Howie Roseman has been on a productive streak during draft season

Roseman is in the final days of dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s for the 2026 NFL Draft. The Eagles have eight selections. They have a roster that looks strong on paper, but Roseman understands the reality that nearly every position will be challenged throughout the course of the coming months, if not during the weekend ahead.

The Eagles have been active throughout the course of the free-agency portion of the roster-building process and now comes the most important weekend of the NFL’s offseason: The NFL Draft.

“I think what you’re hoping is that you enter the Draft in position to be able to take the best available player in every round,” Roseman said. “That’s why you use free agency, that’s why you use every resource at your disposal to put yourself in position where you’re not drafting from a position of need.”

The message for Roseman and, truly, for every NFL general manager is to avoid the dreaded “reach” pick, where the selection is made based on filling a positional need rather than taking the “best available player” and staying “true to the board.”

It has happened in the past and the only way to clean it up is to not let it happen again.

“You learn from every decision you make,” Roseman said. “I think every person in my position has those kinds of experiences that you learn from.”

This NFL Draft is unique in that, says Roseman, there are some older, more experienced players available who were granted additional playing years by the NFL because of the COVID season of 2021. That adds to the mix, the intrigue, of projecting players onto a team roster.

“As we go forward here, there are going to be the challenges of guys transferring in the portal, the whole experience of NIL (Name, Image, Likeness), but for this Draft, that COVID year, we’re going to have some older players to consider,” Roseman said. “That is all part of the evaluation process.”

How to stay productive in the NFL Draft? Trust the way the Eagles have been doing things for the last many years, evaluate the prospects accurately and don’t reach for a “need.” That is how Championship rosters are built, something Roseman understands very, very well.