Joe Banner was a guest of PFT Live today and was surprisingly candid about both his future plans and his history with the Eagles. He told Mike Florio that he approached Jeff Lurie with his desire to pursue something new last spring during the lockout. Since then, the two gave COO Don Smolenski and GM Howie Roseman increased responsibilities in anticipation of them taking over for Banner when he did leave.
Specifically, Banner says that Howie Roseman has handled every contract negotiation over the past year, which was seemingly confirmed by Drew Rosenhaus to Paul Domowitch. Rosenhaus said the only deal he worked with Banner on was for a UDFA.
"Howie really handled exclusively the negotiations for DeSean and Evan and LeSean," Rosenhaus said. "Joe wasn’t directly involved in any of those discussions from the start of the offseason. I actually negotiated (undrafted free agent safety) Phillip Thomas’s contract with Joe. I remember him calling and joking about the fact that he wanted to work on at least one deal with me this offseason."
Banner says that he is now in discussions with investors interested in buying an NFL franchise. He plans to put together an ownership group and assume a similar role he had with the Eagles when and if they are able to acquire a team. He does not know if any teams are currently "for sale" but says that they won't target teams that are currently "doing well." Their interest in a team will likely be "driven by their stadium situation." He's also not opposed to moving a team to LA.
Basically, he's looking to re-create what he did with the Eagles. Buy a struggling team that was renting a dilapidated stadium, get a new one built and bring the team back to prominence.