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Here's the latest on the QB situation. The Eagles are talking to 3 teams. Buffalo, Oakland, and Jacksonville have all made serious inquiries into trading for McNabb. The Eagles are trying to see who will make the best offer. All 3 teams have shown some willingness to deal their 1st round pick. There is a lot of talking going on. The Eagles are also exploring scenarios where a lesser pick and veteran player would be the compensation.
This is all good news. The Bills, Raiders, and Jags are aware of each others interest. The situation has gone from the Eagles hoping for a suitor to the Eagles being able to negotiate with multiple teams. I don't think anyone is going to put together a blockbuster offer. While all 3 teams are interested, none of them "must get" McNabb. The Bills need a QB, but just got a new coach and know that 2010 isn't likely to be their year. The Raiders are growing weary of JaMarcus Russell, but Al Davis might not be willing to completely give up on him yet. The Jags have a solid QB in David Garrard. They would make the deal in order to add a marquee name improve the QB situation. They are open to dealing their pick in part because they've had such miserable luck with recent 1st rounders.
This situation is pretty complicated. The Eagles have to settle on an offer from one of the teams. Then that team will certainly want to talk to McNabb to see what he thinks about playing there and signing an extension. His contract does run out at the end of 2010. There have been reports that Donovan won't sign with some of these teams. I'm not so sure. He doesn't have a lot of bargaining power right now. If one of those teams makes the right contract offer that may be good enough.
What kind of a timeline are we looking at? Believe it or not, this could all get done in the next day or two. Or it could drag on for a couple of weeks. The sooner the better, obviously. Even McNabb said that. Nothing good happens from letting this situation linger.
As encouraged as many of us are by the last 24 hours, there is still stuff to be nervous about. The Eagles had a similar situation with Corey Simon that ended up in disaster. They had a good offer from the Ravens, but Corey's contract demands were too much. Same thing with Lito. The Eagles had worked out a good deal, but then Lito made his contract demands and that deal fell apart. The Eagles need to be careful about trying to hold out for the best possible offer. If things go too long that can drive teams out of the negotiations and then all it takes is McNabb being difficult to completely wreck the situation. There is a big difference this time around. McNabb is still a good player. Lito and Corey were inconsistent players who focused more on money than anything else. Plus, McNabb is a quality available QB in a year when there isn't much to choose from.
Be patient, but you can be optimistic. Things are heating up and heading in the right direction.
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Thursday, March 25, 2010
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16 comments:
Fortunately, Donny seems to be handling this situation as a class act (based on his public comments anyway.)
Hopefully that means he won't drag out negotiations like a primadonna and will be amenable to getting a deal worked out sooner than later.
Now that it seems like he's really going, I'm feeling strangely bummed. Kinda like breaking up with the girl you've dated for years but deep down you knew you'd never really marry.
Thanks for the crack reporting, Tommy.
I've heard from my sources (I messaged you about that Tommy) that only Al Davis likes JaMarcus Russel. I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the organization (and even Al at this point) was looking for something new and better. You mentioned Nnamdi last time. Very interesting name to throw in.
Jacksonville is the surprise to me. David Gerrard isn't a special QB, but I think he can start as long as he had a better team around him. Jacksonville's a sort of confusing team to watch.
Buffalo would be interesting. McNabb could do wonders for changing that teams miserable hopes. Jairus Byrd doesn't seem like a player they would want to get rid of, but QB does get a much higher value than safety.
So there is no way Kolb is getting traded? Seems like every team is targeting only Donovan.
If McNabb is really gone, which team would be the best fit for him offensively?
I guess because the trade hasn't happened yet, it's okay to postulate about which trade is better. Here are my rankings (I'm bored).
Oakland
Any trade we can do with Oakland that sends us Nnamdi Asomugha has to be front-runner. What type of pick could we get in combination with Asomugha? Certainly, Oakland's #8 would be off the table if the CB was included. Is their 2nd too high to ask for?
Buffalo
If the deal was swapping 1st rounders, plus FS Jairus Byrd... is that enough? Do we ask for a late round pick? This is the 2nd best trade scenario, in my opinion. But, what is the point of acquiring Byrd if we would become in striking distance of Eric Berry? Who would we select with the #9 pick?
Jacksonville
I honestly don't know what else Jacksonville has to offer other than their #10. They don't have a 2nd rounder (traded to NE) so it would be difficult to package players (who?) with later picks. Because I can't figure out what they have we want, unless it's the #10 straight up, this is the 3rd best trade option.
I haven't heard anything about Sheldon in the last day or so. Would the Raiders would be interested? One thing to remember is that Al loves CBs that are big or fast. Sheldon is neither.
RE: BUF trade
I did hear that Jairus Byrd is not a player that's being talked about. Too bad.
Your Oakland trade scenario is interesting...Maybe we can swap Sheldon for Asomugha and still get Oakland's first rounder?
The Buffolo trade would still interest me because I could see us trading back and picking up either Iupati or Pouncey later in the first round.
The other option would be to draft one of the best tackles in the draft...you know how Andy loves his tackles. We could use a little assurance behind Peters
That Reid has indicated that he values pick #33 highly seems to corroborate what you and others have reported - the Rams are not in the mix for McNabb. It seems that by telling the Rams they have an asset he values highly, Reid is trying to rope them in.
I have a hard time believing that the Raiders could possibly be in the mix for McNabb. There is no way Al Davis gives up on JaMarcus Russell just yet. And remember, Al Davis IS the Oakland Raiders. What Al wants, Al gets. If Al doesn't want a player, and the rest of the coaching staff does, that's just too damn bad for them.
Ditto Jacksonville. Why would you ditch Garrard for McNabb? It's mostly a lateral move at this point, skill-wise. And as far as raising ticket prices and increasing revenue, the more likely thing to do is draft Tim Tebow in the 2nd round.
McNabb > Garrard and just because Al likes Russell does not mean he may not covet McNabb's long game even more. I still don't think any of these scenarios are likely, because it would be too good to be true, but I have my fingers crossed just in case.
Asomugha is getting kinda old...he's like 29. A great player no doubt, but doesn't seem like a long-term solution.
Any chance we can pry Whitner from BUF? Would we even want him?
I agree with all of the people saying that, if it really is happening, that it needs to get done as quickly as possible. The media is on to it, and tries desperately to talk to as many as possible... which as we have all seen so many times both in and out of sports, leads to a mess of comments, insinuations, misunderstandings and pure idiocy.
Of course the media then jumps on any of that, and a storm develops.
McNabb is a top player in his position because of his tenure and achievements over the years, so he will garner more attention than just about any other player being discussed in trades right now.
The faster the deal closes, the much less likely it is that any of this takes place. But the more it is dragged out, the more dirty laundry and unhappiness is exposed along the way, and deal breakers become abundant.
As usual, great insight Tommy!
All in the AFC. This is good.
For the record, I think all 3 of those teams are not "too" far from a playoff team.
I can't believe this is for the 8th, 9th or 10th pick straight up. I mean I would be pleasantly shocked. More likely, and if they're not talking about 2nd rounders, I imagine it's in the realm of switching positions in the 1st round with another player from each team, in our case Donovan obviously, being moved.
Nnamdi would be nearly impossible I think because the Raiders have paid him about 16mm of bonus money since March 5th. So how can they justify doing that and then trading him?
If you are trading a great player to save that much money that's one thing, but now they would have paid him over 28 million since the end of the 2008 season, got 1 season of play out of him and then trade him for another player who will take a large contract?
Raiders are crazy, but that could be a new level
That's a good point, Alexander.
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