Opening remarks: Andy Reid: "I appreciate everybody coming out today. I'd like to introduce Howie Roseman as our general manager. I'm very excited, not only for Howie, but for our organization and our personnel department. I think he has done an exceptional job over the years and his growth has been phenomenal. He's had an opportunity to work with Tom Heckert and the scouts and guide them in the direction that we had over the last couple of years with the drafts that we've had. He's done a phenomenal job there. I'm as excited as can be to introduce Howie as the new general manager."
Howie Roseman: "All of this, this is really exciting for me. I can't tell you how excited and how honored I am to be the general manager of this great franchise. I want to thank Jeffrey and Christina Lurie for this opportunity, for their confidence, their support and their encouragement. I want to thank Joe Banner for hiring me ten years ago and for helping to direct me to larger things. I want to thank Tom Heckert for nine years of friendship and teamwork. He's going to do a great job for the Cleveland Browns. Coach Reid, for his leadership, his faith that I can help him to improve this football team; I can't wait to get started. Finally, I want to thank my family especially my wife, Mindy, who's here today and my kids."
On when the opportunity became available to work on the football side of things: HR: "When I got here ten years ago, I was fortunate enough to have people who took me under their wing, allowed me to watch film, analyzed some reports; that started right away. As I grew in my role, I watched more pro tape and I watched more college tape. I've really been doing it since day one, but obviously the role has extended as I've been here."
On what he will enjoy the most about the job: HR: "I think the three parts of being the general manager are knowing about the salary cap, knowing about the pro personnel side and the college side. All of it really comes together. I love the draft process and I love finding players in the league and fitting the pieces together. That's all of it."
On when he realized that he had the traits to fit this particular position: HR: "I think the more you do, the better you get. In the past few years it has become clear to me what we are looking for as an Eagles football player. I feel like the more pro guys you watch to see where the value is in college players, that's what helps. Anything you do, the more you do of it, the better you get."
AR: "I love Howie's energy and I've loved it since I've been here with Howie; his eagerness to grow in the profession. You've seen how we've done it on the coaching side; you've seen how we've done it on the player personnel side of it. His eagerness to learn and then his ability to evaluate are second to none. Then you can add in that Howie mentioned here about being a cap expert and all of those things. That's just icing on the cake from that side of it. His effort and energy, I think you will find out over time here that it is second to none."
On how his role will change: HR: "I don't think much is going to change here. It's going to be the same process as we had last year; setting the draft board and free agency. We'll just keep going."
On whether Roseman will be Reid's "right-hand man" like Tom Heckert was: AR: "Literally he is on my left right now, but yes, he will be. Both of us are very close to Tom (Heckert) and I feel very comfortable in saying that Tom is one of the best personnel guys in the National Football League and he's one of my best friends in the National Football League. He was given an opportunity to have the final say on things which I know he has wanted to do. The organization, they think the world of him. On the other side of this, Howie will step into that role as a smooth transition. Like I said, his ability to evaluate, his energy; he's done a great job of delegating to the scouts, bringing the best out of the scouts and giving them direction. I know that will carry over to the pro personnel department as we put that together. I've got a tremendous amount of confidence in his ability."
On whether he felt like he was labeled as "not being a football guy": HR: "I don't get into the labels. To me, if you work hard and you show proficiency, it's like any other industry. You have to have instinct and you have to be able to do the job. I don't think I would be sitting up here today if I wasn't able to do it. The proof will be in the pudding."
On what Roseman has done in the past to give Reid confidence in him: AR: "I have seen firsthand of his evaluation and his strategy on a future plan and an immediate plan. I know it's well thought out and I know his ability to evaluate is very accurate. He knows exactly what we need personnel-wise to win here and to give the opportunity to the player and to the coach to succeed."
On whether Roseman sees more people from a business background than a legal background at his level: HR: "I can only talk about my individual situation and the people here. I am very fortunate to have the opportunities I've had in this organization. I think it depends on the person."
On whether he knew that he was eventually going to get into the football side: HR: "My first interview was with the Jets to do a pro personnel job. Right out of college I tried to get in the pro personnel side; that's always been my love and that's always been the thing that I've really wanted to do but there weren't really many opportunities. I was told when I got here work hard, learn your area and if you show the proficiency at it, they'll allow you to grow. I'm lucky enough that people here have allowed me to do that."
On what his specific strengths are: HR: "I think it goes back to what a general manager's responsibilities are. I think I know about the cap, I think I know the league and I know the top college players. Hopefully going forward I'll show all those things."
On filling other positions in the front office: AR: "Right now we are in the process of doing that. We wanted to take this first step of making sure that we filled the general manager position, we've done that, and then Howie and I will get together and quickly do the other positions there. We are very fortunate to have great people with us now. We will look at those people first and then go from there."
On whether the organization knew right away that Roseman was the guy: AR: "Obviously we took our time here. I'm not slighting Howie because Howie's obviously sitting here in this position. I interviewed a couple other fellows that I thought did a tremendous job. (Assistant Director of Pro Personnel) Louis Riddick was phenomenal. The sky's the limit for Louis and his abilities. Then, I interviewed (Director of College Scouting) Ryan Grigson. These were lengthy interviews. Myself, Jeff Lurie and Joe Banner had the opportunity to interview these three. We thought they did a very, very good job."
On whether Roseman will travel now that he is the new GM: HR: "I love getting out on the road. I am going to be back on the road in the fall. Whether I do the same amount of traveling this year, I don't know that yet. I will be back on the road looking at guys in person talking to people at schools."
