Howie Roseman on Josh Huff’s release: “The right thing to do for our football team”

The Eagles cut wide receiver Josh Huff on Thursday morning. Howie Roseman addressed reporters and explained the decision. Here’s everything he said:

As you guys know, we’ve made the decision to release Josh Huff. The last 48 hours, we’ve spent a lot of time discussing as an organization, going through our process, and gathering information.

What changed from yesterday to today? — For us, we just want to go through our process, gather all the information, and then sit down as an organization and make a decision that we think is the right decision for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Why was it the right decision? — For us, we just felt based on the circumstances and the facts involved, that it was the right thing to do for our football team.

Who made the decision? -- We met, Jeffrey [Lurie], Don [Smolenski], myself, and coach [Doug Pederson], and we made this decision together.

Did Huff’s comments on Wednesday factor in? — No. This situation was about gathering all the information, and trying to do what we felt was right for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Did anything new become available between when Doug talked yesterday and the move? — We spent a lot of time over the last 48 hours just making sure that we had the information, and that we weren’t rushing to judgement. We have a process in place for these sorts of things that could lead us to what we think is the right decision.

Did Huff have the gun on the premises? — He told us he did not.

Did you find out that he did? — No.

Did you explore that further, and do you have a rule against that for players? — It’s a league policy about having weapons at the facility.

A number of off-field incidents have occurred. Why is Josh Huff cut? — We have to take each one of these separately, examine the facts that we have, and go through a process, and make a decision that’s in the best interest of this organization.

Why is this more severe than the one with Nigel Bradham? -- The facts of the situation and the circumstances were different than for Nigel.

Was there pressure for you to do something? -- No.

Was everyone on board with the decision when you sat down to discuss it? — Everyone was on board with the decision. That’s why we made the decision. Over the lsat 48 hours, when we go through our process, we talked to a lot of people. And again, there’s no science to this. We have our process, and we try to do what’s right.

Do you have more information than is publicly available? -- I think we’re comfortable with the information that we have that led us to the decision.

When Doug came in yesterday, was the decision you were going to keep him, or did you not know at the time? -- You know, when you look at the timeline from Tuesday until now, we were continuing to gather information. We didn’t want to just rely on media reports. We wanted to be thoughtful in how we were making this decision, and so all day yesterday we really spent a lot of time, through last night, and into this morning when we finally made the final decision.

Did you take into consideration how it conflicts with what Doug said yesterday? — I think we all care about Josh Huff. We care about the players on our team. That’s the business we’re in. We spend a lot of time with them, and these decisions are hard. But we’ve got to do what’s right for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Is it disappointing to have to do this? -- I think that’s the right word. It’s disappointing that we have to stand up here and do this. But we’re trying to build something, and we’re trying to build something that lasts, and some of that means we’re going to have to make some hard decisions, and all we can do is do what we think is right for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Give consideration to the idea that seemingly changing course reflects poorly on Doug? -- Our number one priority is to do what’s right for this team, and [Pederson] is 100 percent on board in doing this. At the same time, while we’re going through the process, we have to sometimes to things to protect the outcome, and we don’t want to get to the outcome without going through our process.

Disappointing that Huff put him in this position? — I think, again, I go back to the word "disappointed" that we’re standing here and discussing this as we’re playing a big game this week. There’s no doubt that he was coming along as a player, and he was helping this team. But we have to do what’s in the best interest of this organization, this building, and the 63 guys. We have a responsibility to a lot of people here, and we don’t take that lightly.

Talk to the players about it? — In the last 48 hours we’ve spent a lot of time with a lot of people in this building, discussing this and going over the scenarios, and we got a lot of good people in this building. We want to do, and they want to do, what’s right as we’re trying to move forward here and build something.

How was the message delivered? -- Coach and I met with Josh this morning, and we just told him in person. Obviously, a tough conversation for all of us.

What was his reaction like? — I think it’s important we keep the specifics of the conversation, but it’s a hard thing to do on all of us. That’s the hardest part of this business.

Was this a cumulative effect with all the incidents? -- We try to take everything individually, try to go through a process, and make a decision that’s right for the Philadelphia Eagles.

How is this different from Bradham’s situation? — A very different set of circumstances, and obviously we have to go through all those to figure out what’s the right decision for us.

The level of charges figure into this? — Again, we have a process that we go through, we look at all the information we have, and we try to make the best decision for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Which of the charges bothered you the most? — I think when we went through the whole process, we thought this was the best decision for the Philadelphia Eagles.

That doesn’t answer the question -- I don’t know that there’s a reason to get into specifics, other than we felt this was the right decision for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Offseason, signed players with character issues. Is this a result? — I would just take this specific instance, and how we felt here, and again, when we went through the last 48 hours, and gathered all the facts and information, we thought this was the right decision.

Moving forward, are you concerned this is something that might happen? -- No. I mean, obviously, I can’t predict the future, but we feel like we have a good group and we’re headed in the right direction.

Has the roster spot been filled yet? — No.

Will it be filled by Sunday? — Yes.

What’s your policy on guns? — There’s a league policy on guns, but again, I think I’d like to just keep it to this specific example with Josh. And we wish him well as he moves forward.