Grading Howie Roseman's 2025: The Case for the NFL's Best GM

Every general manager in the NFL gets graded. It comes with the territory. But few GMs invite the kind of microscopic scrutiny that Howie Roseman does in Philadelphia, where every move is dissected, debated, and second-guessed by one of the most passionate and informed fanbases in professional sports.

So how did Roseman's 2025 stack up? As discussed on Birds 365, the answer isn't as straightforward as the final record might suggest. It was a year of calculated risks, some misses, a few quiet wins, and one midseason trade that may have saved the entire season. Let's break it down.

The Prove-It Signings: C-

Let's address the elephant in the room first. The Eagles' 2025 free agency class was built around a specific philosophy: bring in veterans on short-term, incentive-laden contracts and see who earns a larger role. It's a common approach for teams trying to maintain cap flexibility while filling roster spots. The problem? Most of those prove-it signings didn't prove much of anything.

The list of free agent additions that failed to make a meaningful impact is longer than Eagles fans would like to admit. Players brought in to compete for starting jobs or provide quality depth largely underwhelmed, whether due to injuries, poor fit, or simply not being good enough. In a league where the margin between winning and losing is razor-thin, getting minimal production from your free agent class is a significant setback.

The saving grace is that the financial exposure was limited by design. These weren't massive, multi-year commitments that would haunt the cap for seasons to come. They were one-year flyers, and when they didn't work out, the Eagles could move on without lasting damage. Smart structure, disappointing results.

The Master Plan: Context Matters

Here's where evaluating Roseman requires zooming out from the individual transactions and looking at the broader strategy. The 2025 free agency approach wasn't designed to be a splash offseason. It was always intended as a bridge year — a deliberate exercise in maintaining cap flexibility ahead of a wave of upcoming contract extensions for the Eagles' core players.

The question facing the Eagles was simple: Do you spend aggressively in free agency knowing that major extensions for homegrown stars are on the horizon? Or do you accept a slight dip in roster depth in the short term to ensure you have the financial flexibility to lock up the players who truly matter?

Roseman chose the latter, and while it's easy to criticize the prove-it signings that didn't pan out, the strategic logic behind the approach was sound. You can't grade a GM's offseason purely on the players he signed. You also have to consider the positioning he created for the future.

The Draft: Campbell and Mukuba Show Promise — B+

If the free agency class was a disappointment, the 2025 draft class has been a bright spot. And in the NFL, draft capital is king — getting contributions from your rookie class is far more valuable than hitting on free agent signings, because those players are cost-controlled for four years.

The standouts have been exactly who the Eagles needed them to be. Both Campbell and Mukuba showed genuine promise during the season, flashing the kind of traits that suggest they can develop into long-term contributors. For a franchise that prides itself on building through the draft, that's exactly what you want to see from your rookie class.

Campbell brought an element that the Eagles had been lacking, showing enough to generate genuine excitement about his trajectory. Mukuba, meanwhile, displayed the versatility and instincts that made him such an intriguing prospect coming out of college. Neither player was perfect — rookies rarely are — but both showed that the Eagles' evaluation process identified legitimate NFL talent.

As discussed on Birds 365, it's the development arc that matters most with draft picks. Early returns are encouraging, and if both players continue to progress as expected, the 2025 draft class could end up being one of the more impactful groups Roseman has assembled.

The Phillips Trade: A+ — The Move That Saved the Season

If there's one transaction that defines Howie Roseman's 2025, it's the Phillips trade. This is the move that separates a good GM from a great one — the ability to identify a need in real time, find the right player to fill it, and pull the trigger without hesitation.

The Eagles were at a crossroads when Roseman made the deal. The season was in danger of slipping away, and the roster as constructed wasn't quite good enough to overcome the challenges it was facing. Rather than stand pat and hope things got better on their own, Roseman went out and made a move that directly addressed the team's most pressing weakness.

The impact was immediate and undeniable. Phillips transformed the unit he joined, elevating not just his own position but the performance of the players around him. The Eagles' trajectory changed from the moment he arrived, and the team's second-half surge can be directly traced to the infusion of talent and energy that the trade provided.

This is what Roseman does better than almost anyone in the league. He's not afraid to be aggressive when the moment calls for it, and he has an eye for identifying the specific type of player who can change a team's fortunes. The Phillips trade wasn't just a good move — it was the move that saved the season.

The Overall Grade: B+

Grading a general manager's season is inherently imprecise, because so much of the job operates on different timelines. Free agent signings can be evaluated within months. Draft picks take years. Trades fall somewhere in between. And the cap maneuvering that enables everything else is often invisible to fans until years down the road.

Roseman's 2025 wasn't perfect. The prove-it signings were largely a bust, and there were moments during the season when the roster's depth issues — a direct result of the conservative free agency approach — were painfully exposed. If you're looking for reasons to criticize, they're there.

But the hits were significant. The draft class showed promise with Campbell and Mukuba establishing themselves as legitimate contributors. The Phillips trade was a masterstroke that altered the course of the season. And the underlying cap strategy — absorbing short-term pain to create long-term flexibility — was the kind of forward-thinking approach that separates the best front offices from the rest.

The Bigger Question: Best GM in the NFL?

The debate about whether Howie Roseman is the best general manager in the NFL is one that surfaces every offseason, and 2025 adds another chapter to the argument. His track record over the past decade is remarkable — a Super Bowl championship, consistent playoff appearances, and a roster that has remained competitive even through transition periods.

What sets Roseman apart isn't any single move. It's the consistency of the process. Year after year, he finds ways to keep the Eagles in contention despite the inherent challenges of the salary cap, the draft, and the constant churn of NFL rosters. He makes mistakes — every GM does — but he rarely makes the same mistake twice, and his ability to course-correct midseason is arguably unmatched in the league.

A B+ season for Howie Roseman would be a career year for most general managers. That's the standard he's set for himself. And as the Eagles head into what promises to be a pivotal 2026 offseason with significant cap space and draft capital, the stage is set for Roseman to remind everyone why he belongs in the conversation as the best in the business.

The prove-it signings didn't work. The draft class did. The Phillips trade was brilliant. And the cap positioning for the future looks strong. That's a year most front offices would take in a heartbeat — even if Eagles fans will always want more.