Eagles Open-Up the Check Book with an Eye to the Future

Nobody can accuse Eagles' team owner Jeff Lurie of being cheap. When the top brass running his team such as executive vice president of operations Howie Roseman needs the chief to open-up his checkbook Lurie appears to be more than happy to start handing out blank checks. This past week Philly paid a king's ransom to secure defensive lineman Fletcher Cox to a long-term six year deal worth a reportedly $103 million.

In actuality, the Eagles have been spending money like a drunken sailor this entire offseason extending the contracts of many of the key players that will shape both the present and the future of this team. This is great news to die-hard Eagles' fans that are starved for a championship as long as the players they are signing can live up to the expectations of these inflated contracts. It is great to have a certain level of continuity with your team's roster, but you do not want to get into the habit of overpaying for marginal talent.

Roseman has been right on a few occasions when it comes to handling the player personnel decisions for the Eagles, but he has been drastically wrong on a number of occasions as well. He was the brains behind drafting Danny Watkins in the first round of the 2011 draft, but that mistake got pinned on Andy Reid. What about the decision to go with Marcus Smith as the Birds' top pick in 2014? I guess we can pin that one on Chip Kelly, but that was before he took complete control of the team so I am sure Roseman had a hand in that blunder as well.

In what could be Roseman's most questionable decision during his tenure in Philly was mortgaging next year's draft and beyond to get quarterback Carson Wentz with the second overall pick of this year's draft. That decision will take a few seasons to play itself out, but it will eventually define Roseman's legacy with this team. I am all for giving the right players the right amount of cash to keep them in midnight green during the prime years of their playing career, but tying up cap space on the wrong players is a mistake that can set a team on a downward spiral that will take a number of years to correct.