As you know from my previous post, I was resigned to the fact that Donovan McNabb was going to be traded. But never in a million years did I think it would be to a division rival.

Let’s see: You play in the toughest division in the NFL and you just instantly made the only bad team in that division better. Does this make sense on any level?

After the year McNabb just had, there’s no way Reid believes he has nothing left in the tank. More likely, the Eagles know McNabb is only going to be in Washington for one season, which happens to be the same season they are using to rebuild. Even though Reid & Co. won’t publicly cop to rebuilding, trading McNabb to the Redskins is tacit admission that they do not believe they can compete in 2010, so it doesn’t matter if McNabb beats them once or twice this year. 2011 is their target year for competing again, and by then McNabb will be somewhere else. (Probably Minnesota, but I’ll come back to that thought in a moment.)

From Washington’s perspective, for the first time in anyone’s memory, the Redskins are playing second fiddle to a hockey team. Not only did they need to make a splash to restore interest, Mike Shanahan jumped at the chance to have an actual quarterback to coach and perhaps help mentor whoever they draft to be their QB of the future. But there’s one other possibility here: Could the Redskins, who are short on draft picks, package McNabb in a deal with one of the teams where Reid didn’t want to send him? Stay tuned on draft day for that possibility.

That leads to what I think bugs me most about this trade. If the only offers come from lousy non-divisional teams, and you feel bad about trading him there, then don’t trade him. If you feel like you have to trade him, do what’s in the best interests of your team. Sending him to another team in your division does not apply. Even if Washington’s offer included better draft picks, the fact that they’re in your division has to be a mitigating factor in your decision.

Anyway, what’s done is done. Most likely McNabb will stick with the Redskins this season, and unless Daniel Snyder throws a contract extension his way, he’ll become a free agent in 2011 and wind up in Minnesota once Brett Favre finally retires, where he’ll have a better than decent chance to finally win that elusive Super Bowl.

Adios, Donovan. All the best.

I guess it was only a matter of time before I had to write this post, so here goes.

As anyone who has read this blog with any regularity knows (if I actually write something for it), I have been one of the seemingly few voices of reason when it comes to Donovan McNabb. Despite falling short of that ultimate goal we all crave, he has been the field general for the winningest period in franchise history and is, hands down, the best quarterback to ever suit up for the Philadelphia Eagles.

The last few seasons and 2004 being the exceptions, for the last 11 years McNabb has shepherded an offense to relatively great success with one weapon at his disposal: Brian Westbrook. Short of throwing the ball to himself, McNabb’s remaining options were illustrious talents such as Todd Pinkston, L.J. Smith, Freddie Mitchell, James Thrash, Kevin Curtis and Reggie Brown. Winning as many games and division titles as they did, and reaching all those NFC Championship games, is a testament to two things: the late Jim Johnson’s terrific defenses and the enormous talent of McNabb and Westbrook.

So now that Andy Reid is prepared to detach McNabb from his gigantic hip, and so many of you are perhaps about to get your wish granted, I still say, be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

The Eagles have no one to blame but themselves for this mess. McNabb is still this team’s best chance to win right now. That point is inarguable. For better or worse, Kevin Kolb is the Eagles’ QB of the future. That, too, is immutable truth. Both men are in the last year of their contracts, and only one (Kolb) is going to get an extension. Even this McNabb supporter has to concede that trading McNabb while he still has value is the most logical course of action.

But trading him is more complicated than many people would think. If the NFL were to clear all the rosters and start over with a fresh draft, McNabb would be taken in the top 20. This is still a quarterback league, and he’s one of the few franchise-level players, even at age 33. So the Eagles can’t simply let him go for a third round pick. If Oakland is indeed the strongest suitor, they don’t even have a first round pick to offer until 2012.

On a side note, Oakland sounds like a terrible place for McNabb to end up, but I think he could actually help the Raiders enormously. They have a decent running game, a track team full of receivers and a pretty good defense. They managed five wins with JaMarcus Russell and Brad Gradkowski at QB. In that weak division, with McNabb at the helm, the Raiders could be in wild card contention next year.

I don’t believe the Eagles will trade McNabb if they can’t get fair value for him. There are also a limited number of teams with whom they can deal. This talk of Minnesota if Brett Favre finally retires is ridiculous. If they trade McNabb to a contender and he wins the Super Bowl, Reid & Co. look like even bigger jackasses than they do already. McNabb may end up a Viking in 2011 as a free agent, but there’s no way in hell he’ll be in Minnesota, or with any other contender, in 2010.

