Phil Sheridan: An odd situation at QB

Of the two news conferences held Friday afternoon, it's impossible to know which will have the biggest impact on the future of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Certainly the promotion of Howie Roseman to general manager will have consequences. Roseman will have his hand in personnel decisions big and small for as long as he holds the job. Nevertheless, with Andy Reid's maintaining final say on personnel, Roseman's taking over Tom Heckert's office doesn't necessarily represent a sea change.

A few hours later, in Arizona, Kurt Warner held a news conference to announce his retirement from the NFL. Warner, 38, thus started the clock on his five-year wait for induction into the Hall of Fame (and yes, he belongs in Canton), and, more pertinent here, started a line of dominos that could reach all the way to Philadelphia.

Let's just say young Mr. Roseman has become GM at an interesting time in Eagles history.

Sometime this week, Roseman, Reid, Joe Banner, and the rest of the Eagles' inner circle will take seats around a conference table and start discussing their options - at quarterback as well as a handful of other positions. Those options may have changed when Warner retired, and they will continue to change as other NFL teams assess their own rosters.

That is one reason the Eagles haven't formally discussed their very strange quarterback situation: three players - two Pro Bowl vets and a well-groomed apprentice - all going into the final year of their contracts. Roseman pointed out another reason to wait a couple of weeks before making personnel decisions.

"The risk of doing it too soon after the season is that emotion plays a part in it," Roseman said. "You take a step back and you analyze what you have and what you need, and then you sit down as a group and you construct a plan and try to execute it."

In Arizona, the Cardinals will sit down and decide whether to entrust their Super Bowl-caliber team to Matt Leinart. In Minneapolis, the Vikings will decide whether to play the Brett Favre waiting game and whether they are prepared to wind up with Tarvaris Jackson starting at QB next season. In Cleveland, Mike Holmgren and Heckert will decide whether to make a bold move for a new QB or build around what they have.

Any of these conversations - and similar ones in St. Louis and Oakland and San Francisco - could lead to Roseman's phone ringing. The Eagles have three quarterbacks and an awful lot of teams have none.