The post-draft search to define Howie Roseman and the Eagles misses the mark

The best compliment that you can give to Howie Roseman is that all of the compliments paid to him are reductive. Everyone wants to be the one who correctly identifies what Roseman and the Eagles are doing. Success can’t be as simple as doing the same things everyone else is doing except doing them better. There has to be something more.

The Miami Heat have their culture. The Patriots had their Way. You know you’ve arrived when people start looking for a hook they can pitch to Michael Lewis.

I would call it the Moneyball-ification of sports management evaluation, but the phenomenon is bigger than sports. Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk — we are currently living in era of the Chief Executive Oracle. At the root of it is the belief that success is something that can be systematized and repeated, regardless of a circumstances, like a recipe for pancakes.

I bring all of this up because it is happening again in the wake of another ballyhooed draft weekend. Pro Football Focus included the Eagles on its list of teams that won the draft. Online influencer/analyst Warren Sharp released a metric that had the Eagles reaping the fourth-highest value from their picks. Most of the rest of the world was in agreement with Sharp and PFF, as well as Jihaad Campbell.

“The richer just got rich,” the Eagles’ first-round pick memorably told ESPN.

» READ MORE: Exuberant Eagles fan Jihaad Campbell lands with hometown team in NFL draft: ‘The rich got richer’

Ignore the fact that the draft analysis industry is mostly a circular conga line where the eggs hatch the chickens. If Oscars were doled out like draft grades, the Academy would vote solely on a movie’s synopsis five months before its premiere. Every year something happens that reveals the gig. A few years ago, it was Malik Willis. This year, Shedeur Sanders. A player’s “fall” becomes a story because, otherwise, it would mean everyone was wrong.

I’m not at all sneering at the Eagles’ selection of Campbell at No. 31. I’m mostly saying that I’ve seen enough drafts to be willing to wait and see. The reaction to Campbell has been a lot like the reaction to Nolan Smith at No. 30 two years ago. The next Lawrence Taylor became the guy who was playing with the backups in the third preseason game of Year 2. It wasn’t until the end of this season that he again became a guy everyone was penciling in as a known commodity. Anybody who is speaking about Campbell in definitive terms is ignoring a lot of lessons.

But none of that is my point.

Rather, the point is the reaction to the reaction. Roseman and the Eagles have reached a stature where we must look for meaning in the entrails of every move. Their selection of Campbell at No. 31 had all of the ingredients for a perfect storm of hyperventilation. Campbell’s bio reads like a bingo card of magic bullets. An SEC player with off-the-charts athleticism coming off surgery, projected to go higher in the first round, who either will or will not play linebacker, and also happens to be from South Jersey. Anybody who can’t fit this one into their Theory of Everything isn’t even trying.

» READ MORE: Eagles draft takeaways: Howie Roseman’s haul, biggest remaining needs, other looming questions

The irony is, the harder you look for a paradigm, the more you see that the only paradigm is that there isn’t one. Howie is smarter than everybody because he doesn’t value running backs ... until he does value running backs. He doesn’t invest resources in linebackers ... until he does invest resources in linebackers. He knows the value of a quarterback on his rookie deal ... until he wins a Super Bowl two years after giving a quarterback a monster extension. Howie is smarter than everybody because he drafts SEC players ... until he drafts Quinyon Mitchell from Toledo and Cooper DeJean from Iowa.

It’s funny. I think that if you look at most successful organizations, regardless of industry, you will see that they are mostly built upon fundamental concepts. It’s just that the execution is better.

There is nothing revolutionary about what the Eagles have done over the last several years. Find versatile players with a good mix of ceilings and floors and understand their market value. Positional versatility has clearly become more of an emphasis in recent years. DeJean and C.J. Gardner-Johnson are/were hybrid corner/safeties. Zack Baun brings plenty off the edge in addition to his traditional linebacker duties. Mitchell is a physical presence at cornerback who can hold his own against the run game. Saquon Barkley is an excellent pass protector and adept receiver in addition to an All-Pro rusher.

Campbell fits those molds, as does second-round safety Andrew Mukuba. The post-draft arguments about how to classify each one speak to their value.

The main point in all of this: It’s a mistake to try to put Roseman, Vic Fangio, Nick Sirianni or any one of their players into a preconceived theoretical box. There’s a reason the Eagles have been to three Super Bowls with three vastly different teams. You build with what you’ve got.

I’ve written this before, but it’s worth repeating in the wake of an NFL draft weekend that is being heralded as the latest chapter in the Legend of Howie.

You know you’ve arrived when people are unwilling to accept that you are doing the same things as everyone else except you’re doing them better. There has to be something more. A secret sauce. A magic potion. A unifying theory of roster construction and salary cap management.

The only paradigm is that there is no paradigm.