But if they do get a good deal from an acceptable team, what happens to the Eagles next? Well, the Kevin Kolb era can go two ways.

Optimistically, let’s say Kolb is more or less as good as McNabb. Reid will still be the head coach, so the same systemic issues will continue to plague the team, and the Eagles will most likely keep coming up short of a Super Bowl victory. If, however, they somehow should reach the top of that mountain in the next five years, Kolb will be toasted for accomplishing what McNabb could not, and people will overlook the fact that, unlike McNabb’s first 10 years as starter, Kolb had a host of talent around him at every skill position (Brent Celek, DeSean Jackson, LeSean McCoy, Jeremy Maclin and Jason Avant).

More likely, Kolb will be a decent QB, but not nearly as good as McNabb, and the Eagles will continue to fail upward at best, reaching the playoffs occasionally but never getting close to a championship. One thing is certain: McNabb has the lowest interception percentage in NFL history, so get ready for turnovers to increase. And turnovers kill.

Whether McNabb has already played his last game as an Eagle, or he gets one more shot at the Super Bowl in 2010, his eventual departure from Philadelphia seems unavoidable at this point. So consider this my fond farewell to our beleaguered quarterback, who never got a fair shake from the city of brotherly love, who made as many brilliant plays for every pass he clanked off his deadbeat receivers or the turf, who rarely got any personnel help from the stubborn coach/GM who forced him repeatedly to do it all on his own with no running game, who still managed to win more games than any other QB in the history of the franchise.

Donovan, here’s one fan who is very glad you were an Eagle.

It’s never a happy day when one of the greatest players to take the field for one of your favorites sports teams will no longer be a part of said team anymore.

And so we’ve reached the end of the road with Brian Westbrook. His days of playing for the Philadelphia Eagles are over.

As sorry as I am to see him go, I can’t say I really blame the Eagles. $7.25 million for a guy who can’t stay on the field more than 10 minutes really isn’t a smart use of money. In fact, depending on which sources you read, Westbrook’s left knee could be so messed up he might not be able to pass a physical with any team. So not only are the Eagles not interested, no other teams may want him either.

I find that last possibility unlikely (someone will take a flyer on a guy who used to be one of the most dynamic playmakers in the league), but whether he’s played his last game for the Eagles or forever, his career deserves some retrospective praise.

Where would the Eagles have been this past decade if Andy Reid hadn’t wandered over to Villanova from his house and watched Westbrook tear up Division I-AA, basically stealing a first round player in the third round? Quite a few less division titles and playoff wins I imagine. His value to the Eagles and their success under Reid cannot be understated.

In his prime, Westbrook was perhaps the most feared player in the NFL. Anytime he touched the football, something spectacular could and often did happen. Even when they didn’t give him the ball, his presence as a decoy helped Donovan McNabb make good use of a grab bag of bums at wide receiver. I’ll have two lasting impressions of Westbrook, the first being the nonchalant way he scored almost all of his 68 touchdowns: Handing the ball to the official and jogging back to the sideline with a look of dissatisfaction, as though he could have been better on that scoring drive.

The other way I’ll remember him is from the 2004 NFC divisional playoff game against the Vikings—more specifically, from the NFL Films recap of the game. In the footage, Minnesota’s defensive coaches are constantly telling their players (and the players telling each other), “watch out for 36,” juxtaposed against footage of the Vikings’ total inability to contain the one player they were completely focused on stopping. That was vintage Westbrook.

Westbrook retires as the franchise’s all-time leader in yards from scrimmage (9,785), second in rushing yards (5,995) behind Wilbert Montgomery, third in receptions (426) behind Harold Carmichael and Pete Retzlaff, and third in touchdowns behind Carmichael and Steve Van Buren. He also holds the franchise’s single-season record for most yards from scrimmage (a league-leading 2,104 in 2007) and most receptions in a season (90 in 2007).

The Eagles have only had three great running backs in the history of the franchise: Van Buren, Montgomery and Westbrook. So I ask you, where does he rank?

A lot has happened in Philadelphia sports since my personal laptop died in its sleep before game six of the World Series. The Phillies fizzled out and lost to the Yankees team in a poorly played series by both teams.

