PHILADELPHIA − Eagles general manager Howie Roseman sure has a funny way of showing he was “not unhappy” with the team’s situation at safety.
There was Roseman, in one fell swoop on Monday and Tuesday, cutting veterans Anthony Harris, Jaquiski Tartt and Andre Chachere while trading for Saints’ defensive back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson.
“Not that we were unhappy with our defensive backfield, or safety position, but we were looking for opportunities to get better,” Roseman said. “When we look at New Orleans and the depth that they have on their roster, we thought maybe it would be a fit.”
And yet, this says everything about the Eagles’ expectations this season. That’s because Roseman made it clear that the Eagles are all in, that they aren’t leaving anything to chance on a Super Bowl run.
Of course, Roseman wouldn’t admit that when asked precisely what his expectations are for the season.
“Do you think I’m answering that question in any way, shape or form?” Roseman said with a laugh.
Roseman’s actions pretty much answered the question anyway.
EAGLES ROSTER:Upheaval at safety with trade for Saints’ starter; why Jalen Reagor stayed
And he did explain it in a meandering story about his car’s defroster after the Eagles returned from their humiliating 31-15 playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last January.
Roseman recounted how he started his car when the team’s flight landed at the airport in Philadelphia on a cold January night and started driving home, looking out from the bottom of his windshield as the defroster gradually melted away the ice.
“I almost got in five accidents, but I wanted to get home,” Roseman said.
That’s when Eagles coach Nick Sirianni called, saying he was still in his car waiting for his defroster to clear the ice from his windshield. Then Sirianni hung up to take a call from cornerback Zech McPhearson, whose car had broken down.
Sirianni called Roseman back later and told him what happened to McPhearson, and that Sirianni had waited 30 minutes with McPhearson for a tow truck to arrive. Roseman was incredulous that Sirianni didn’t have chief security officer Dom DiSandro handle the situation.
“That’s my guy; I’ve got to take care of him,” Roseman said Sirianni told him about McPhearson.
“When I think about that,” Roseman said,” I was like, you know, we may have something here with our culture. So now, I have to go do my job, and I have to make sure that we get better.”
Roseman did this, but it took time.
Sure, it would be one thing if the safety upheaval happened in the spring − and it certainly wasn’t from a lack of trying − as top free agent safeties like Marcus Williams and Tyrann Mathieu signed elsewhere.
So Roseman directed his attention to other areas, like trading for and signing wide receiver A.J. Brown, adding pass rusher Haason Reddick, linebacker Kyzir White and cornerback James Bradberry.
The Eagles had improved. But it was 12 days before the season started, which came after spring workouts and five weeks of training camp, and the safety situation hadn’t changed.
It was clearly the weak link of the defense, although it sure seemed like the Eagles were going to try to get by with Harris starting next to Marcus Epps.
But Roseman wasn’t thrilled with that idea.
In fact, the Eagles were ready to move on from Harris after last season, which was average at best. They allowed Harris to become a free agent, and only brought him back on a one-year deal after they struck out with Williams and Matthieu, among others.
“We felt like since there was a possibility that his role had changed from when we had signed him, that because we were looking at options, he also deserved to kind of look at options himself,” Roseman said about Harris.
Sure, there’s risk involved.
Gardner-Johnson mostly played nickel corner with New Orleans. He’ll start next to Epps, who is the senior member of the safety corps with eight career starts as an Eagle.
The four safeties who remain − Gardner-Johnson, Epps and backups K’Von Wallace Reed Blankenship − are all 25 years old or younger. Blankenship, who’s 23, was signed last spring as an undrafted free agent.
“He started (training camp) as the last man in that group, and every day … he continued to show up,” Roseman said about Blankenship. “I don’t want to put too high expectations on him, but he kind of reminded me of (former Eagles safety) Quntin Mikell.”
There are things to straighten out. Gardner-Johnson will be taking a crash course in a new defense with new teammates around him, and at a new position in the NFL, hoping to learn enough to start in the opener against the Detroit Lions on Sept. 11.
Gardner-Johnson did play safety in college at the University of Florida, and defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon wants his safeties to be interchangeable with the slot corners.
And Roseman said the Eagles looked at Gardner-Johnson “in depth” during the predraft process as a safety in 2019.
Gardner-Johnson dropped to the fourth round, No. 105 overall, that year. Roseman said this surprised him, but there wasn’t much he could do back then because he didn’t have a third-round pick. And his fourth-round pick didn’t come until No. 138, when he took defensive end Shareef Miller.
Miller was waived out of training camp and only played in one career game. So technically, the Eagles missed twice, while stalwarts Malcolm Jenkins and Rodney McLeod aged.
It caught up to the Eagles in a dreadful 2020 season, which led to a purge of head coach Doug Pederson and quarterback Carson Wentz, replaced by Sirianni and quarterback Jalen Hurts.
The Eagles went 9-8 last season, made the playoffs, but were clearly outclassed in their postseason loss to the Buccaneers. So the purges continued at other positions until there was one purge remaining.
Finally, it happened.
“I just know that the better the player is, the better we look as coaches,” Sirianni said. “That’s the secret to coaching. You want to be a good coach? Get better players. That’s the secret.”
And sometimes, that realization comes while waiting for a car defroster to do its job.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
