Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily's Power Players, where we talk to
Speaker 1: smart people inside the sport about how they do football.
Speaker 1: Peel back the curtain a little further for our listeners.
Speaker 1: I'm Jordan Rodrigue. Today, I am thrilled to welcome Adam Barry,
Speaker 1: the assistant general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles. Adam has
Speaker 1: a really unique background. He played football in college at Princeton.
Speaker 1: He was a receiver, went into finance after he graduated,
Speaker 1: and ultimately spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs as a
Speaker 1: managing director. We will talk to him about what that
Speaker 1: actually means because I personally did not know. Eagles general
Speaker 1: manager Howie Roseman has a knack for hiring smart people
Speaker 1: first and then getting all the football stuff figured out later.
Speaker 1: And so he heard Adam speak to a group and
Speaker 1: decided he wanted to hire him first. as the Eagles
Speaker 1: Director of Football Operations and Strategy in 2023. Now, Adam
Speaker 1: is the Assistant General Manager, and the Eagles are once
Speaker 1: again retooling many of their football processes and trying to
Speaker 1: find competitive edges, as they always do. This is a
Speaker 1: front office that leads the league in many areas, including
Speaker 1: thinking differently, and I am so excited to get into
Speaker 1: that with Adam today. Let's get started. Adam, I am
Speaker 1: so grateful that you could join me today for this
Speaker 1: episode of NFL Daily's Power Players. You have so much
Speaker 1: in your background and in your current role that I
Speaker 1: want to get into. But first and foremost, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being here today.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me, Jordan.
Speaker 3: It's exciting to participate in this and to talk shop
Speaker 3: a little bit. So I'm excited to be on and thanks.
Speaker 2: For having me.
Speaker 1: One thing we really love is process here. This is
Speaker 1: what this show is all about. I know you're such
Speaker 1: a process geek too. So this was one that I
Speaker 1: was really looking forward to for a long time. And
Speaker 1: I'm going to make you talk about yourself too, which
Speaker 1: I know you're not hugely a fan of, but let's
Speaker 1: start with your, with your background. It's super unique. I
Speaker 1: don't even know how to do my taxes fully. So
Speaker 1: can you explain to me what your job was before
Speaker 1: you started working for the Eagles and what that means
Speaker 1: in the landscape of the financial world?
Speaker 2: Well, you're not.
Speaker 3: Alone because I think my wife always told me when
Speaker 3: I worked at Goldman Sachs that she could not explain
Speaker 3: what I was doing either. And then by the time
Speaker 3: I was just about to leave, she had it gone
Speaker 3: down to a sentence and then no longer that was
Speaker 3: my job. But I worked at Goldman Sachs for 14 years.
Speaker 3: My last job was head of the US loan trading
Speaker 3: business within corporate credit. And What that means is for
Speaker 3: all the corporations out there that borrow money and need
Speaker 3: to be loaned money.
Speaker 2: That are U.S.
Speaker 3: Domiciled, my business was responsible for buying, selling, trading their debt.
Speaker 3: And so as part of that business, you have the
Speaker 3: opportunity to buy loans that you think are undervalued or
Speaker 3: short loans that you think are overvalued on behalf of
Speaker 3: the firm. But there's also a customer facing side of
Speaker 3: the business as well, too. So You know, for many
Speaker 3: of your listeners, they have 401ks or pension plans with
Speaker 3: their employers. A lot of those people were helping them
Speaker 3: invest money as well, too, as well as hedge funds
Speaker 3: and mutual funds as well, too. And so you're managing
Speaker 3: a trading desk, a sales force and operations team. It
Speaker 3: was very different than what I was doing in terms
Speaker 3: of functionally versus what I'm doing with the Eagles right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's so interesting because I feel like because
Speaker 1: you played football and you were involved in football, football
Speaker 1: is in your life and your family and in all corners.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking there had to be some way that football
Speaker 1: was sort of leaking into your day to day, at
Speaker 1: the very least, the competitive aspect of it, because it
Speaker 1: sounds very calm the way you're speaking about it right now.
Speaker 1: But man, I've seen the movies, right? Like it is
Speaker 1: not a calm profession.
Speaker 3: No, the movies get at least some of it right.
Speaker 3: The trading floor is not exactly the most calm profession,
Speaker 3: as you put it.
Speaker 2: What many people don't.
Speaker 3: Know is that a lot of traders are former collegiate
Speaker 3: athletes across a whole range of different sports. And I
Speaker 3: think what I found in going into trading was a
Speaker 3: lot of us have aspirations of being able to play
Speaker 3: football professionally or play a sport professionally, but I certainly
Speaker 3: wasn't good enough to do that. And so you look
Speaker 3: for something that kind of fuels your competitive drive and
Speaker 3: you know, what you grew up with doing as an
Speaker 3: athlete and trading comes really close to that because it's
Speaker 3: a high pressure environment.
Speaker 2: It's certainly not necessarily.
Speaker 3: Always the it's a little bit can be a rough
Speaker 3: environment where people are going to tell you exactly what
Speaker 3: they think or what you need to do. You have a,
Speaker 3: you know, a quote unquote scoreboard every day in terms
Speaker 3: of your profit and loss. And it's just really highly
Speaker 3: competitive because you're going against other institutions and banks that
Speaker 3: are competing for customer business, competing to, you know, getting edge,
Speaker 3: doing all these different things. And so it really does
Speaker 3: kind of quench your kind of competitive fire, like as
Speaker 3: a former athlete that goes into it as well too.
Speaker 3: So there are certainly similarities, as you point out, which
Speaker 3: we can delve into more as we, as we continue.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. And I'm curious, cause I've always wanted
Speaker 1: to hear you tell this story is, is how we, your, your,
Speaker 1: your sort of world's crossover story. And you're just there
Speaker 1: and you're just in the moment. You're thinking, OK, I'm presenting.
Speaker 1: I'm giving a talk at this. I think it was
Speaker 1: a seminar or a consultation. And and you have no
Speaker 1: idea in the moment that this NFL GM at the
Speaker 1: top of his game is listening to you and is like,
Speaker 1: I think I should hire that guy. Can you take
Speaker 1: me through how you guys met and kind of what
Speaker 1: that process was?
Speaker 2: Sure, sure.
Speaker 3: It certainly is a unique story. It's kind of, it's
Speaker 3: always a reminder. You don't know, you know, where your
Speaker 3: next opportunity will necessarily come from. But, you know, as
Speaker 3: part of being a business head in our business, we
Speaker 3: had a, what I call like a client conference where
Speaker 3: we brought in a lot of our corporate and institutional
Speaker 3: clients to a place on the West Coast where we
Speaker 3: hosted them for multiple days and And as part of
Speaker 3: that conference where we're giving content, we usually tried to
Speaker 3: bring in a speaker who had a non-finance background to
Speaker 3: talk about what they do and to make some comparisons
Speaker 3: to the business world to see if there's something that
Speaker 3: we could learn. And so that year we invited Howie Roseman.
Speaker 3: And as somebody who was senior within the firm at
Speaker 3: that point, I got asked to be part of the
Speaker 3: keynote presentation and work on that with Howie and to
Speaker 3: present with him. And so we got to work together
Speaker 3: over the course of a few days. We presented together.
Speaker 3: It was received positively.
Speaker 2: And it was.
Speaker 3: Sometime after that, Howie reached out to me and said, hey,
Speaker 3: would you consider pivoting from business to sports. And, you know,
Speaker 3: Howie is very charismatic, right? So I'm thinking that, you know,
Speaker 3: he's just joking. And this is just a polite way
Speaker 3: of him, you know, saying, Hey, you know, I appreciate
Speaker 3: working with you. And, you know, making me feel good.
Speaker 3: I was like, Oh, that's really nice thing to say.
Speaker 3: So I don't think it's actually like a serious job opportunity.
Speaker 3: And so He eventually reaches out to, I guess he
Speaker 3: must have reached out to my brother just to be like, hey,
Speaker 3: you know, just so you know, I want to talk
Speaker 3: to your brother about this. And it was like, hey,
Speaker 3: Howie said he came to you about a punch opportunity.
Speaker 3: And I was immediately embarrassed because I was like, I
Speaker 3: didn't know that he was.
Speaker 2: Being serious about it.
Speaker 3: This is someone who was, you know, as a Hall
Speaker 3: of Fame general manager, you know, off of this exposure,
Speaker 3: thinking that, you know, someone who'd been a career, you know,
Speaker 3: been in finance for that long, right? that would be
Speaker 3: something that he would think to do. And when it
Speaker 3: came down to it and talking to Howie and he's
Speaker 3: talking about his vision for the role, for me, for
Speaker 3: how I could help the organization, the things that, how
Speaker 3: unique it would be to work in football. He's an
Speaker 3: elite recruiter among other things. Where I came down on
Speaker 3: it was, here was a really rare opportunity to do
Speaker 3: something that was an incredible life experience, really special to
Speaker 3: learn from somebody who was literally at the top of
Speaker 3: his game for an organization that's very forward thinking. And that,
Speaker 3: you know, if I said no to something like this,
Speaker 3: these opportunities don't come around, but literally once in a lifetime. And,
Speaker 3: you know, the business world was, was, and is always
Speaker 3: going to be there, but the opportunity to work in
Speaker 3: professional football for such a best in class organization is
Speaker 3: was not. And so, uh, you know, we, myself and
Speaker 3: my family, we decided that this is the move that
Speaker 3: we wanted to do and, and haven't looked back and
Speaker 3: it's been fantastic.
Speaker 1: So I love this story for many reasons. First of all,
Speaker 1: because to me, it's gets to the heart of something
Speaker 1: that we're going to talk about more later in the show,
Speaker 1: which is where don't the Eagles look when they're team building, right?
Speaker 1: But also, They, it's an organization that is so paralleled
Speaker 1: in some ways with being at the apex competitive environment
Speaker 1: internally and also across the league. And so you were
Speaker 1: used to that. And obviously you had football in your
Speaker 1: background and you had played at a high level in college.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, jumping into a strategy role,
Speaker 1: a director of operations role, a role where he's basically
Speaker 1: telling you, here's a blank sketchbook, create. What was that
Speaker 1: like for you? And digging into it for real and thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm really going to make, carve something out in this space.
Speaker 3: You know, I would say the learning curve was steep, right?
Speaker 3: Because you're learning, you know, just a new industry, right?
Speaker 3: A new industry, you're learning at times new jargon, a
Speaker 3: new language. There's a lot that you're learning. But as
Speaker 3: you noted, there were certain things qualities and skills that
Speaker 3: I was able to bring from my previous experience that
Speaker 3: were much more translatable than I maybe anticipated that they
Speaker 3: would be when originally I was going to make the transition.
Speaker 3: But there are certainly times where you're being pushed out
Speaker 3: of your comfort zone. But I think every experience for
Speaker 3: growth and every experience that, you know, people who have
Speaker 3: had a lot of success in this industry, as well
Speaker 3: as other industries, they're willing to go outside of their
Speaker 3: comfort zone. And what I really appreciate is that, you know,
Speaker 3: Howie is somebody who also had a unique background, you know,
Speaker 3: before he became the general manager of the Eagles. And
Speaker 3: so he had a very clear view and vision of
Speaker 3: what I needed to do in order to get to
Speaker 3: where I needed to be. And so, and part of
Speaker 3: that is because he was able, he had lived that
Speaker 3: previously in his experience. And so immediately he had me
Speaker 3: in all different facets of the football operation. He made
Speaker 3: sure that I was evaluated, writing the entire draft board,
Speaker 3: that I was going on college visits, that I was
Speaker 3: covering pro teams, that I was doing a lot of the,
Speaker 3: a lot of work within free agency and that evaluation
Speaker 3: process as well too. And when Howie couldn't be there
Speaker 3: to be the person who was talking to me at
Speaker 3: any given moment, he was very thoughtful about who I
Speaker 3: was working with within the organization.
Speaker 2: He's hired really well on our staff.
