Never Forget: Howie Roseman Got Into A Screaming Match For Drafting Milton Williams

Never Forget: Howie Roseman Got Into A Screaming Match For Drafting Milton Williams

I like to do these remember when posts because if I’ve learned anything in life, most humans have incredibly short memories to the point where it’s concerning. Let’s stick with the Eagles train after having a similar discussion on Kenyon Green. Milton Williams is now a very rich man after helping the Eagles win the Super Bowl and cashing in on a mega free agent contract with the Patriots. Now feels like a very good time to remind people that Howie Roseman got cursed at for drafting a really good football player.

The Eagles selected the Louisiana Tech defensive tackle with the 73rd overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Current Cardinals head coach and former defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon was excited about the pick Howie made. Senior football advisor Tom Donahoe… not so much.

I apologize in advance because this video isn’t exactly idea but it’s the only one I could find on the awkward exchange inside the draft room.

Not that Donahoe was technically horribly wrong. He wanted Alim McNeil, who has since turned into a really good player for the Lions. The argument apparently seemed from the fact that Philly traded down from pick 70 and subsequently got snipped on McNeil.

Roseman explained it during a radio interview that year.

“Let me tell you the story about what happened there because I think you guys deserve it,” said Roseman. “I’ll give you some insight into it. We’re at pick [No. 70], we have two guys standing out on our board, two defensive linemen [McNeil and Williams]. And they’re different flavors. One is a three-technique, one is more of a nose tackle. And so obviously when you have different flavors, everyone likes a different flavor.”

“So Carolina calls and they’re picking two picks behind us and Scott Fitterer says, ‘Hey Howie, you want to drop down two picks for our top of the sixth-round pick?’ I said, ‘You gotta tell me offense-defense.’ He said, ‘I’m taking an offensive player.’ So we know we’re getting one of these two guys [McNeil or Williams],” Roseman explained.

“When we talked to our coaches about their fit and their role, we are excited about these two guys,” Roseman said of McNeil and Williams. “And so one of them goes and then we take Milton Williams. I didn’t even know where the cameras were, to be honest.”

The Eagles Super Bowl LIX Victory Is A Howie Roseman Story

By the way, the best part about this is the fact that the Eagles will be rewarded with a pretty high comp pick for losing Williams. They also collected an extra draft pick when they picked Williams because of the trade down. That’s what good teams do. Get premium production out of middle round draft picks, let said player walk when a dumb team overpays him, and replenish the draft pick back to restart the exact same process over again. Howie Roseman is smart enough to understand this when very few in the league who run teams are.

In case you were curious, I gave the Eagles a B- for their draft that year. Dallas graded ahead of them in that post mostly because they took Micah Parsons.

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