Eagles Mailbag: Can Howie Roseman Fix This Mess?

The Philadelphia Eagles dropped to 2-1 following an embarrassing loss to the Chicago Bears. Now Eagles general manager Howie Roseman is being called upon to make a move, yet his options are limited. Who is to blame for Philadelphia’s struggles and how can it all be fixed? I’ll answer those questions and more in my latest Eagles mailbag.

Roseman definitely deserves blame for Philadelphia’s struggles through the first three weeks of the regular season. But I also believe that it’s important to put things in perspective. When the Eagles made the decision to pay Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis or trade for Jonathan Greenard — they were going to have to make sacrifices elsewhere. In 2024, they made sacrifices at linebacker, except they lucked into Zack Baun transforming into the best linebacker in the NFL.

They made sacrifices at safety this year and it obviously hasn’t worked out. But I don’t believe it’s due to a lack of trying by Roseman. He spent a second-round pick on safety Andrew Mukuba in the 2025 NFL Draft, along with a first-round pick on linebacker Jihaad Campbell. At a certain point, teams have to see what their young players are made of. Yet with that, you also have to understand that there will be struggles along the way.

The Eagles are spending a ton of money in the team’s defensive front right now. They’re likely going to invest just as much money at cornerback starting in the offseason as well. Sacrifices are part of roster construction and the Eagles are paying for it right now. Yet if the issues continue closer to the trade deadline, I highly doubt that Roseman will sit on his hands and let it happen. He has signed Zach Ertz and Kenny Moore as bandaid additions, now he’ll see how those pan out and go from there.

The Eagles were embarrassed by the Bears in Week 3, there’s no reason to sugarcoat that loss. Yet as I mentioned previously, it’s important to keep things in perspective. It’s just one loss and Philadelphia is guaranteed at least 14 more games this season. There have been reasons for optimism on both sides of the ball in the first three weeks of the regular season and it’s important to not lose sight of that.

Concern Level on Offense: 6

The Eagles seem conflicted on offense right now. It feels like Eagles first-year offensive coordinator wants to be under center and utilize play action with multiple tight ends, yet Philadelphia is simply lacking the personnel to do so. That has forced a disjointed approach as Mannion continues to try and push a square peg through a round hole. Therefore, it’s important for Mannion to focus on and build upon what has worked, which is Philadelphia’s rushing attack in 11-personnel.

The Eagles have 46 carries for 253 rushing yards on runs from 11-personnel (5.5 yards per carry), which would equate to first in the NFL, 0.2 yards per carry above the Bears. On the flip side, the Eagles have 27 carries for 61 rushing yards on runs from 12-personnel (2.3 yards per carry), which would equate to last in the NFL, 0.7 yards per carry below the Green Bay Packers. Despite what Mannion originally intended on doing, Philadelphia’s run game from 11-personnel needs be the foundation of the offense.

Concern Level on Defense: 4

Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio was put in an absolute blender by Bears head coach Ben Johnson. Fangio was hyper-fixated on stopping the run and it ended up costing the Eagles on the back end of their defense. Philadelphia’s defense was scrambling as they tried to play catch up, while Fangio was also rotating three different safeties in next to Mukuba. Yet I believe that I’ve found the answer to Philadelphia’s secondary rotation and have the numbers to support my claim.

When Eagles All-Pro defensive back Cooper DeJean has played safety in the team’s base defense, Philadelphia has allowed 4.9 yards per passing play, 2.8 yards per rushing play and one touchdown (-0.21 EPA for the offense). When Marcus Epps or Michael Carter II has been brought in as the second safety and DeJean has slid into the slot in the team’s nickel defense, Philadelphia has allowed 6.6 yards per passing play, 4.6 yards per rushing play and four touchdowns (+0.03 EPA for the offense).

Therefore, I believe that it’s time to make DeJean a full-time safety. While I know that Fangio loves what he brings in the slot, it simply isn’t working in 2026. It seems like DeJean has too much on his plate and it’s having a negative effect on the communication with different safeties rotating in and out. Move DeJean to safety, make Kenny Moore the full-time slot cornerback and move forward.