Speaker 3: We've had a lot of people who have gone through
Speaker 3: Philly and then had the opportunity to do some really
Speaker 3: amazing things outside of Philly. And so if I'm not
Speaker 3: working on personnel stuff with Howie directly, you know, I
Speaker 3: get a chance to, in the cap and contract space,
Speaker 3: when I first started, work with Bryce Johnston, right? And
Speaker 3: think about how we think about our strategic planning and
Speaker 3: the cap and our resource usage. I get to work
Speaker 3: with Alec Hallaby and talk about, you know, the intersection
Speaker 3: about data and personnel and, you know, his wealth of
Speaker 3: experience in all these different silos. And even right now,
Speaker 3: I have an office that is right next to Joe Douglas,
Speaker 3: who I can, is just a wealth of wisdom and information.
Speaker 3: And all of that was really intentional about Howie because,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, he put a lot of time
Speaker 3: and effort into my development individually, but he also made
Speaker 3: sure that I got exposures to all these other people
Speaker 3: he had brought in and had trained and were performing
Speaker 3: at a high level so that I could learn from
Speaker 3: them too.
Speaker 1: Thank you for taking us through the various intro departments too,
Speaker 1: because what I think people don't necessarily always know from
Speaker 1: the outside looking in is how much information you're uploading
Speaker 1: in a building like that at any given moment. And
Speaker 1: you're the assistant GM now, right? And you're looking back
Speaker 1: maybe in this conversation on those days of you are
Speaker 1: participating in every element of a football calendar and internally
Speaker 1: what that process looks like. When you look back at
Speaker 1: those days and the vast quantities of, I just call
Speaker 1: it data, whether it's observational or actual data that you're
Speaker 1: just absorbing, What do you remember about that time? And
Speaker 1: did you just sort of say like, F it, I'm
Speaker 1: just going to throw myself into this like full speed
Speaker 1: and see what happens?
Speaker 3: Well, I think that was something that my trading experience
Speaker 3: prior had prepared me for. Because when you are, you know,
Speaker 3: trading a book of whatever asset class, you're constantly just
Speaker 3: being inundated with information by the second. and your decision-making
Speaker 3: is happening by the second.
Speaker 2: There could be news.
Speaker 3: That happens overnight for something that you would think is
Speaker 3: totally unrelated to a company whose debt you're trading, but
Speaker 3: could really influence the valuation, the pricing, the way some
Speaker 3: of your customers react. And so I was fortunately in
Speaker 3: an environment where you're getting a lot thrown at you
Speaker 3: all the time.
Speaker 2: And so pivoting to an environment.
Speaker 3: Where I knew that would happen and that I would
Speaker 3: have to get up to speed quickly in order to
Speaker 3: produce in the way that the organization required me, uh
Speaker 3: was something that i found incredibly helpful during the time
Speaker 3: but there are certainly like with anyone doing a new
Speaker 3: thing or a new career or stepping outside of their
Speaker 3: comfort zone there are moments where you're like oh man
Speaker 3: can i can i can i process all this but
Speaker 3: you you have to jump into it you know you
Speaker 3: have to immerse yourself you have to really work and
Speaker 3: spend the time to make sure that not only do
Speaker 3: you understand the different components tactically but you understand strategically
Speaker 3: how they all fit together as well too, right? That's
Speaker 3: what can be really valuable. And that was a challenge
Speaker 3: that not only was exciting for me, I felt like
Speaker 3: I was in an environment where it really encouraged.
Speaker 2: Me to do that.
Speaker 1: One thing too that I love about being in buildings
Speaker 1: like that is that feeling where almost like you surface
Speaker 1: and there's a lot happening all the time, but every
Speaker 1: once in a while you surface and you look around
Speaker 1: and you think, I am with some of the best
Speaker 1: people in the world right now and everyone cares just
Speaker 1: as much as I care. The emotional side of it
Speaker 1: and really like living and dying, honestly, I know you
Speaker 1: have to stay neutral, but like living and dying with
Speaker 1: this team as well and the players and just how
Speaker 1: much everyone gives to it. Was that ever an inspiration
Speaker 1: for you or how did that shape you as you
Speaker 1: continued in the role?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually think it's just really special.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think every game day, um, free game, it's,
Speaker 3: I think about how fortunate and how blessed I am
Speaker 3: that that is part of my job, right? Like just the,
Speaker 3: like the, the amount of love for the game that
Speaker 3: you feel in this building, you see it where, how
Speaker 3: I feel like when you watch, you know, anyone senior, how,
Speaker 3: you know, pregame, it's like, you just see, and you
Speaker 3: just feel how much they care about the sport, how
Speaker 3: much they care about their players, how much they care
Speaker 3: about the coaches, how much they care about the organization.
Speaker 3: And that's ultimately what draws all of us to this
Speaker 3: industry is just your love for the game. Maybe it's
Speaker 3: an experience when you were young. Maybe it's something that
Speaker 3: made you very curious about the sport. Everyone has their
Speaker 3: different why, but I really don't believe you can do
Speaker 3: this job without understanding just how special it is that
Speaker 3: this gets to be my work. I felt like I
Speaker 3: had an appreciation of that after being in a totally
Speaker 3: different career that I get to do football for a living.
Speaker 3: There's very little that I would complain about because it's
Speaker 3: just a tremendous opportunity and You know, I feel like
Speaker 3: that's just a very special, special, you know, thing to
Speaker 3: be able to do.
Speaker 1: I like talking to you about it, too, because your
Speaker 1: why shifts, you know, your overall why I'm sure stays
Speaker 1: the same in life. But like your workplace, why maybe
Speaker 1: shifts a little bit when you're experience when you're experiencing
Speaker 1: something like this outside of the environment that you spent,
Speaker 1: you know, a decade and a half. working in. Are
Speaker 1: you comfortable sharing about your why in football and sort
Speaker 1: of what you've discovered your purpose to be within the sport?
Speaker 3: You know, I would say for me, you know, my
Speaker 3: journey or like maybe my love of football started when
Speaker 3: it's so tied up in my dad and my brother.
Speaker 3: And I remember just my dad grew up in Texas.
Speaker 3: So football is a religion there. And so it was
Speaker 3: always just a part of our family. I remember when
Speaker 3: we were like really little, we'd always watch the game
Speaker 3: on Sundays with him. And then, you know, Andrew, my bro,
Speaker 3: my twin brother and I would always ask him, Hey,
Speaker 3: can you come out and go out and play at halftime?
Speaker 3: And he always did that. He'd always, you know, one
Speaker 3: of us will be the receiver. One of us would
Speaker 3: be the corner. He'd go out and throw. And like,
Speaker 3: those were some very early memories. And then, you know,
Speaker 3: you move forward and, You know, you're playing in high
Speaker 3: school and, you know, Andrew's my quarterback and I'm the receiver.
Speaker 3: And those are some really special moments. You're playing in
Speaker 3: college where, you know, Andrew and I are playing for
Speaker 3: different teams that play each other every year and family
Speaker 3: comes out to support you every time. And so football
Speaker 3: for me is beyond just being the ultimate team game
Speaker 3: and the bonds that you make with your fellow players
Speaker 3: and coaches. it was the canvas for so many special
Speaker 3: moments with my brother and my dad and my family
Speaker 3: that it's just interwoven to like just the way that
Speaker 3: just to life, right? And so I think football in
Speaker 3: a lot of ways is an expression of life in
Speaker 3: terms of the adversity you have to overcome, you know,
Speaker 3: dealing with the teamwork, training and discipline, the time that
Speaker 3: things are going to be hard.
Speaker 2: It is a wonderful game.
Speaker 3: And, you know, I feel like I've been very much
Speaker 3: a beneficiary of that being a central part of, you know,
Speaker 3: certainly my journey here.
Speaker 1: Adam, before we move into the now, this is the
Speaker 1: most important question I'm going to ask you this entire show.
Speaker 1: When you guys were in indie drills, one-on-ones, who won?
Speaker 3: I would say growing up, it was pretty evenly distributed.
Speaker 3: There definitely got to be some heated arguments at different
Speaker 3: times where it was like, was that a penalty or
Speaker 3: was that not a penalty?
Speaker 2: It was pretty even.
Speaker 3: What I will say, and I got to give Andrew credit,
Speaker 3: is he had a better college career than I did.
Speaker 3: So Andrew was a really good player in college. And
Speaker 3: I wasn't shabby, but I wasn't certainly not at the
Speaker 3: level of, some of the certainly some of the other
Speaker 3: guys who were kind of at the top of their
Speaker 3: game there. But it was still a wonderful experience for
Speaker 3: both of us.
Speaker 1: You know, I respect that you had the opportunity to
Speaker 1: totally pad your childhood stats there because who was going
Speaker 1: to know? And you didn't. So classy move there. I
Speaker 1: hope your brother takes notice of that and maybe has
Speaker 1: your back on that one a little bit later down
Speaker 1: the line. So, OK, I'm curious about like When you're
Speaker 1: in this building and the way that you guys talk
Speaker 1: to each other and the way that you think about
Speaker 1: things and your background, but also a lot of people
Speaker 1: with different backgrounds in that building and everyone coming together collectively,
Speaker 1: did you find that early on some of the questions
Speaker 1: you would ask about process changed? ended up being helpful
Speaker 1: because it was almost a different perspective coming in and asking,
Speaker 1: why do we do things this way? Or why would
Speaker 1: we think about this this way? What if we thought
Speaker 1: about it this way? Was there anything that stuck out
Speaker 1: to you early on about the productivity of those types
Speaker 1: of conversations?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the thing that probably stuck out to
Speaker 3: me was just how welcome those conversations were. I think
Speaker 3: when you look at the way that Howie and the
Speaker 3: organization have hired, you actually have a lot of people
Speaker 3: who have come through this front office who have had
Speaker 3: varied backgrounds, whether it was Jake Rosenberg, who had a
Speaker 3: finance background, or Bryce, who I mentioned previously, who came
Speaker 3: from law or, you know, Alec, who grew up in
Speaker 3: a different silo. And so I think that there's always
Speaker 3: this continual process of questioning of how do we do
Speaker 3: things better or like what perspective are you looking for that?
Speaker 3: And that is something that's thought out from that starts
Speaker 3: at the top. And so I don't think that I
Speaker 3: ever really felt like a click of, oh, this is
Speaker 3: something that feels either out of place or is unusual
Speaker 3: because we're constantly trying to get better as a group,
Speaker 3: as an organization, in terms of the way that we're
Speaker 3: thinking about processes, the way that we're thinking about players,
Speaker 3: the way that we're thinking about a whole host of
Speaker 3: different things. Because if you stay stagnant, eventually people catch
Speaker 3: up to you. And so I think that having a
Speaker 3: different lens of thinking about things from maybe a, you know,
Speaker 3: a risk pricing or a risk reward perspective was just
Speaker 3: adding to what was ultimately just like a mosaic of
Speaker 3: different perspectives that goes across all football operations. And that
Speaker 3: contributed to the way that we may think about solving
Speaker 3: a particular problem.
Speaker 1: And then when you get to go into, okay, this
Speaker 1: is the time you now must spend on task evaluating, right?
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: You know, taking all of those conversations and turning them tangible,
Speaker 1: essentially going out on the pro circuit on the college circuit.
Speaker 1: What was scouting life like for you? What did you
Speaker 1: take from it? What did you see around you? And
Speaker 1: what did you learn from it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, you know, for me, it was, you know,
Speaker 3: I was, it was the playing experience was helpful in
Speaker 3: terms of just being able to transition into it. But
Speaker 3: I think the thing that really jumped out to me
Speaker 3: was just how.
Speaker 2: Ready everybody is just to talk football. Right.
