When the regular season ended, the Eagles officially earned the designation of The Team Nobody Wants To Play.
That's how general manager Howie Roseman ended up in Mobile, Ala., on Tuesday, watching Senior Bowl practices while trying to figure out to build a better Eagles squad for 2012.
"I think when you're 8-8 and you're at the Senior Bowl, you obviously look back and think there were things you could have done in a different way –- some draft picks you'd like to have back, some signings you would like to have back," Roseman told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "But I think that when you step back and you look at the core of the team and the blend of youth and experience and talent, we have an opportunity to be competitive and to be competitive for a long time."
Still, Roseman doesn't think about what could have happened if the Eagles pulled it together sooner.
"I'm not big on 'what ifs,' " he said. "That's not really how I operate because you can drive yourself crazy in this business about 'what ifs. Whether it's a guy you wanted to pick and he's picked right before you or negotiating with a free agent and being the second guy in or thinking about the games you could have won. You are what your record says you are, and we got to get better and improve, and that includes me."
It's best that Roseman doesn't play the "what if" game, because it'd probably keep him up at night. The Eagles were scorching hot in December and very well could have followed a similar path that the Giants took to Super Bowl XLVI. But they didn't.
