Howie Roseman’s ‘Attachment’ Problem

PHILADELPHIA (973espn.com) - After a disappointing season, at least in his eyes, Howie Roseman did something rare at his season-ending press conference.

The Eagles general manager acknowledged an issue with getting attached.

"I know for me, one of my weaknesses is getting attached to our players," Roseman admitted. "There's no doubt about it."

Roseman blurted out his own personal self-scout when asked about potentially adding an outside voice -- be it in personnel or coaching -- to an organization that perhaps has gotten a little too comfortable in how it does business after the Super Bowl LII win.

This past season that manifested itself when the Eagles went to old standbys like Jordan Matthews and Jay Ajayi when injuries hit rather than pull the trigger on younger plays like Greg Ward and Boston Scott, who ultimately proved to be much better options when the former proved to be dead ends.

The problem went far deeper than that as well with Roseman bringing back aging old favorites who lived up to injury-prone labels like DeSean Jackson and Darren Sproles.

Verbalizing a problem is not the same as solving one, however, and while there is a long way to September and we are still weeks away from the new league year Roseman has shown no indication that he will be deviating from his attachment syndrome.

Bringing back former Eagles favorite Connor Barwin to the personnel department was already in the pipeline when Roseman spoke after the season and in a way Barwin had already been on the job, being spotted at the NovaCare Complex many times in the waning weeks of the season observing practice.

Roseman even hinted at the addition during the same presser he acknowledged getting attached.

"We are going to make some additions here in the next couple days which we'll announce, too, that we're excited about, and we try to have different perspectives," Roseman said.

The open secret revealed itself at the East-West Shrine Bowl practices when Barwin was with the Eagles staff and Philadelphia made it official by naming the formed edge rusher as special assistant to the general manager [Roseman] last week.

At Senior Bowl practices this week former tight end Brent Celek has joined Barwin, although no title has been unveiled just yet.

It's conceivable that both Barwin and Celek, who were both known as High IQ players, turn into wunderkinds in the scouting world but they have less experience actually scouting players than the thousands on YouTube who convinced their parents to cough up $99 for NFL Game Pass so they can pretend they are Ron Wolf on social media.

What can't be debated is that Barwin and Celek are part of the family and not offering different perspectives to a boss who has allowed them to skip steps because he got attached to them as players.

To be fair Barwin's position is a newly-created one that isn't taking away from another and Celek's role remains to be seen if it ever becomes official. That said, it's also very fair to say Roseman still has that self-scouted attachment problem.

-John McMullen covers the Eagles and the NFL for 973espn.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen