How Eagles GM Howie Roseman has made training camp holdouts extinct

Look around the NFL and you see players unhappy with their contracts, constantly at odds with the front office and even holding out of training camp in some high-profile cases.

There’s one place you never see that.

Here.

Who was the last Eagle under contract who held out of training camp?

Good luck trying to figure that one out.

You have to go back 13 years - to Lehigh and the summer of 2011, when DeSean Jackson skipped the first 11 days of training camp and only reported after that – on Aug. 9 – because additional missed days could have cost him a year of pension credit and pushed back free agency another year.

Evan Mathis skipped OTAs in 2015 and was released soon after. But that was during Chip Kelly’s brief GM tenure and doesn’t count against Howie Roseman’s track record.

And a few rookies have missed a day or two but with draft pick contracts now slotted, that’s pretty much disappeared as well.

There have been close calls for Roseman. Sam Bradford skipped spring practices in 2017 after the Eagles drafted Carson Wentz. It looked like Zach Ertz would sit out of camp in 2021, when he was disappointed in contract talks and wanted a trade (that he eventually got), but he showed up for the start of camp, bleached blonde hair and all.

But veteran holdouts? On Howie Roseman’s watch?

It just doesn’t happen.

The combination of Roseman staying out in front of contracts and signing guys early and owner Jeff Lurie willing to spend – and in some cases over-spend - for players the Eagles value has kept the Eagles out of situations that the Cowboys are going through with CeeDee Lamb, the Jets with former Eagle Haason Reddick and the 49ers with Trent Williams.

“Yeah, I think it starts with ownership,” Roseman said. “Starts with Jeffrey's ability to let us sign guys early and to try and get out ahead of things, which we couldn't do without his help and support. I think he deserves the credit on this.

“Listen, again, you're dealing with 91 guys. You're going to have issues. It's not going to be perfect. I actually thought what (49ers linebacker) Fred Warner said was really freaking unbelievable. It's like, ‘The better you get, the more of those issues you're going to have.’ 

“When you're a good team, people are responsible for making you a good team, and those players are going to want to be compensated that way, those coaches, those front office personnel. It's just the nature of the business.”

With that in mind, the fact that the Eagles have been one of the NFL’s most successful teams since Roseman took over makes their track record avoiding holdouts even more impressive.

Since Roseman became GM in 2010 – and not counting 2015, Kelly’s disastrous season as GM – the Eagles have the 8^th-best record in the NFL, they’re one of three NFC teams to play in more than one Super Bowl and they’ve reached the postseason eight of 13 seasons.

Also since 2010, the Eagles have had 32 Pro Bowlers. Only the Ravens (40) and Cowboys (35) have had more. A perennial playoff team loaded with Pro Bowl players with no holdouts for 13 years is a powerful statement about the way the front office does business.

“Obviously the key for us has been to go to guys early and try to get ahead of those things,” Roseman said. “It's not perfect and I'm sure sitting here we'll have issues going forward.”

Maybe. But an under-rated part of all this is drafting and signing character players who prefer to handle contract negotiations behind the scenes and in a way that doesn’t create problems. 

And there are also certain agents who are more likely to encourage their players to take drastic action like holding out of camp. While Roseman can’t always totally avoid players those agents represent, there are ways to improve your odds against camp holdouts.

Training camps aren’t very long anymore. Practices are short. There aren’t a ton of opportunities for teams to develop the kind of chemistry they need going into the regular season.

If you have everybody in camp from the start, you’re giving yourself the best possible chance of that happening.

And for 13 straight summers now, Roseman has done that.