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Donovan McNabb is a Washington Redskin. How bizarre does that sound?
We got the 37th overall pick and a conditional pick in 2011 (3rd or 4th round). This was not the best offer. I was told a couple weeks back that Andy Reid was genuinely concerned about Donovan and his future. Andy became coach of the Eagles in January 1999. He picked Donovan 3 months later and the two have been together ever since. Donnie isn't just "another guy". Apparently Andy wasn't going to ship McNabb to the highest bidder, but rather to a team that Donovan was comfortable with, at a price we could be comfortable with.
I have mixed feelings about this line of thinking. Andy's got to be focused on what is best for the organization, first and foremost. At the same time, I've always appreciated the fact that Andy does have good relationships with his players. And Donovan is special to us. This organization was down in the dumps when he arrived. He brought us success on the field and credibility off it. I don't think we "owed" Donovan anything, but I won't argue with Andy doing right by his guy.
I know one team we talked to was so confused by Andy's demands that they came away wondering if we actually had any interest in dealing Donovan. Another team was prepared to offer a good player, but neither of these situations was going to be ideal for Donovan. Andy passed. We settled for an acceptable offer, but it was hardly ideal.
In the end I'm very excited. We now have resolution to the McNabb saga. We also now officially begin the Kolb era. There will be some ups and downs, but I believe in Kevin Kolb, just as I believed in McNabb over a decade ago. I think we go from one good starting QB to another. I think we'll win a lot of games with Kevin. We can only hope we have the same level of success as the past decade.
As for the angle of dealing Donovan to a division rival...I'm okay with that. There are only 31 other NFL teams. I would have objected if I thought Washington was a QB away from being a Super Bowl team. McNabb makes them better, but that is a team in transition and will likely need at least a year to get things together. At that point Donovan will be 34 going on 35.
I won't get into the pick and what it means too much. We now have 8 picks in the first 5 rounds. We can add some young talent and fill some holes. I'll write more later.
Crazy night.
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24 comments:
Can't say I agree with not taking the "best offer." But so it goes. We wanted the Kolb era to begin and we got our wish. Hopefully we do good things with all these draft picks.
Whatever happened to we would be surprised with what the Eagles get for McNabb? Lets be real, we needed picks/players this year not a 4th next year. So in effect we traded a top 15 starting Qb to our rival no less for a Nate Allen or a Daryl Washington or a Roger Saffold type of player. The same organization that could not build a Super Bowl winner around a once in a lifetime franchise QB is now going to do this around Kevin Kolb with 11 pics (the same as we had last year ) and alot of holes. Please help this long time Eagles fan see what your so excited about. This team desperately needed another EARLY first round pick to mould this team around Kolb.Yeah maybe there not rebuilding.
@ RJ...
I'll talk about Kolb in depth later in the spring when I have more time. I'm still busy with draft stuff.
Trust me when I tell you that the players are excited about getting Kevin on the field. There were multiple starting players who preferred Kevin as the starter in 2010. Most interesting is that they don't fit any one group. Some were on O, some D. Some young, some old. Some black, some white.
Kevin is a gym rat. I think players see his work ethic, focus, and competitive nature and feed off that. I wish I could get into specifics, but trust me that there are a lot of happy players today. No one was anti-McNabb or anything like that. Donovan is still Donovan. I just think guys see some Tom Brady type qualities in Kolb. I am not saying Kevin will be anywhere near that good, but he could be the same style of player. Donovan was never going to head-butt an offensive lineman. Donovan was never going to get in a guy's face and really hold him accountable. That's not his style. Kolb will be more of a vocal, aggressive leader.
We'll see what happens when Kevin gets on the field as the full time starter. There are no guarantees he'll pan out, but I am genuinely excited to see what he can do.
Wow, it seems I went upstairs last night (afternoon US time) for a night of fun just in time.
I'm very disappointed by the Eagles on that Move. We clearly have no proof of the level of Kolb as a starter. The two games he did were "average" and "very solid" against New Orleans and Kansas (Kansas was an easy defense to play against for Kolb). I have the feeling the Eagles are moving too fast. Last year loss against Dallas isn't due totally to McNabb, i believe it is more the system that wasn't good against Dallas. Coach Morninwheg should think a little about his responsability on the offensive side more then having everybody blaming McNabb and his inability to bring us to a SB title...
Now in a middle of a huge transition for the eagles (with all those trade and release etc) the staff decide to provide some help (and not a small help) to the Skins..... to make sure our transition year will look all but easy...
I really need to understand that one, and i become more and more worry about the upcoming season, i feel like the transition could be very painful and not as smooth as some might hope. I would love to find someone who really can assure me Kolb will be a huge positive surprise. The argument that he is great in practice doesn't convince me, he won't be the first one and probably not the last one to be great in practice and not necesseraly great in game. I agree with RJBoyle, i don't see any reason to be excited, i think we have more reason to be worry.... More important : Reid didn't want to see McNabb leaves, they should be a reason behind it, we all know Reid is ok to let go a player if he feels he has better option in front of me, and in that case he wasn't a fan at ALL of McNabb departure. Perhaps because he isn't that fully confident about Kolb.....
Adam Caplan of Scout.com talked with Spuds for a while last night about the trade and Kolb. Caplan sounded very excited about all this. He thinks the compensation is fair and he's in love with Kolb "since the day he arrived." he also mentioned that we will do more things on offense now, like shifts and motions, because Kolb is much more comfortable with those.
@Tommy,
it sounds like you are saying that Kolb is more 'fiery' than McNabb ;)
I am fine with dealing McNabb and moving to Kolb.
