Eagles Howie Roseman Sheds Light On "Worst Day Of Year"

As Eagles linebackers kept it loose waiting to hear their fate, general manager Howie Roseman was all business in trimming the roster to 53 players, and he shined some light on the process.

Eagles GM Howie Roseman speaks after trimming the roster to 53 players. / Ed Kracz/Eagles on SI

PHILADELPHIA – The final preseason game had just ended and roster cuts were looming. That didn’t stop Julian Okwara and Terrell Lewis from clowning around a bit after the Eagles wrapped up the exhibition slate with a loss against the Minnesota Vikings on Saturday.

Th two outside linebackers had to share a locker, because, with a roster still at 91 players, there just aren’t enough of them to go around.

"I feel like he's pretty courteous,” said Okwara about Lewis. “He's got his half. I got my half. I feel like when I came in, I changed and got out the way. Let him have it. When I see him, I sprint to the chair. I sit down before he comes back.”

Lewis quipped back, “It's no different than a bunk bed. I'll take the top bunk.”

They came from college just a year apart and needled each other about who would have won a game between their respective colleges- the Notre Dame for Okwara against Lewis and his school, Alabama.

Their goal was to earn their own locker. It didn’t happen. Both ended up getting cut on Tuesday. They should know, though, that there were no easy decisions when it came time for the Eagles to trim their roster to 53 players.

“Always the worst day of the year,” said Roseman. “Everyone we bring in this building, we bring in because of how much we appreciate them, and we like them. We get to select who we bring in this building, which is one of the perks of our jobs. One of the worst parts of our jobs is telling 38 guys today that they don't make the team.”

Roseman shed a little light on the cutdown process, just as a little light was shined on how Okwara and Lewis tried to stay loose as they awaited word on their roster fate.

The GM said each department plays a role, from the front office to the coaches to the scouts.

“At the end of the day, our jobs are different,” he said. “I think that's one of the things that we respect about each other is that I have a different job than Coach (Nick Sirianni), our scouts have a different job than the assistant coaches, and that's understandable.

“But at the end of the day, we're all trying to win. We're trying to win as much as we possibly can this year and then go back and do it again next year and the year after that. Yeah, they have voices. We had an opportunity to do that. I can't tell you that every single guy on the roster was unanimous. I think that's okay. I understand that.”

Sirianni chimed in while his GM was talking to say that coaches are basically a selfish lot.

“If you ask (defensive ends/outside linebackers coach] Jeremiah Washburn, he's going to keep eight guys at that position,” said the coach. “Sometimes - we're selfish. They want to keep their guys because they've worked so hard with it.”

Roseman finished with this: “I think it's easy to accuse front office guys of wanting to have their draft picks and have guys like that. I think, because I've been doing this long enough, I try to really balance it and try to make sure that we're doing the right things to make sure the coaches have everything they need to win as many games as possible and that we're also developing players, so we don't go into next year with 25 free agents and having to replace a ton of guys. But it's tricky.”

As Okwara and Lewis, and others, ultimately found out.

More NFL: Eagles Hang On To Veteran Defensive Back: "He Can Help Our Team"