Q. When you look at the top 10 and the quarterbacks that are in this class, how much movement do you expect going into that kind of group of picks?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I think there is a lot of good quarterbacks. It's a quarterback league, and so, you know, our assumption is these talented guys -- we're not in that market, so hopefully they all go, to be honest with you. But they're talented enough to go.
We do our work on them just like we do our work on every player in the draft. These are talented guys at the top of the draft, and I think there will be a lot of competition for them.
Q. (Indiscernible) ... when you had the second-round pick and the quarterback, and build around that, the other pieces, what was that like?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: You want me to get sentimental about how it was before we pay our quarterback. Yeah, I think it's the nature the business. I think the better thing is when you have a quarterback that's good enough you want to pay him and that he has a chance to be a great player. Show him what kind of player he's going to be.
If you don't have a quarterback you're searching for one, and you can't win in this league without a great quarterback who plays at a high level. We saw how Jalen played in the Super Bowl, in the biggest stage, and that's exciting for our team, for our fans, for all of us.
Q. Pete Carroll said that Sean Desai is coming to Philly. Can you confirm Pete Carroll's statement?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I would say -- I would love Coach Sirianni to talk about the coaches. I think that's his area.
Q. But wouldn't call Pete a liar, right?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I would not call Pete Carroll a liar. (Laughing.)
Q. (Indiscernible.)
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, at the end of the day the responsibility is mine. You know, I don't say that in any way other than that I take that very seriously and I think we have a process that has spanned different front offices. Hasn't always been perfect, but we do have a process and a way of doing things.
At the same time, if someone comes in and has as idea that can make that process better, let's do that. Best idea's got to win. It's funny when you said that I hadn't really thought about that fully, but we have had a lot of communication, a lot of conversation about the things that we're looking for at each certain segment.
At the end of the day, like it's my job to outline a vision of what we're looking for, whether it's at the All-Star games, the combine, free agent process, the draft process. I think the lines of communication have been great. There are a lot of really great, talented guys we got in the front office, and I'm looking forward to working with them.
Q. Howie, with the number of pending free agents you have, how do you approach this off-season.
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I think, you know, we talked about it a little bit in Philly at our end-of-season press conference. At the end of the day, our job during the season is to prepare for the off-season.
It's not like we wake up the day after the Super Bowl, oh, man now we got to go figure out the team. This is what we've been doing. We have been doing it all during the season, in the off-season.
I wake up every morning thinking about this football team and I go to bed every night thinking about this football team. It's constant communication about some of the things we are going to do.
At the same time, you know, we're going to prioritize the things that are important to us, that we build our team on. We're going to make sure those areas are strong. Are we going to get all the free agents back? We're just not. We're not capable of getting all those guys back, but we also understand we're in a good situation in terms of picks that we have going forward. We have a lot of guys under contract, not only for this year, but going forward. We're not going to make executions for the position we're in.
Q. Do you think Gainwell is the kind of guy that can take on more of a lead role?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, Kenny is an impressive young player. When you watch him and his skillset, he has really good vision. He has the ability to get small and get skinny and he can catch the ball, he can protect. He's a good player.
We've also seen in this league that you need more than one. It's hard to roll with just one running back in this league. So I think we're happy with Kenny; know also that he hasn't hit his ceiling yet. He had a good playoff run, but it is a position we are we're going to continue to add at. We don't have a lot of guys under contract right now, so we will continue to look at players at that position and a lot of positions.
Q. With the free agency, when you have that many, do you make an offer to each one or do you know there will only be so many that you can...
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I think it's hard to make offers that aren't really in the range of what a player is going to get. Our players, what they have done for us and how they have worked and the character that they have shown and the success they have had, we're just going to be honest with them and basically tell he them -- you know, if it's a guy we're interested in, we'll tell him the range.
We understand that they put themselves in this position, they've taken the injury risk to get in this spot, and just very appreciative of them. We had unbelievable chemistry and an unbelievable group of guys. It is going to be hard to duplicate that, but that doesn't mean we can't going forward.