I am NOT fine, however, if they took significantly less just to look out for DMac. Their obligation is to make the Philadelphia Eagles the best team it can be; if they could do that while looking out for Donovan, great, but they can't look out for Donovan at the expense of the team. They barely got more than what they got for Feeley, and that turned into Reggie Brown.
If that was all the market would bear, that's one thing, but if they artificially limited the market then I find that unacceptable.
Tommy, when you say that this was not the best offer, while I understand you probably can't get into too much detail, would you characterize the difference more as: (a) they could have gotten a decent first round pick or star-quality veteran from an Oakland or Buffalo-style team, or (b) it would have still been a second round pick, but the "other" would have been something more like a 3rd this year rather than the conditional 2011 pick? Just trying to understand how much they "compromised" to satisfy Donovan.
see how some people are insinuating that Donnie was in the wrong for flexing some power on where he goes. how can you blame him? he had 1 yr left on his deal, so he had some leverage. he's at the end of his career, so why the h#ll would he want to go to oakland or buffalo? he has every right to use every bit of leverage he has to try and dictate which team they were going to trade him.
this might not have been the best deal, but they all def had to involve each team's 2nd rounder and then picks next year. There is no way the Eagles would've passed up Oakland's first round pick. anyway, good luck to mcnabb.
Although I wanted McNabb to remain as qb, it makes sense that he's traded this year since both he and Kolb are on the last year of their contracts. It doesn't make sense, though, for the Eagles to accept anything less than the best deal they could get. If Oakland or some other team was offering more than the Redksins, the Eagles were fools not to take it. Yea, Reid had a special relationship with McNabb. So what? Give Donovan a big hug or something, but do right by your team.
I'm happy for Donovan that he'll get to play under Shanahan. It's a good fit for him and, of course, Mike has some experience with an older qb winning rings. At the same time, the Skins don't have much firepower. McNabb is with yet another team that will require him to carry the weight.
As for Kolb, good luck kid. If he's not the second coming of Tom Brady, he'll hear more boos than he's ever imagined. He better be good, too, because it would be a damn shame to wast the skills of Jackson, Maclin and Celek.
Admit it, guys. The first time McNabb throws one at the feet of a wide open Clinton Portis 5 feet in front of him you will all begin to chuckle out loud.
I may have to buy a tv so I can watch Eagles/Redskins now.
<---Guilty
"Admit it, guys. The first time McNabb throws one at the feet of a wide open Clinton Portis 5 feet in front of him you will all begin to chuckle out loud."
I'm very torn on the low level of compensation. Trading McNabb didn't bother me. Not getting 2 2nd rounders did. Seriously, a 4th?
em26jaimie: Not if Kolb's version of the Mcnabb wormburner is a pick 6, as he's kind of shown so far....
I feel like I am in the minority, but I am happy with the trade. I wish McNabb the best...he was (usually) fun to watch, and the kind of person you want to succeed. I think realistically, the compensation was fair for a upper-middle tier QB with 1 year left on his contract. I think it was time to move on, and now hopefully we will get Kolb locked up long term. I respect that they tried to find a trade that was good for McNabb and the Eagles...I think people underestimate how bad, long term, it would have been to take the face of your franchise and throw him under the bus sending him somewhere like Oakland. Now at least we can move on.
Tommy,
Do you think the offense changes at all now with Kolb? More running? Is he the one that the prophesy says will bring balance to the force... ;)
So now that we play McNabb twice a year, how do you gameplan against him if you are the Eagles? Massive pressure, get him into happy feet mode and force him to throw quick, accurate balls? How do we get McNabb into the cold streak, worm-burner QB we know and love?
On another note, McNabb gets traded to a division rival and only 16 comments so far to your article? Almost as if there is a sense of relief to just get the trade over with.
i'm most excited now that mcnabb can't be the fall guy for andy's horrible offensive playcalling. i've said it before but he puts so much pressure on his QB by throwing so much, especially in the biggest games.
not sure if anyone else saw keith brookings' comments about the andy/marty gameplan, but he's not the first defensive player to say that the eagles are predictable on offense. you may point to all the points they put up as a defense, but i'm talking about playoff football. if we still can't get over the hump after donnie is gone, i think big red will have to finally look in the mirror.
Ironically, Caplan and other people have stated that McNabb's obvious deficiencies as a passer (can't throw a slant, fade or in route) really limit the playbook. The only throw I don't want Kolb doing is the 20 yard out route.
Pitmanite, I don't get those evaluations... ever. If the team is so predictable, they wouldn't have like the 4th or 5th most wins in the past decade.
If Reid's offense is not complex, why are they setting franchise records year after year? Because of McNabb?
Hey Tommy,
The Rams just released Marc Bulger could you see the Eagles having any interest in him so that the Birds would have a legitimate backup if anything were to happen to Kolb? I mean in my opinion Vick is just a slash guy for the rest of his career and would not feel at all comfortable with him out there more than 2-5 plays a game. I know Bulger is not what he used to be but he could be a bandaid if Kolb were out for a couple weeks.
Please stop calling picks by their round. I would consider the 33rd pick this year MORE valuable than the 32nd pick because teams will have an entire night to prepare for the next day.
We got the 37th overall pick in the draft. That is better than 80% of the 2nd round picks (84.5% if you want to be precise). Just a 2nd round pick demeans the pick as average.
on the point system we got a late first for McNabb. Good compensation in my book.
I wonder how much of an effect there was if Donovan’s agent was telling Buffalo and Oakland, that Donovan isn’t going to sign an extension, so you will only have him for a year. That probably scared them off. Andy then put a good face on it by saying they were concerned for Donovan’s future.
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