Speaker 3: And so, you know, there's this, I feel like there's
Speaker 3: this culture here where, you know, if you're going into
Speaker 3: anyone's office and they're watching film, whether it's someone's coming
Speaker 3: into mine or I'm going into someone else's, it's always
Speaker 3: the natural question is like, oh, who you're watching. And
Speaker 3: then the next thing you know, even if it's something
Speaker 3: on completely different than personnel, like people just wanna be
Speaker 3: able to talk about players and talk about what they
Speaker 3: see and how they're thinking about them. And I found
Speaker 3: that that is something that was not only great for
Speaker 3: this building, but like when you're going out and you're
Speaker 3: doing things with other scouts, like people just really like
Speaker 3: talking about the game. And that is one of the
Speaker 3: best ways, I think, to kind of immerse yourself because
Speaker 3: you have this wealth of information of things that you've
Speaker 3: watched or that you've researched or your views, but you
Speaker 3: have all these other people who have different opinions and
Speaker 3: have different perspectives, have had different experiences with team building.
Speaker 3: And you can read their reports or talk to them
Speaker 3: about that too, right? As a way of just continuing
Speaker 3: to grow your perspective, to challenge your viewpoints. And so
Speaker 3: I think, Really, it was the openness to talk about
Speaker 3: that and share that information was really important. I think
Speaker 3: that was a really good, you know, just exposure in
Speaker 3: terms of whenever you're out doing different scouting tasks.
Speaker 1: I always think what would be most fun for me,
Speaker 1: if I got fortunate enough to be in a building,
Speaker 1: would be to read everyone's scouting reports and to do
Speaker 1: exactly what you're talking about, is just talking to them.
Speaker 1: Because I always feel like you can get to know
Speaker 1: people on a very intrinsic level, too, by talking to
Speaker 1: them about the thing that they love. And in this case,
Speaker 1: everybody has this incredible passion for the sport. Did that also,
Speaker 1: in a way... get you sort of fast-tracked in immersed
Speaker 1: into this building and the culture of this building was
Speaker 1: not just talking to people about this but really digging
Speaker 1: in the weeds on the reports and writing and obviously
Speaker 1: writing your own as well and really getting into that
Speaker 1: like talent identification and football language specific to what the
Speaker 1: Eagles building.
Speaker 3: Is Yeah, no, I think that's definitely something that and
Speaker 3: it's interesting that you talk about language. And I think about,
Speaker 3: you know, the easiest way to learn a foreign language
Speaker 3: is just to be immersed in it. Right. And so
Speaker 3: I think people have it's the same thing with with
Speaker 3: football and evaluation is just, you know, immerse yourself in
Speaker 3: all the different ways and all the different. players and
Speaker 3: all the different player archetypes, college pro, you know, when
Speaker 3: you're out at practice talking to people about what they're seeing,
Speaker 3: like that's really important.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: And there's no there's you know, there's no necessarily a
Speaker 3: limit on the amount of time that you can spend
Speaker 3: doing that.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: And I think it's important if you if you want to,
Speaker 3: you know, be really good at that and be someone
Speaker 3: who has a formed opinion is to make sure that
Speaker 3: you're putting yourselves in situations where it's forcing you to
Speaker 3: do that. And I think that certainly in this building
Speaker 3: with the caliber of people, when people recognize that people
Speaker 3: are trying to put in the work and the effort
Speaker 3: and they're trying to grow, there's so much willingness to
Speaker 3: help and to participate in that process. And I think
Speaker 3: also incumbent on me where there might be areas of
Speaker 3: football operations that I have exposure to and they may
Speaker 3: have questions on. It's incumbent on me to to also
Speaker 3: help with if there's questions about that, that I can
Speaker 3: help them in that ways. And so again, it's again,
Speaker 3: football is the ultimate team game and that's not just
Speaker 3: on the field.
Speaker 2: That's, you know, all the way in the building as
Speaker 2: well too.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I would feel like, um, you know, I'm a writer, um,
Speaker 1: you know, but I would like to write the scouting report,
Speaker 1: but I would be thinking about what does this tell
Speaker 1: everybody else about me and how I'm seeing it in
Speaker 1: this moment and getting those, those processes, um, sort of
Speaker 1: to an expert level as you continued through the building
Speaker 1: and learning about what specifics are, I guess, like North
Speaker 1: Stars for the organization and what things they maybe have
Speaker 1: on a sliding scale. That to me is such a cool,
Speaker 1: almost like archaeological process of understanding this is how we
Speaker 1: speak here and we have... all of this knowledge and
Speaker 1: data basically over years and because it's a very how
Speaker 1: he's been there for so long and his staff and
Speaker 1: people in that building have really communicated how to build that.
Speaker 1: I guess I would call it like an alphabet of
Speaker 1: what exactly it is that makes an eagle an eagle.
Speaker 1: And for you, what's that deep dig like and continuing
Speaker 1: to like build these little pieces of information and make
Speaker 1: an entire, I guess, case for somebody?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that part of it is the organization
Speaker 3: is very clear on what its priorities are when we're
Speaker 3: going through any player acquisition process. And so, um, when
Speaker 3: you're an evaluator and when you're, um, you know, analyzing
Speaker 3: a certain situation, you know what to look for, right?
Speaker 3: And now the application may be different for a specific
Speaker 3: player in any given instance, but that's also why, you know, you, you,
Speaker 3: you have meetings and that's why you're talking to other
Speaker 3: people on the staff. That's why you're sharing the way
Speaker 3: that you have different viewpoints because sometimes it takes some
Speaker 3: time to tease that out. And so it's really helpful
Speaker 3: that there's a very clear vision from leadership on the
Speaker 3: things that we want to do, the things that we
Speaker 3: want to prioritize, how we think about evaluation as well
Speaker 3: as roster building. And so when that North Star is clear,
Speaker 3: it's not all that difficult to go into the practice
Speaker 3: of following it, but you just have to make sure
Speaker 3: that you're really diligent about it.
Speaker 2: And that's why we're a very process-oriented team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was just reading a book and Bill Parcells
Speaker 1: is saying, if you are committed to certain qualities or
Speaker 1: certain traits... Do not deviate and try to stick to
Speaker 1: the process as much as possible if it's proven to
Speaker 1: be valuable and work for you. And I can imagine
Speaker 1: that can be a little hard because things come up.
