Eagles Notes: Roseman's rapport with players is good

As Joe Banner steps aside as Eagles president and general manager Howie Roseman takes on more responsibility for salary-cap management and negotiations, the perception around the team is that the organization has traded an iron fist for a lighter, softer touch in negotiations.

To many fans and some players, Banner was seen as the cold executive responsible for many of the team's most unpopular personnel moves, though Banner would argue that he was trying to make decisions in the team's best interests.

"What you want to do is shoot to be perceived as tough but fair and honest, and I think that's the right balance," Banner said in an interview Thursday. "If you're shooting for that perception, occasionally maybe you get too tough."

Banner, though, argued that he had an "excellent" relationship with agents.

"We've had a long history of re-signing our own players very successfully," he said.

Roseman, though, has been credited with being closer to players and more willing to meet in the middle during negotiations.

"He's got a great relationship with players," tight end Brent Celek said of Roseman.

Banner was intentionally more distant as he sometimes made tough business decisions about whom to re-sign and how much to pay them. Some of that responsibility for making difficult, unpopular choices may now fall to Roseman.

"Part of running a sports team . . . is you make decisions that you feel are right, and they're going to be unpopular at times," Roseman said. "But you're trying to do the best things in the best interest of your team."

Running back LeSean McCoy, excused for personal reasons, was absent on the final day of voluntary offseason practices Thursday. Linebacker Casey Matthews, who had missed two practices with a back injury, returned to the field.

Mandatory practices next week run Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. They are the last sessions before training camp opens July 22.