Eagles Owner Jeffrey Lurie last summer quietly extended GM Howie Roseman's contract "for an additional four to five years" after Joe Banner stepped down as team President, according to a source cited by Jeff McLane of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. When Lurie first announced a "succession plan" in June, he said that new President Don Smolenski had "signed a multiyear deal." He did not "elaborate on Roseman's contract, however, except to say that he had an existing contract." It "turns out that deal ... lengthened significantly." The contract appears to give Roseman "security beyond this season." He is likely to "play an important part" in choosing coach Andy Reid's successor should Lurie fire him. Since Roseman was named the league's youngest GM in January '10, the Eagles have "gone 21-19 and lost a playoff game to the Packers" after the '10 regular season (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 11/7). CSNPHILLY.com's Reuben Frank wrote the new contract "doesn't guarantee that Roseman would survive a mass firing at the end of the season ... but it does make it far more likely that Roseman would remain" even if Reid is fired. Not "just because he's under contract through at least 2016 but because the extension he signed just a few months ago shows just how strongly" Lurie supports Roseman. If Lurie decides to fire Reid, he could "determine that the team's problems had more to do with coaching than with talent and justify bringing Roseman back with the explanation that despite poor drafts in 2010 and 2011, he stocked the roster with enough talented players through free agency, trades and the 2012 draft for the coaches to have every opportunity to win" (CSNPHILLY.com, 11/6). Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio said from Lurie's perspective, Roseman "has done a great job.” The win-loss record “will be pinned on Andy Reid regardless of how good these players are or aren't” (“PFT,” NBC Sports Network, 11/6).