Speaker 1: And again, you guys are looking everywhere for different people
Speaker 1: and just different ways to bring new ideas. And it
Speaker 1: kind of gets me. You touched on this earlier in
Speaker 1: our conversation, Adam, but... building teams of highly competitive people
Speaker 1: and building teams within teams of highly competitive people. I
Speaker 1: know you have a lot of experience managing teams like
Speaker 1: that and constructing teams like that, again, from your previous
Speaker 1: work experience, but doing it in a building like this
Speaker 1: where every week matters so much and developing communication tools
Speaker 1: with coaches and with other executives and with players and
Speaker 1: not just building that roster the way that it functions
Speaker 1: at the highest level, but also internally. What has that
Speaker 1: part of the team building process been like? And how
Speaker 1: do you guys communicate with each other, especially when maybe
Speaker 1: the bullets are flying externally?
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I think that's a good question. Probably one
Speaker 3: of the, you touched on it a little bit, one
Speaker 3: of the differences with teams football and probably just professional
Speaker 3: sport generally versus working in the private sector is just
Speaker 3: how public, you know, your job is. Like I could
Speaker 3: leave the trading floor and have a, had a down
Speaker 3: day and I'm not going to hear about it, you know,
Speaker 3: from anyone. Whereas, you know, if, if, you know, maybe
Speaker 3: there's a, there's something that the fan base is not
Speaker 3: happy about, right? Like, you know, you're going to hear
Speaker 3: opinion from your neighbor. You're going to hear opinion, you know,
Speaker 3: it's going to be on the news. Like, It's a
Speaker 3: different dynamic that permeates it. But what I would say is,
Speaker 3: I think anytime that you're dealing with high-functioning people, high-functioning teams,
Speaker 3: it comes down to relationships.
Speaker 2: Communication, and aligning incentives, right?
Speaker 3: And so we have a great model for that in
Speaker 3: the way that really Howie and Nick interact, right? So
Speaker 3: they're talking to each other multiple times a day, going
Speaker 3: into each other, in and out of each other's offenses.
Speaker 2: They're in lockstep about the way that.
Speaker 3: They're going to think about big decisions, little decisions, how
Speaker 3: they're communicating those decisions, those things. And so it ends
Speaker 3: up being a really good model for everybody on down
Speaker 3: in terms of how the way that we're supposed to
Speaker 3: operate with different departments and different you know, different divisions
Speaker 3: and I would say that in general like when we
Speaker 3: go to relationship right people are not necessarily going to
Speaker 3: follow you if they don't feel like they somewhat know
Speaker 3: you and that you see them as a person right
Speaker 3: and that's a really important component in any business The
Speaker 3: other thing is when you have people who are highly
Speaker 3: performing and competitive and self-starters, you want to make sure
Speaker 3: that you're communicating the why of what you're doing. So
Speaker 3: they may not necessarily like every decision, but generally people
Speaker 3: are rational. And when they understand either the context that
Speaker 3: you can share with them or the rationale for it,
Speaker 3: when you can share it with them. generally there's a
Speaker 3: better understanding of why maybe something is happening. And then
Speaker 3: also people want to be valued in the way that
Speaker 3: they feel like they're contributing to the team's success. And
Speaker 3: so when you build an environment and you build a
Speaker 3: culture where you know, when we win on Sundays, like
Speaker 3: the team success is our success, you know, people really
Speaker 3: do buy into what they need to do in order
Speaker 3: to make sure that we're putting the organization in the
Speaker 3: best spot possible. And again, that's really easy when you
Speaker 3: have a model for that of leadership in, you know,
Speaker 3: starting literally at the top across multiple different departments. That's
Speaker 3: something that I think is really special and important whenever
Speaker 3: you're trying to move the organization forward.
Speaker 1: More on that in a second. We're going to take
Speaker 1: a quick break and get back to it on the
Speaker 1: other side. When you think about roster building too, because
Speaker 1: what you're talking about here is, is obviously expansive on
Speaker 1: team building in general, in any, in any format, again,
Speaker 1: especially with high functioning and highly competitive people. When you're
Speaker 1: thinking about roster building, what types of things do still
Speaker 1: apply over no matter what type of, of quote unquote roster,
Speaker 1: whether it's an executive staff or a coaching staff or
Speaker 1: an actual roster of players, what has to translate universally
Speaker 1: between everybody in the building and has to be maybe
Speaker 1: a standard of culture that is set in, in, in, um,
Speaker 1: you know, identifying traits to put together for all of
Speaker 1: those people on any type of quote unquote team that
Speaker 1: you have within an organization.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think, you know, at a very high level, right. You're, you're, um,
Speaker 3: whether you're building a roster of players or you're building,
Speaker 3: you know, if how he's building a staff, right. You're
Speaker 3: talking about, you know, you're talking about some degree hiring, right.
Speaker 3: And so like talent is something that's just is really important.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: That's a foundational element of you're looking for people who
Speaker 3: have talent and you're looking for people who have specific skills,
Speaker 3: whether it's on the football field or whether it's in
Speaker 3: a coaching staff or on the front office.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: You're looking for people with specific skills that are going
Speaker 3: to help give you an advantage versus your your competitors.
Speaker 3: But also with that is, you know, you're looking at
Speaker 3: the makeup of a player, a person, a staff members,
Speaker 3: you're looking up at their character, right? You're thinking about,
Speaker 3: you know, their personal character, you know, their work ethic,
Speaker 3: what type of teammate they are, all those different variables
Speaker 3: that affect not only the on-field success, but also the
Speaker 3: culture of the way that the building they operate, because
Speaker 3: those different things at some point in an NFL season,
Speaker 3: you're going to.
Speaker 2: Hit adversity, right?
Speaker 3: And, It's not always necessarily how someone's talent that is
Speaker 3: really important in that moment. Maybe it might be some
Speaker 3: of their character intangibles that really help you to get
Speaker 3: through a certain situation. And so it's really making sure
Speaker 3: that you're spending the time to think through those things,
Speaker 3: think through how those things fit together and how you
Speaker 3: can maximize both of those things within the organization based
Speaker 3: off of the resources that you have.
