Of course, it helps that the Eagles, thanks to their draft-weekend brilliance in past years, did not have many improvements left to make. No team, however, did more to improve its chances of winning next year’s Super Bowl.

Other teams may have done more than the Eagles to improve their rosters in this weekend’s N.F.L. Among other feats, Roseman acquired the ninth overall pick that the Eagles used on Carter ( whose stock had slipped because of his involvement in a fatal car crash) as part of a complex web of trades dating back to 2021 stuffed the bulk of Hurts’s compensation into future balloon payments so the Eagles could retain other core veterans and engineered the trades that landed the team the Ringo pick and Swift as a Saturday aperitif. The Eagles accomplished all of those things thanks to the Wolf of Broad Street wizardry of Roseman. Such a team would normally be salary-cap strapped, and such contracts are supposed to be preceded by months of melodrama. That team should not have later been able to add four more potential starters: offensive lineman Tyler Steen, a steady performer for Vanderbilt and Alabama Illinois safety Sydney Brown, who intercepted six passes for one of the nation’s best defenses in 2022 cornerback Kelee Ringo, yet another member of Georgia’s back-to-back national championship teams and, through a trade, the veteran running back D’Andre Swift (Georgia, again), who scored eight touchdowns last year for the Detroit Lions.įinally, a team nursing a Super Bowl hangover should not have been able to lock its star quarterback, Jalen Hurts, into a reported five-year, $255 million contract extension before the draft.

That team should not have the opportunity to draft both Jalen Carter, possibly the most talented player in his class, and his Georgia defensive linemate Nolan Smith, who produced astounding workout results at the scouting combine. The Eagles should not be able to do the things they do.Ī team that won 14 games and reached the Super Bowl last season should not have a top 10 pick in the next draft. Here are the teams that made clever moves, and a few players who came up a bit short. draft provided an opportunity for some of the league’s most fascinating decision makers and franchises to truly express themselves. And the Green Bay Packers, playing the role of a merry divorcé post-Aaron Rodgers trade, dallied with new playmakers. The Detroit Lions’ coach, Dan Campbell, displayed his rugged individualism. The Philadelphia Eagles’ general manager, Howie Roseman, hustled like a pool shark.

The Politics of Rage by Dan T. Carter