Super Bowl 59 was a coronation, but not in the way one would have expected.
Star players dominated the headlines coming in, with quarterback legacies at the forefront of discussions. Could Jalen Hurts avenge the heartbreak of Super Bowl 57? Would Patrick Mahomes secure a three-peat and take another step in his attempt to bridge the gap to Tom Brady?
The way the game ultimately played out, the person who benefited the most from a legacy standpoint was not on the field.
In the end, Super Bowl 59 was a crowning moment for Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman. Already regarded as one of the top GMs in the sport, the beatdown on Sunday showed he has no peers.
Roseman has seemingly mastered the NFL draft, with players he has selected making an impact across the field on the sport’s biggest stage.
Cooper DeJean, a second-round draft pick by Roseman in the 2024 draft, turned the evening on its head midway through the second quarter, intercepting Mahomes across the middle of the field and taking it back for a pick-6 to put the Eagles up 17-0.
Jalen Hurts, another second-round steal by Roseman, was masterful throughout, making throws when he had to and burning the Chiefs with his legs all night.
One Hurts throw stands out in particular: a 46-yard kill shot touchdown to DeVonta Smith, another pick made by Roseman.
A theme is developing here.
Nolan Smith, Josh Sweat, Brandon Graham and Jalen Carter, again all drafted by Roseman, were in Mahomes’ lap all night, essentially deciding the game on their own.
On the other side of the ball, the Eagles offensive line also dominated thanks to, you guessed it, the draft picks of Roseman.
I could keep going but won’t. You get the point.
Roseman’s roster mastery extends beyond just the draft.
Jahan Dotson arrived mid-season from division rivals Washington Commanders for a handful of picks. His influence was sporadic throughout the regular season, but his impact was felt on Sunday, with his huge catch setting up the Eagles’ first score of the evening.
AJ Brown, the Eagles’ supernova wide receiver, was brought in for a first-round pick and has repaid that price in droves since. Brown added another Super Bowl touchdown to his resume on Sunday and now has a ring to his name, a more than worthy return for Roseman’s decision to bring him to Philadelphia.
Roseman unearthed recently-minted All-Pro linebacker Zack Baun this offseason, signing him to a one-year, $1.6 million deal, a nothing contract that was made to look even more paltry when he also picked off Mahomes Sunday.
On a roster full of Roseman’s sterling acquisitions, perhaps the masterstroke of them all was Saquon Barkley. This offseason, Roseman zagged, prioritizing bringing in the highly-talented Barkley, while other GMs scoffed at the idea of ‘gambling’ and paying a running back in free agency.
As it turns out, paying Barkley was not a gamble at all. Though he was largely bottled up on Sunday, the Penn State product ran wild all season and was the driving force behind a season Philadelphians will remember forever.
Maybe Roseman is onto something, and running backs do matter, after all. He does seem to be perpetually one step ahead of his contemporaries.
Though his time at the helm in Philadelphia has produced many memorable teams, this roster is Roseman’s magnum opus. A team constructed to win in any manner necessary and a group of players for which anything less than a Lombardi trophy would not be sufficient.
Eagles’ owner Jeffrey Lurie put it best earlier this week when told many other owners pine for his GM.
“How could they not? He’s done an extraordinary job,” Lurie said.
Too often, NFL GMs’ reigns are filled with missteps. Missteps that snowball. Missteps that prove insurmountable and ultimately end in tears, with a new GM being brought in to clean up the mess left behind by the previous regime.
Roseman is the opposite. All of his roster decisions have built on each other. 53 players that fit seamlessly together. Years of shrewd moves and stellar drafting that culminated in the on-field crescendo seen by the world on Sunday.
Naturally, the players on the field will dominate the headlines in the coming days. Rightly so, given the certainty with which the Eagles won and the history that they denied the Chiefs of with their victory.
Howie Roseman should not be lost in the shuffle. His prowess was on display Sunday in New Orleans and, given the makeup of the current Eagles roster, likely will be for years to come.