I think just obviously we took a little bit of a different tactic this year. You know, usually we like to sign guys early and sign guys during the season, and because of how hot we started, how well we did, and how much free agents we had, we thought it would create a different dynamic if we started to pick one guy and not another guy.
We understood that could cost us in the end. We felt like it was worthwhile because of the opportunity to potentially win a championship. Unfortunately, we came up short.
Q. Where do things stand with you and Jalen on the contract?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I wouldn't feel comfortable talking about contract situations with anyone, Elliott. I think you know that. At the same time, tremendous respect for him as a player, as a person. Tremendous respect for the people that work with him to do this, and you go through it in a way you want to find a win-win.
You want to find something he feels really good about, and at the same time that we feel good about, and surround him with good players. He knows that. He's a smart guy. He understands that. That doesn't mean it's not going to be a tremendous contract for him because he deserves that, too.
Q. In the first round last year you took Jordan Davis; later you got Nakobe Dean. Where are those young guys at? I know Jordan had some injuries, but your thoughts reflecting back on those guys?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I think that's part of the exciting thing. When you look at our first three picks last year, Jordan played the most of those guys. Missed some time with injury. Those guys are ready to play and ready to contribute. We knew when we were drafting them last year we were drafting them because we thought they were the best players, not necessarily because they were the guys ready to fill spots at a position of need.
So as we look at our team this year, knowing that those guys can take a step forward and be part of it, and being comfortable with the young players playing and young players that have talent and work ethic and get put in that spot. We even saw it this year when we put young players in spots and how they stepped up. I don't think that's something we're afraid of.
Q. There has been some conversations about the league addressing the quarterback push plays. Do you have any reaction to that? Thoughts on why that is in the conversation?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: Yeah, I think that's a better question for Coach Sirianni. All I know is everything we're doing is a legal and it works, and just because people do something that is really good doesn't mean it should be outlawed.
Q. Looking back over the past year and how Jalen grew to get to the point now where he is a guy you want to pay, what were some of the keys for him to make a major improvement from year two to three?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: I think the reason we drafted Jalen are he's an elite competitor, he is an elite worker, and has elite talent. I think sometimes we use words like worker and competitive nature, and that kind of frame it in a way that the guy is not extremely talented. Jalen is an elite talent.
He has elite arm strength. Anything you tell him to do, like you saw his completion percentage, his accuracy jump. At the end of the day, he's got special talent, and you combine that with a special football mind and special work ethic, and it gives him a chance to be a special player.
Q. Howie, how can the offensive continue to be dominant under Brian Johnson?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: I think obviously Shane, who's here, huge part of our success, and congratulations him and JG. We'll miss those guys. But Brian is extremely talented. Brian has a great offensive mine. Obviously Coach Sirianni, too, huge part of what we do everywhere, especially on offense.
When you meet Brian and spend time with him and how he connects with players and thinks about the game. He's a talented, talented coach, and excited for his opportunity.
Q. When would you need an answer from Kelce?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: When is our first game? I mean, he's a special player, a special person. I think that whatever his timeline is, we're willing to work with him.
I think I'm doing his Podcast tomorrow, so maybe we'll have a conversation on it tomorrow. I'll say you brought it up.
Q. How are you preparing in the next few months to get back to the highest stage of the Super Bowl and this time win it all?
HOWIE ROSEMAN: I know, I know. Now you're making me disappointed again. For us, we've got to take it one day at a time and continue to do the things we think are right.
It's is a long way away until we play the next game, and we were talking about it on our flight over here, that you get to training camp and you're so excited for the first day of training camp and then I sit at my desk and look at the calendar and go, oh, my God, we have like 90 days until the first game.
All we can do right now is take this process, which is meeting these players. We have two first round picks. Just make sure that we just make good decisions after good decisions, we stack those together, and end up having a really good team. We'll get to camp and try to bring them all together.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports