The Philadelphia Eagles: Sticking With McNabb?

The Philadelphia Eagles are consistently moving forward, or at least that is what they’d like us to believe. Last weekend’s draft may have been an indication that they are doing just that, but not in the way that would make Philly fans particularly happy. It could be very well possible that the Eagles are gearing up for the post-McNabb era by drafting young players that will be well ingrained in the system when they turn the reigns over to Kevin Kolb. Or maybe the Eagles are willing to let McNabb remain in control and are simply surrounding him with more offensive options. In either case, one of the two QBs will probably be on another roster come the 2010 season.

Let’s first look briefly at what they have done this offseason. They replaced the two offensive tackles on the offensive line. They added a much needed fullback. They picked up a safety to replace a local legend. They added a wideout, a running back, and potentially a decent tight end through the draft in addition to picking up an established cornerback through a trade. One might say that the Eagles addressed their needs, but didn’t go all out to go for it all. This is a valid point considering that they could have had Tony Gonzalez and/or Anquan Boldin on the squad for a couple draft picks. The fact that they didn’t leads fans to believe that the team is getting ready to move on without McNabb.

But are the Eagles really ready to give up on winning with McNabb and give the ball to a guy who has played virtually the same amount of NFL football as my grandmother? That would be one of the biggest leaps of faith any franchise could take. It’s not even clear if it’s worked out in Packerland with Aaron Rodgers. So if the Eagles are looking to go that direction, 2010 ain’t lookin’ so good. First of all, Kolb’s contract is going to be up and they’ll have to give him a new deal, with starter’s money. He won’t get the 100 million dollar contract, but either way, he may not be worth whatever salary they’ll pay him.
The additions of Maclin & McCoy surely points to a youth movement, but I think they will end up with McNabb as their guy in the end. The Eagles need the experience and the skill to put up as many W’s as possible, and Kolb can’t do that for them. So the Birds add to what may be a more defined running game, the throw in a guy that can only enhance the receiving corps and at the same time take some pressure off the team’s new star in DeSean Jackson, and they address the issues that possibly held them back last year. Should it happen again, they probably won’t have Quintin Demps trying to cover Larry Fitzgerald.

This isn’t rocket science, or brain surgery. It’s even easier than trying to manage the salary cap. This is all simple common sense. The Eagles want to at least compete and maybe, just maybe, even win. They’re not going to blow things up, even though at some point they should. Instead they want to transition. They want to go from Westbrook to McCoy (right), McNabb to Kolb, just like they’ve done with the linebackers and defensive backs in the past. The problem with the current plan though is that McNabb and B-West might still be too good to transition away from. So what do you do in the meantime? Do you resign Kolb and let him sit or do you let him go and draft a replacement later on? McCoy we know will at least get some playing time and Brian knows that it is his job to keep LeSean off the field.

Regardless what the Eagles’ plans are, it won’t change much this year. McNabb and Westbrook will both be the starters and McCoy and Maclin (left) will play their roles, whatever they might be. Kolb, though will be lucky if he gets any meaningful snaps and might be looking to find a job he can really compete for. But should he stick around we might end up having a Philly style Montana-out-Young-in, albeit a poor man’s version.

To Anquan or Not To Anquan

Should the Eagles trade their remaining first round pick for Arizona’s Anquan Boldin? A good number of Birds fans would say yes. I say hold on there Sparky. Boldin would most certainly improve the wide receiving corps, that I have no doubt. But I feel that he wouldn’t really improve the team overall, especially when you have no one to back up Brian Westbrook in the backfield. No, leave Anquan out West. Work with what you have on the outside, which isn’t all that bad by the way, and go out and get what you really need…a running back.

Just imagine if you will…You have Anquan Boldin on one side, DeSean Jackson on the other and Kevin Curtis fitting perfectly in the slot. Brian Westbrook is in the backfield. McNabb takes the snap, goes play action faking the handoff. Westbrook takes off only to be met at the line and on the tackle gets his knee twisted. Oh no! He’s hurt. In comes his backup, not Knowshon Moreno or Beanie Wells, but the wonderful and talented Lorenzo Booker! Can you see the dropoff yet? Now you can say that there is a loss of talent between the first and second string of receivers, but when your big weapon, and B-West is still your big weapon, goes down, the offense begins to look a whole lot less scary.

