'Culture Of Curiosity And Information And Instinct' Fuels Eagles Exec's GM Candidacy

Eagles assistant GM Alec Halaby will be interviewing for the New York Jets GM job this week.

Eagles Assistant GM Alec Halaby / Philadelphia Eagles

PHILADELPHIA - For the second consecutive year, Eagles executive Alec Halaby is set to interview for an NFL GM job.

Currently one of Philadelphia's two assistant general managers -- the other is football operations expert Jon Ferrari -- under well-regarded GM Howie Roseman, Halaby interviewed for the GM jobs of Washington and Carolina during last year's hiring cycle, jobs that ultimately went to Adam Peters and Dan Morgan, respectively.

"It was a great learning experience. It gives you an opportunity to reflect on your own journey, reflect on what you've learned here in Philadelphia, how you see things. I was really appreciative of that," Halaby said earlier this year when speaking to a small group of reporters about his opportunities.

According to NFL Media, Halaby will speak with the Jets on Wednesday for their vacant general manager position. Another former Eagles' exec, Joe Douglas, was the previous GM who was fired on Nov. 19 when the Jets were 3-8.

Phil Savage, a former Cleveland GM and the executive director for the Senior Bowl who also spent time in the Philadelphia personnel department from 2010 to 2012, has been serving as the interim GM of the Jets.

The ambition is there for Halaby to run his own team but the Harvard alum remains happy learning his craft under Roseman in the meantime.

"Not for me to decide," Halaby said when asked what he needs to do to land a GM job. "I'm really happy with where I am now and the job I do right now and I'm really focused on the team we have right now."

That team is currently 14-3 and set to open the playoffs Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field against the 11-6 Green Bay Packers.

Halaby arrived in Philadelphia as an intern in 2007 and slowly began to rise on the organization's flow chart from player personnel analyst (2010-11) to special assistant to the GM (2012-15) and vice president of football operations and strategy in 2016. He was named an assistant GM in 2022 after Andy Weidl left to take the assistant GM job in Pittsburgh.

His expertise is always tied toward analytics but over the years, Halaby's role has evolved to include college and pro scouting as well as the salary cap and player performance and development.

"Full scope of the operation," Halaby said when asked about his evolution "... "Learning about all those different verticals and seeing the full operation and how it works, I think that's (where I've grown), whereas in 2009/2010, those were areas I wasn't as familiar with."

Under Roseman, the Eagles have developed a reputation around the league for developing front-office talent.

In recent years, Douglas, as well as executives like Chicago assistant GM Ian Cunningham, New York Giants assistant GM Brandon Brown, Cleveland GM Andrew Berry, Browns assistant GM Catherine Hickman, and Weidl have gotten promotions in other cities.

“Those assistant GMs became GMs because they are so well-trained,” Lurie said when discussing Roseman's ability to frow football executives at a recent NFL owners meeting. "They’re not just trained on scouting, they’re not just trained on analytics, they’re not just trained on football ops in certain ways.

Roseman was asked to speak to the other owners according to Lurie because the Eagles GM "Train these people [well], they’re talented to begin with, but they have multiple responsibilities.

"They get access to everything. They’re not just, ‘Here’s the scout.’ That scout needs to understand at some point how to use resources, why we do certain things, why the salary cap management takes place the way it is, what’s the difference between the analysis on film and the analysis on data and how that collaborates and works together."

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