As news of Curtis Lofton taking a visit one place, David Hawthorve another, Stephen Tulloch wanting X amount of money... The Eagles remained conspicuously quiet and the fanbase became increasingly restless. Why were the Eagles interested in any of these guys? They know they have a huge hole at LB right? They probably don't know! They never know! They don't care about LB!!
Yet as we raged, Howie Roseman says the focus was always on acquiring DeMeco Ryans and not in the free agent LB market.
"We have conversations with every team in the league during this time period. We were pretty persistent with Rick Smith and the Texans, and engaging in conversations with DeMeco," Roseman said. "We thought he would be a perfect fit for us and a great opportunity for us to acquire the type of player that we were looking for. While that was going, the free agent market was going on at the same time, but our focus was getting him to Philadelphia and making him an Eagle. We feel fortunate that it came to fruition."
In the end, all that matters is that they filled the hole. They recognized that it was a problem and they did something about it.
Now on the injury front, Roseman was asked whether after watching the film that he agreed with Ryan's assertion that by the end of last season he was back to 100%?
"You're talking about a really physical, instinctive linebacker. He's in control of that defense. As the season went on, you saw what he's talking about. He was getting it all back and we thought he played his best football in the playoffs. We always watch the middle linebacker in the biggest games toward the end of the season. We had the opportunity to watch him in a 4-3 defense a few years back and see him play against the NFC East. We felt very confident and comfortable making this trade."