When Tom Heckert was the Eagles' general manager, head coach Andy Reid often referred to Heckert as his "right-hand man." But Reid said that his relationship with the new general manager, Howie Roseman, is just as healthy as it was with Heckert.

"Literally he is on my left right now," Reid said during Roseman's introductory press conference, "but yes, he will be (my right-hand man) ... Howie will step into that role as a smooth transition. Like I said, his ability to evaluate, his energy; he's done a great job of delegating to the scouts, bringing the best out of the scouts and giving them direction. I know that will carry over to the pro personnel department as we put that together. I've got a tremendous amount of confidence in his ability."

Reid and Roseman have worked together for about 10 years, but their mutual trust grew stronger after Roseman took over the job as Vice President of Player Personnel.

"I love Howie's energy and I've loved it since I've been here with Howie," Reid said, "his eagerness to grow in the profession. You've seen how we've done it on the coaching side; you've seen how we've done it on the player personnel side of it. His eagerness to learn and then his ability to evaluate are second to none. Then you can add in that Howie mentioned here about being a cap expert and all of those things. That's just icing on the cake from that side of it. His effort and energy, I think you will find out over time here that it is second to none.

"I have seen firsthand of his evaluation and his strategy on a future plan and an immediate plan. I know it's well thought out and I know his ability to evaluate is very accurate. He knows exactly what we need personnel-wise to win here and to give the opportunity to the player and to the coach to succeed."

Still, Roseman said his role won't change that much.

"I don't think much is going to change here," he said. "It's going to be the same process as we had last year; setting the draft board and free agency. We'll just keep going."

-- Posted by Bo Wulf, 4:37 p.m., January 29