Speaker 1: Is there anywhere you look for additional inspiration, whether it's
Speaker 1: outside the building or inside the building, things that you
Speaker 1: can use tools to motivate the people around you, obviously
Speaker 1: very self-motivated as it stands. So it would have to
Speaker 1: be very specific, right? It would have to resonate. Any
Speaker 1: sort of messaging or cultural building that you do has
Speaker 1: to be well thought out. I'm curious where you look
Speaker 1: for things like that.
Speaker 3: I think for me, it's just you look at people
Speaker 3: who are leading in everywhere, right? It could be something
Speaker 3: that you're seeing that Nick will bring things in our
Speaker 3: team meeting that maybe another coach said from a different
Speaker 3: sport or an Olympic athlete. It can be people who
Speaker 3: are in government. It could be people who are running
Speaker 3: a nonprofit. But when you talk about leadership, there's a
Speaker 3: lot of different principles that are things that carry over
Speaker 3: no matter what type of organization that you're leading, right?
Speaker 3: And so I think for me, it's more about being
Speaker 3: attentive to not only the examples that I have in
Speaker 3: the building that I can see in terms of the
Speaker 3: way that they're leading, but also any other outside influence
Speaker 3: where it's like, is there something that I can learn
Speaker 3: from that and take from that. There's something that I
Speaker 3: can do from a self-improvement perspective where I can be
Speaker 3: more effective in growing my leadership skills and things like that.
Speaker 3: I think it's more about just being open-minded to all
Speaker 3: the different sources as opposed to going to a specific source,
Speaker 3: because I do think that there are a lot of
Speaker 3: qualities that are pretty broad in general that you can
Speaker 3: use across different functions.
Speaker 2: In different industries.
Speaker 1: Man, you teed me up for this, Adam. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Because when you're talking about all of this, the thing
Speaker 1: that comes into my mind is cast a wide net.
Speaker 1: And to me, I mean, that should be the Eagles
Speaker 1: motto at this point, just in my opinion, honestly. Like
Speaker 1: the Eagles, one of the things that I think is
Speaker 1: so unique about the organization, and I happily discuss this
Speaker 1: to anyone who will listen and not just walk away
Speaker 1: from me like I'm a crazy lady talking at them, is, man,
Speaker 1: you guys look everywhere. You look for edges in different
Speaker 1: places that are, I think maybe there would be a
Speaker 1: fear there for certain others, or I think maybe there
Speaker 1: would be too much uncertainty and there's not enough of
Speaker 1: a known, quote unquote, quantity on the other side or
Speaker 1: those types of things. What is that like inside the building?
Speaker 1: I think the good word for it is creative. Creative
Speaker 1: in pursuit of edges. Where do you find that in
Speaker 1: the building? Where do you think the Eagles do that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'd probably phrase it a little bit differently.
Speaker 3: I'd say that what is, I'd actually say that this is,
Speaker 3: you know, very unique about the Eagles is that there
Speaker 3: is no, what I would call fear-based decision-making in the
Speaker 3: way that, and I think that starts from, you know,
Speaker 3: Ownerships willingness to try things that are different and before
Speaker 3: thinking to, you know, everyone knows how he is is
Speaker 3: always willing to Look for an opportunity to improve the team.
Speaker 3: He's always looking for an opportunity to be better in
Speaker 3: every different space like he's being able to go and
Speaker 3: work for somebody who you know is going to swing
Speaker 3: the bat and is incredibly invigorating, because there's just so
Speaker 3: much open mindedness to ideas and to ways where, again,
Speaker 3: it's not thinking from a place of what could go wrong,
Speaker 3: it's more about, well, what could go right, right, and
Speaker 3: trying to be the best version of the organization that
Speaker 3: we can be. And it even goes into like the
Speaker 3: coaching staff in terms of how aggressively that Nick manages
Speaker 3: the game. And so I think that is something that, um, is, uh,
Speaker 3: incredibly unique about the organization that, um, you know, there's
Speaker 3: a willingness to, uh, to try and to be progressive
Speaker 3: and to, uh, you know, push the envelope, um, in,
Speaker 3: in every different phase. And that doesn't mean that your,
Speaker 3: your hit rate's going to be 100%. That doesn't mean
Speaker 3: that you're not going to at times, you know, make mistakes,
Speaker 3: but that's not something that ends up being an impediment
Speaker 3: to trying something new and trying to, you know, be exceptional.
Speaker 3: I mean, there was a, I don't even know where
Speaker 3: the saying came from, but it stuck with me in
Speaker 3: a few years ago where, you know, if you're trying
Speaker 3: to do what everybody else is doing, then you're probably
Speaker 3: going to have mediocre results, right? And so it's like, okay,
Speaker 3: how can we do something that's different? And I think
Speaker 3: that that is something that, you know, you certainly feel
Speaker 3: from leadership within this organization.
Speaker 1: It takes a commitment to, in my opinion, between the
Speaker 1: coaching staff and also the front office and the player
Speaker 1: as well. And identifying what about that player makes you
Speaker 1: know that they're going to commit to, in this case,
Speaker 1: maybe a development process. I think of like a Jordan Mailata,
Speaker 1: for example, where it feels like in hindsight, we all
Speaker 1: should have seen this coming, but nobody, not many people
Speaker 1: actually did, right? In terms of the quality of player
Speaker 1: that he turned into and a captain class type of
Speaker 1: guy on your roster. So with this, maybe not this
Speaker 1: specific example necessarily, but just in general, when you are
Speaker 1: identifying a player and then committing to that player, even
Speaker 1: if it's a little bit maybe outside the box, how
Speaker 1: do you build a sustainable profile? How do you say, okay,
Speaker 1: this is the short term, this is the medium, this
Speaker 1: is the long term, and communicate with coaches accordingly?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think part of it is just the framework
Speaker 3: in which we think about talent identification and talent development
Speaker 3: in general. So that's something that I think is established
Speaker 3: organizationally just as a pillar and as a principle. And so,
Speaker 3: you know, there's an element of, okay, understanding how a
Speaker 3: player is going to, what you think a player is
Speaker 3: going to be. And the amount of time and resources
Speaker 3: it's going to take for a player to get there.
Speaker 2: And a lot of that requires.