The 21st pick isn’t even guaranteed to get you Anquan straight up. A 3rd or 4th rounder would almost certainly have to be included as well, so it is unlikely that after the Jason Peters trade, that the Eagles will give up one pick let alone a couple. They have holes and depth that needs to be addressed. Take safety for instance. Right now there’s Jones, Mikell, Demps, and maybe J.R. Reed, but really, using a 3rd round pick for this position would be a good idea.

Some would say that you could throw in a player. Really? Like who? Sheldon Brown plus the 21st pick is too much. And I can tell you now that there isn’t much of a market for Reggie Brown or Hank Baskett, not when the guy involved is better than those two guys combined. The first round draft pick is really the only chip the Eagles can dangle in front of the Cardinals. It is unlikely they’ll take a player the Eagles are willing to give up.

So I’ll say to Eagles fans, you must live without Anquan Boldin, and (I hate to say it this way) make due with what we have at the moment, which isn’t Thrash/Pinkston (pictured) or Johnson/Small. For once in a long time, receiver isn’t our biggest need; it may be a need, but not our biggest one. We need a complimentary back, we need a tight end, and we need a defensive end, all before we need a receiver. And while it might be flashy, with some razzle dazzle pop, adding Boldin will not necessarily be the answer.

The Philadelphia Eagles Invented the Game of Football

The Philadelphia Eagles invented the game of football. Oh no? You say that they didn’t invent the game of football? Well, my friend, the three amigos of Andy Reid, Joe Banner, and Jeffrey Lurie would lead you to believe otherwise. The self-proclaimed gold standard, the Eagles have failed to acknowledge some very important things about their organization. And this is what will do them in at the end.

First, the Eagles need to remember that professional football is based on a fan driven economy. And much like the real world economy, it can have its ups and downs forming a cyclical path that in some cases can be predictable. It wasn’t twenty years ago when the team couldn’t sell out, and required a local TV station to buy up the tickets so that it wouldn’t be blacked out. Then, the team was bad and there was a disconnect between then owner Norman Braman and his customer base. Stars like Reggie White and Seth Joyner were great a hit in the pocket book and were allowed to leave. Since Lurie and Banner took over, they have had a nice run of success both on and off the field. But, again, like the economy there could be a fall coming….and like I said, it can be predictable. First, Dawkins was allowed to leave…then Tre Thomas…, and like Reggie and Seth, were barely replaced. Could this be the precursor to a downturn for the gold standard of the NFL?

The Birds administration have had a chronic issue with arrogance, from the pretentious Boston born owner and his evil little henchman to the non-answers begrudgingly provided during every post-game press conference. They put off the notion that they think very little of the fans. They are a three headed monster that think the people paying them hard earned money are crazy for not bowing down to their god-like status in the world. Perhaps I am crazy, or maybe we all are for not realizing what we really have; a football dictatorship. We are told, by them, how to root for our team. We are disregarded, by them, when we speak. And we are those who have been taken advantage of from the onset. Perhaps it time for a revolution. We can have a Boston Tea Party and dress up like Redskin fans and begin the process of regime change.

But just as every notable dictatorship has condemned the masses to their rule, the three headed monster also gave themselves the ability to rewrite history; and their good at it too, not Stalin good, but good. Every year during the state of the team address, it is almost as if they are trying to convince us that not only did they win last year’s Super Bowl, but every Super Bowl since 1996. I could swear I saw a Football Prospectus photo with Lurie hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. They should really wait a little while more, until all of the fans are completely brainwashed, before they start officially changing the history books. I’ll provide an example. After the Baltimore blowout, otherwise known as the game Coach Andy benched Donovan, Reid said that he didn’t know who was going to start the next week, mentioning Kolb and McNabb by name. More recently, he stated that McNabb was always the guy and that there was never a question about it. Soon the whole Dawkins saga will disappear into a new season and that story will change. Old photos of the Eagles great will then be superimposed with those of Quintin Demps even though he was in grade school when Dawk joined the Birds. And they’ll expect us to believe it without question.