Fangio may have more control than any other coach on Philadelphia’s coaching staff, including Nick Sirianni. I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that Roseman traded a third-round pick for edge rusher Jaelan Phillips at last season’s trade deadline. It was clear that Fangio identified Phillips as a former favorite player of his and Roseman went out and got him. Based on how Fangio has talked about cornerback Riq Woolen, I believe that he played a part in that addition as well.

As far as which players actually see the field, Fangio likely has final say in that as well. One major example of that is Campbell being benched for Nakobe Dean last season. From a team-building standpoint, there wasn’t much benefit to that happening for Roseman. The Eagles already invested a first-round pick in Campbell and clearly weren’t going to re-sign Dean. Yet Fangio made the decision that was best for his defense and not necessarily best for Roseman.

Yes! In my regular season game-by-game prediction article from when the schedule was first released, I had the Eagles going 2-1 through the first three weeks of the regular season. I predicted two close wins in the first two games and a loss to the Bears in Week 3. Here’s what I said about the matchup:

“Week 3: @ Chicago Bears

Monday, September 28th at 8:15 PM

The Eagles were absolutely embarrassed by the Bears last season. Chicago’s rushing attack proved to be unstoppable as Philadelphia simply couldn’t slow them down. Now the Eagles will be tasked with traveling on the road to try and get their revenge against one of the NFL’s biggest surprises of 2025. Yet I believe that Philadelphia will ultimately fall short in a tough environment.

Score Prediction:Bears 27, Eagles 23”

If there’s one issue that Roseman definitely deserves blame for it’s the backup quarterback situation. The Eagles have completely botched this entire thing since the moment that they traded a 2027 seventh-round pick for Andy Dalton in March. It felt like a weird addition alongside Tanner McKee, who had shown promise in previous years. Yet with Dalton in the mix and drafting Cole Payton, Philadelphia’s quarterback room was crowded.

Normally, a quarterback situation such as this one will sort itself out during training camp and preseason games. Yet the Eagles confusingly rotated Dalton and McKee throughout the entire summer, which essentially created more confusion than it did clarity. That has carried over into the regular season with Roseman stubbornly keeping four quarterbacks while the team watched several young, talented players signed elsewhere.

It genuinely feels like Roseman is hoping to come out of all of this looking like a genius when he flips one of Dalton or McKee to a team for a day three pick. But unfortunately, that hasn’t manifested itself and now Roseman looks like that guy in your fantasy football league that drafted two quarterbacks early and was hoping that somebody would trade with him. I don’t see the Eagles trading for a backup quarterback, if anything, they need to offload one of their own.

Since I was a kid, I’ve always been passionate about sports. I primarily played basketball growing up but always followed both basketball and football closely. As I got older, I quickly realized that my fandom and passion for certain teams, especially the Philadelphia Eagles, went far beyond the norm. It led to me talking about the team online, starting in message boards and chat rooms. Then I started college and was unsure what to pick as my major until I realized that they offered “Journalism & Print Media.”

It felt like the perfect opportunity to learn more about something that I was intrigued by, yet didn’t exactly know how to pursue. From there, I started writing essentially everywhere and anywhere that I could. I discovered FanPosts on Bleeding Green Nation and wrote there. I took an internship at Celtics Town, a blog that used to be owned by now Boston Celtics reporter for The Athletic, Jay King. I wrote for Eagles Write of USA Today under now Tennessee Titans reporter for ESPN, Theron Davenport.

Nearly all of those opportunities were unpaid. It’s not easy to “make it” in sports writing and I still haven’t done so at all, in my opinion. Yet the important part about it all is doing something that you love. I’ve spent countless hours writing, tweeting and creating content around the Eagles. Has it led to me making a full-time career out of it all? No. Have I been turned down and passed over for opportunities that I may have thought that I deserved? Yes. But none of that matters because I’m doing what I love.