Roseman looking forward to next week's scouting combine

THE START of the NFL's offseason, at least by Eagles general manager Howie Roseman's estimation, is next week. That's when executives, coaches, scouts and agents all convene in Indianapolis for the NFL's scouting combine, where more than 300 draft prospects are examined on the field, on the scale and in medical and interview rooms.

"When you get to Day 4 or Day 5, it becomes like 'Groundhog Day,' " Roseman said yesterday after speaking on a panel at Widener Law School. "Once you get to the combine, you start talking about 2012 and talking about next year, you can close the book and move forward. That's what's exciting to me. You get a lot of people you don't see all year, all in one place, and it's fun."

The Eagles' scouts visited Philadelphia last week and the personnel staff assembled its draft board. This is imperative to do before leaving for Indianapolis, because Roseman emphasized that he wants the Eagles' evaluations to be based more on what happens in college games from August to December and not what happens in postseason all-star games or in tests at the combine.

Roseman said adjustments are made if something outlandish occurs - he used the example of a wide receiver running a 5.0-second 40-yard dash - but he wants to use the combine to add to the evaluations instead of make up the evaluations. The more important parts of the week in Roseman's mind are the medical examinations and the in-person interviews.

"If you have guys that you rate very highly and your doctors tell you they have longevity issues, that's going to affect where you take them," Roseman said. "That's the No. 1 thing. The second part is getting information. We talk about a whole piece of the puzzle here. Really, their playing career is the most part of that puzzle, but the more you can meet them, the more you can be around them, the more you can complete that picture."

This will be Roseman's first normal offseason as the Eagles' general manager. In his first season, the league had no salary cap entering into the final year of a collective bargaining agreement. Last year, the lockout delayed free agency until after the draft, which affected the team's strategy. Because the Eagles did not know who were going to be free agents or whether they would sign any of those players, their positional needs "factored a little bit" into their decisions.