Tom Heckert has officially accepted the job as GM of the Browns. We talked about our reaction to that last Friday. Browns President Mike Holmgren said Heckert will be given final say, only not really.
Yes, he's going to set up the 53-man roster, but I would temper that just a little bit. He and I are going to be in close communication on that. That will be his responsibility."
Of course Holmgren will have final say, otherwise the Browns would have just paid him 8 million dollars to keep the same coach and have someone else make personnel decisions. I would imagine that they expect more bang for their buck...
Heckert's departure leaves an opening in the Eagles front office and last week we speculated that current VP of player personnel Howie Roseman would be the most likely to fill that position. Today, ESPN is reporting that Roseman will be the guy.
The Philadelphia Eagles will promote Howie Roseman to general manager to succeed the departing Tom Heckert, a team source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.
If you're interested in our thoughts on Roseman, I've re-posted a portion of last week's story about him after the jump.
The most obvious internal candidate seems to be VP of player personnel Howie Roseman. Roseman was elevated to the job in 2008, ironically on the same day Tom Heckert signed a contract extension. He joined the Eagles organization in 2000 as a staff counsel and cap specialist & three years later he was promoted to director of football administration. Since that time, PE.com lists his responsibilities as "managing the college scouting staff, organizing and running draft meetings, and scouting top prospects around the country." He also worked "closely" with Heckert on scouting players around the league as well as working with Joe Banner on contract and cap stuff.
Andy Reid had this to say about Roseman in 2008.
"Tom has also done a great job nurturing and incorporating Howie's talent into the personnel side of the organization. Howie has demonstrated a sharp eye for talent evaluation along with a knack for creative draft and free agent strategies. "
The interesting thing about Roseman is that he's not a traditional "football guy." He's a lawyer. Of course, he has worked in the personnel department of a successful NFL franchise for the past 10 years so it's not as if he wouldn't be qualified to be a GM simply because he doesn't have a "jock" background. Still, when you take a look around the NFL at GMs very few if any went to law school(Mike Tannenbaum of the Jets did I think). Most worked their way up through college and/or pro scouting ranks. Certainly Roseman hasn't taken that path. He would appear to be more like the kind of guys who have been becoming the general managers of baseball teams over the past few years. Guys that have analytical and stats backgrounds moreso than the "jock" types who have played or grown up in the game.