Following the firing of head coach Doug Pederson, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie held a virtual press conference to address the Philly media and take questions.
It was… not great.
As we all expected, the majority of the questions pointed to Lurie’s assessment of GM Howie Roseman and why Pederson was the one who was ultimately held accountable for the team’s shortcomings over the past few seasons.
Lurie implied that he and Pederson’s vision for the team in the immediate future didn’t line up, stating numerous times that the team is entering a transitional period.
But, the frustrating part of Lurie’s whole press conference was his constant denial and deflection of blame regarding Roseman. Based on some of the answers he gave, it just doesn’t seem like Lurie will ever hold Roseman accountable for his poor drafting or poor cap management.
When pressed about some of the bad drafting decisions Roseman made, Lurie quickly shifted gears to talk about some of the hires Roseman has made. Lurie even said that some of the missed draft picks can be attributed to other teams picking the player they wanted before the Eagles were on the clock. Lurie actually used this as an excuse for Howie, a reality that literally every team in the NFL deals with every single draft.
Lurie reiterated time and time again during his press conference that he has complete faith in the front office to get things right. There’s no evidence that this is possible with Roseman leading the charge.
“But in terms of every level of the football operation, I am really confident of where we are at and I don’t see any reason why we aren’t going to return to preeminence with more mid-term and long-term decision making,” Lurie said during his press conference.
If the organization is really about to enter a rebuilding era, which Lurie eluded to numerous times, how can he have supreme confidence in a GM who’s drafted one Pro Bowl player since 2016? It doesn’t make sense.
Pederson surely had his failures throughout his tenure, but there’s simply no reason to let him leave while not addressing the overarching issue with this team. The way the team is currently constructed, the cap hell they’re about to enter, among other factors, have all played a bigger hand in the Eagles downward spiral than Pederson.
It’s hard to envision this team turning it around anytime soon with Roseman in charge. The downfall of Lurie’s ownership tenure could end up being his unwavering loyalty to Howie.
I thought he was a good owner, but I was wrong. He is a meddling incompetent fool. God help us Eagles fans. It might be another 50 years, until we win another Super Bowl!!!!
Well put Luries downfall will be because of his unwavering loyalty to roseman, it don’t take a rocket scientist to figure out roseman is the problem