I don’t mind an owner making business decisions, that’s part of life when it comes to being a sports fan. What I don’t want is to be spoken down to, to be told how to behave when I pay to behave how I wish (within reason). I don’t want to be told what is good for me when the actions taken eat me alive. And I do not want someone in charge of something that I love dangling my precious in front of my face and saying it is not mine. The Eagles belong to me, me and every other Philly fan around the globe. We want honesty, a sense of reality, and the knowledge that ownership will truly improve to reach the next level. Not say that they’ve tried and that it’s not their fault; that our expectations are too high. We don’t want to here that they’ve won however many games and that they are just as good as teams who’ve brought home the glory. The Phillies gave us the taste of a winner and now the Eagles are in trouble, because it is their time to bring the next championship, and they better get ready for the criticism, second guessing, and foul-mouthed venting every time they fail to win it all. Because unbeknownst to the three headed monster, they didn’t invent the game of football, they just invented a new way to disenfranchise the fan.

Eighteen Weeks of Football Still Aren't Enough

With the NFL Commissioner and team owners going through the state of the league, making rule changes, and whatever else they do, the concept of an 18 week season came up. Intriguing as it may be, cutting off two preseason games at the beginning and pasting them on the back end and calling it the regular season, still needs to be approved and sanctioned by the players association. I think it’s a good idea for several reasons, and state them as I see them.

First, it provides the country with what it really needs, more football. With perhaps the 2008 season being an exception due to the Phillies’ championship, the Eagles run the show in Philadelphia from September through January. Sports talk radio is engrossed with Eagles talk, blogs run amuck, and people drown in water cooler conversations. It helps treat the football jonesing that goes on consistently year round but cutting two more weeks of non-football out. Now, instead of talking about the 76er’s Samuel Dalembert mailing in another game, Philly fans can discuss why Andy Reid threw the ball 87% of the time in a blowout against the last place Cowboys (prediction? I think so).

Second, will be the advantages to teams fighting for the playoffs. It will give those teams on the bubble two more weeks of getting in and it won’t take away from the funky scenarios that got the Eagles in this year. The excuses of teams running out of time will go by the wayside as good teams should start to separate from the mucker and grinders of the league. Sure, some mediocre team will make it in, but with two extra weeks added to last season I’d bet that the New England Patriots would have been in over the Miami Dolphins.

Third and this may not necessarily be a good thing, will be the setting of new plateaus for single season and career records. Football records do not hold the same weight as baseball as players are considered great more by their impact on the field, so seeing more 2,000 yard rushers; maybe a 2,000 yard receiver would be more fascinating. Maybe we’ll even get a few 1,000-1,000 guys. Fact of the matter, we’ll start seeing new records set, like when the league went from fourteen to sixteen games and impact players will still be impact players. Would Jim Brown be less great if he played more games? I don’t think so.

The potential for burnout might increase as the season moves on but who cares? It eliminates part of the boredom-filled gap between the Super Bowl and March Madness and MLB Spring Training, and anything that can do that is alright in my book.

There are some negatives if this initiative goes through. Risk of injury is probably the biggest one since adding two more regular season games puts a player out there all the more, considering they probably wouldn’t have played in the last two preseason games. This might open up the possibility of an expanded rosters, it may also lead to better contracts for the players, that’s all up to the league and the new NFLPA boss, DeMaurice Smith.

Regardless of which side of the fence you might be on regarding this issue, I am hopeful that my opportunity to watch more football becomes realized. Sixteen weeks aren’t enough and in the spirit of keeping it real, eighteen weeks aren’t enough either. The NFL keeps itself in the news all year round already, but the actual action of the game is relegated to a mere six months. Why not keep it going through March? Then the Super can be played in places like New York and Philly. The fans would enjoy it, and then teams can take a couple of weeks off until the NFL Draft in April.