Roseman: We got our QB, knew everything else would take awhile

Howie Roseman's postseason press conference Wednesday did not give Eagles fans any concrete sense of the organization's offseason direction - Roseman apparently feeling that even acknowledging things anybody who watched the games would know somehow might provide opponents with invaluable insight.

The overall theme for Roseman, Eagles executive vice president for football operations, seemed to be that last year's offseason had to be about finding a franchise quarterback, and that nailing down that piece, Carson Wentz, took most of his time and resources; the rest pretty much went to shoring up the offensive line. This offseason, of course, will be about putting more pieces around Wentz.

Roseman reiterated how Wentz didn't become the starter until eight days before the start of the season, and said: "His competitive fire, his intangible skill set, his physical skill set - we couldn't be more excited about the things he brings to the table, and see what he's going to be able to do with a full offseason, and opportunity to grow here in Year 2."

Roseman recited some of the challenges Doug Pederson faced in his first season as Eagles coach, and concluded: "The way the players responded, certainly, toward the end of the season, you could see how the players felt about him. ... Just looking forward to him getting better and continuing to grow, like all of us in our jobs."

Asked his take on the 2016 season, the Eagles' second in a row at 7-9 and third in a row out of the playoffs, Roseman said: "It's never satisfactory when we're sitting here having a press conference in January. But the reality is that when we made this decision to trade up for the quarterback, we're going to build around him. When we re-signed (defensive tackle Fletcher Cox), we knew we had a 25-year-old we were gonna build around. We're going to stick to our plan. We're gonna be disciplined with our process, and we're gonna do the right things for this football team."

Roseman lauded the addition last offseason of former Ravens and Bears executive Joe Douglas as the team's player personnel vice president. He said Douglas looks at players a bit differently than the organization did in the past, though he declined to quantify that difference. He indicated that though Roseman will make the decisions, Douglas will prepare the options from which Roseman will choose.

There were several oblique references to moves made during Chip Kelly's time in charge that the organization is still trying to recover from; at one point, asked about the offense's lack of explosive plays, Roseman noted that the Eagles once led the league in such plays, and that he can't "jump in the DeLorean" and bring that back. DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and LeSean McCoy all left Philadelphia during Kelly's tenure.