Speaker 3: Not only communication, but just buy-in across multiple departments within
Speaker 3: an organization. And that's something that we've been very much
Speaker 3: committed to. And as you said, Jordan's a great example
Speaker 3: where you know, it took time for him to get to,
Speaker 3: you know, to where he is now, but it was
Speaker 3: certainly worth the investment.
Speaker 2: It was certainly worth the energy.
Speaker 3: And, you know, we had identified somebody who we felt
Speaker 3: like had not only the physical skills, but the character
Speaker 3: to become the best version of what we thought he
Speaker 3: could be.
Speaker 2: And he's done that.
Speaker 3: So, I think that just thinking about that lens and
Speaker 3: making sure that the communication is open about what the
Speaker 3: expectations are helps to make sure that, look, by the
Speaker 3: time you're getting to the point where you're bringing a
Speaker 3: player into the building, it's already been really well vetted
Speaker 3: about what are the things that he's going to need
Speaker 3: in order to become successful in order for us to
Speaker 3: maximize him.
Speaker 1: Does that take agility too? Because I would imagine the
Speaker 1: parameters or even like the sliding scale of who somebody
Speaker 1: is can change as that person changes, as their body
Speaker 1: composition changes, as their personality changes, as they experience life,
Speaker 1: you know, as they become more of an adult, et cetera,
Speaker 1: et cetera, et cetera. What's the combination that you guys,
Speaker 1: in which you discuss like agility, expectations, and just the
Speaker 1: ability to pivot when necessary?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you always have to be willing to adapt, right?
Speaker 3: Whether that's because the game's changing, because circumstances change, right?
Speaker 3: There's always going to be some level of uncertainty, right?
Speaker 3: Because you can't just plan the future. You can't dictate
Speaker 3: what the future is going to be or what it's
Speaker 3: going to hold.
Speaker 2: So that's just built into, you know..
Speaker 3: It goes to something that we talked about a little
Speaker 3: bit earlier, where if you want to make sure that
Speaker 3: you're going to get into a position where you can
Speaker 3: succeed and where you can outperform, you have to know
Speaker 3: that the road is not necessarily going to be always
Speaker 3: as intended. That has to be built into how you
Speaker 3: think about not only your analysis, but how you're going
Speaker 3: to navigate any given year or multi-year stretch. And so
Speaker 3: I think that, to your point, the adaptation is an
Speaker 3: important part. You have a plan, but you're constantly reevaluating it.
Speaker 3: and you're constantly reevaluating, is this going to help get
Speaker 3: this player to where they need to be? Is this
Speaker 3: going to help get the roster where it needs to be?
Speaker 3: Is this continually the right approach? Or is there new
Speaker 3: information that we've received that maybe requires an adjustment or
Speaker 3: a tweak or a wholesale change? And so that's just
Speaker 3: something that we, you know, is just naturally built into
Speaker 3: what we do.
Speaker 1: For us on the outside, it's exciting when we can
Speaker 1: see it manifest in real time. And, you know, the
Speaker 1: years of football will ebb and flow and seasons will
Speaker 1: change and all of that. But it seems to be
Speaker 1: like a universal truth that the Eagles will change how
Speaker 1: they do things if they see upon reflection that it
Speaker 1: is worth changing. And so, you know, you guys come
Speaker 1: in and there's, you know, there's schematic changes, especially on
Speaker 1: the offensive side. There's all these different things that happen
Speaker 1: that I think for us on the outside, we see
Speaker 1: like the results of conversations like that. And what I
Speaker 1: love about this show and these interviews that we get
Speaker 1: to do is to learn a little bit more about
Speaker 1: the process behind it. And I have to ask you,
Speaker 1: because I've been dying to ask you this. just something
Speaker 1: unique that maybe I don't know about or that we
Speaker 1: don't know about that the Eagles do that you're excited
Speaker 1: about or that there's something internally that is, you think,
Speaker 1: very unique to the building that I, as a process dork,
Speaker 1: might like to uncover here?
Speaker 3: No, I think it probably goes back to what we
Speaker 3: talked about a little bit before, where it's just the
Speaker 3: fact that.
Speaker 2: There's no fear in the decision-making.
Speaker 3: There's no fear in the way that You know, we're
Speaker 3: going to explore different things like that is something that
Speaker 3: may seem like a little thing, but I really don't
Speaker 3: think that it is. I think that the ability and
Speaker 3: the willingness to, what do you want to call it,
Speaker 3: take risks, whether you want to talk it to, you know,
Speaker 3: to swing for the fences, whether it's, you know, having
Speaker 3: a championship standard. And that's something that I think is,
Speaker 3: you know, fundamental to the way that, you know, ownership
Speaker 3: Howie and Nick operate. And I think that that is
Speaker 3: something that permeates throughout the entire organization. And, you know,
Speaker 3: I think that's pretty special. And that's what's what makes
Speaker 3: it one of the many reasons that makes it, you know,
Speaker 3: it's a great place to work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have to come up with a slogan for
Speaker 1: the Roseman era. No, not me. Someone much more talented
Speaker 1: probably than me because I think about like, you know,
Speaker 1: you're letting it rip, honestly. And it's fun to watch
Speaker 1: just for the layperson sort of sitting on this side
Speaker 1: of the glass and in this chair because you guys
Speaker 1: are always up to something. And that's why I'm so glad, Adam, that...
Speaker 1: We had you on today. I'm so grateful to share
Speaker 1: a little bit more about your journey and your current
Speaker 1: role and what you do. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining me today on this episode of NFL Daily's Power Players.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure. And yeah,
Speaker 3: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: And we got to get you to come up with
Speaker 1: the slogan. Eric, hit the music. We are rolling Adam
Speaker 1: out in style here. Listeners, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining me today on another episode of NFL Daily's Power Players.
Speaker 1: Of course, with the great Adam Barry, assistant general manager
Speaker 1: for the Eagles. Stay tuned in your feeds. We're going
Speaker 1: to have a lot coming up for you this week,
Speaker 1: including Cuts Day, a live show Sunday with Greg Rosenthal.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.