested in him at that time, followed him. Didn’t really have the end the last year that he wanted to in Buffalo and Denver. We came in and just said there’s going to be an opportunity. He came in in great shape. All he did was really make plays. We know that if we put him in the game, we can count on him to run good routes, to separate and catch balls. We didn’t want to risk losing that.

The receiver core, obviously you would’ve liked them to be together a little bit more here through the summer but have a lot of confidence in that group. I think it’s a talented group from top to bottom. All those guys, they play different roles. It starts with Smitty [WR DeVonta Smith], who I don’t think it’s a secret how high we are on him. Tay’s [WR Dontayvion Wicks] exactly what we thought he would be. Obviously, prior to the regular season, going into the regular season, have tremendous confidence in WR Makai Lemon, WR Hollywood Brown. Everyone saw Coop [WR Darius Cooper] and the growth that he showed and development that he showed. And then obviously we talked a little bit there about Elijah.

Q. How do you feel QB Jalen Hurts has adjusted to the new offense? (Dave Zangaro)

Howie Roseman: I think Jalen’s adjusted really well to the new offense. Now again, we’re at a moment in time, we haven’t played a game. This isn’t in reference to Jalen; this is in reference to anything else. I think that a lot of the things that we’ll do during the regular season when we have game plans, I think from an offensive perspective, they’re going to be different than what we’ve done in the past. Jalen’s embraced it. He’s excited about it and obviously we’ve got to be better than we were last year. That was really how the offseason started, led by [Head] Coach [Nick] Sirianni and saying where we were in point score, where we were in offense wasn’t good enough. Here we are starting the season looking to improve.

Q. The depth behind the starters on the offensive line seem pretty young or at least younger than in the past. How do you feel about those guys? Guys like T Markel Bell, C/G Drew Kendall and C/G Willie Lampkin. (Martin Frank)

Howie Roseman: I don’t know if we talked about this before camp, but certainly if any of you would’ve given me a truth serum and said, ‘What are you looking for in training camp?’ It would be how our interior offensive line depth panned out and the way that Drew, Willie, and then obviously [G] Micah [Morris], keeping Micah. Those young guys and the growth that they showed, their ability to play in the passing game, in the run game. I mean, really, really excited about those guys, about being able to have those guys, being able to develop those guys, but at the same time, have confidence that if those guys need to play, that they’re ready to play. I was saying it, our interior O-Line depth, it was kind of in a different spot than it had been in years past, relying on some young guys to take a step. A lot of credit to [Offensive Line] Coach [Chris] Kuper and the guys around him for getting these guys ready to go. Feel like we’re in a really good spot there and it was a concern going into camp.

So, excited about those guys and I think you guys watch it and you see that they all have a potential to come in and play at high level.