And speaking of fizzling out, the Eagles’ rash of injuries finally caught up to them as they finished the 2009 season in the most embarrassing fashion possible—getting blown out by the hated Dallas Cowboys in two consecutive weeks (the first of which, 24-0, I witnessed in person), the second of which eliminated them from the playoffs.

The Phillies

Let’s take this look back chronologically and start with the Phillies’ inevitable failure in the World Series. I say inevitable because they just didn’t play good baseball that week. Neither did the Yankees, frankly; but in all of the little strategic decisions and details that are part of a game, the Yankees were simply better. Their brain cramps in game four, both on the field and in the dugout, are perfect examples of why the Phillies just weren’t up to snuff in that series.

Hardly resting on their laurels, a few short months later the Phillies made what is probably the largest blockbuster trade in franchise history. Remember how great it felt to have Steve Carlton take the mound every fourth day? Well, get ready to feel that sensation again, only every fifth day, when Roy Halladay takes the field for the Phillies in 2010. Ruben Amaro wound up trading away almost everyone the Blue Jays were demanding when the Phillies tried to get Halladay back in July, but this time they restocked the cupboard with prospects from the Mariners when they dealt Cliff Lee to Seattle in a separate trade.

It’s almost hard to fathom how good the Phillies would be this season with Halladay and Lee in the rotation together. Throw in a rejuvenated Cole Hamels and the rest of the National League would have been in serious trouble. That didn’t happen for three reasons: 1) Cliff Lee was owed $9 million in 2010, as is the untradable Jamie Moyer, and the Phillies were already at their budget limit; 2) Getting Halladay seriously depleted the farm system, so they had to get something in return to make sure they could compete for many years in the future, not just 2010; 3) Amaro is counting on Hamels finding his old form and essentially filling the role of Lee in the No. 2 spot in the rotation.

While having Halladay and Lee together was a wonderful, brief fantasy for both fans and the Phillies brass no doubt, it just wasn’t practical, and it’s hard to argue with their decision to think about the future. They made the current team better for the next four years (if you think Lee was good, wait until Halladay marches through the NL like Sherman marched to the sea), and they made sure they still have talent left in the system to keep them competitive when Halladay and the rest of the core players start approaching the twilight of their careers.

Don’t forget their other significant move: bringing Placido Polanco back to town to play third base, a signing not without irony since it was Polanco’s distaste for playing third which led to his trade to Detroit when Chase Utley took over as the Phillies’ everyday second baseman back in 2005. He is a significant downgrade from Pedro Feliz defensively, but an equally significant upgrade at the plate. Forget all those bad at-bats from Feliz and pencil Polanco into the 2-spot.

I’ll post a more thorough preview of the 2010 club in a few days.

The Eagles

Oh, where to begin?

As I pointed out to my many Cowboy-fan friends, the Cowboys were the healthiest team in the NFL and finished the regular season 11-5, while the Eagles were the most-injured team in the league and also finished 11-5 against basically the same schedule as the Cowboys. What does that tell you? Maybe it’s just a way for me to rationalize the beatdown they took from Dallas in those final two games, but I actually believe there is something to this.

The Eagles lost so many key starters to injury, starting in training camp with middle linebacker Stewart Bradley for the whole season and half the offensive line for various stretches, and on into the season with a secondary riddled by so many injuries Sean McDermott fielded a squad of third-stringers and guys they picked up off the street. Don’t forget Brian Westbrook’s concussions (he’s kind of an important player). When Jamal Jackson blew out his knee in game 15, that was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.

My theory was somewhat justified when the Cowboys had their asses kicked by the Vikings the following week, proving that Dallas really wasn’t that good either.

The point is, the Eagles getting to 11-5 and a wild card berth was probably a minor miracle in football terms. In a lot of ways,  2009 may have been Andy Reid’s best job as head coach. There’s a lot of speculation about the future of certain players, most of which I feel is overblown (McNabb isn’t going anywhere, though Westbrook may have played his last game with the team). If the Eagles stay healthy next season, and Reid’s offensive line plan actually works out the way he originally planned in 2009, look out in 2010. This team has the potential to be very very good.

Look for more thoughts from me on the 2010 Eagles around NFL draft time in April. For now, with spring training underway to fill the horrible sports void between football and baseball season, expect a full slate of Phillies coverage now that I’m up and running again.

The Eagles followed up last week’s inexcusable loss to Oakland with an unconvincing domination of a Washington Redskins team in more disarray than Brian Westbrook’s unluckily scrambled brainpan. The game was never as close as the final score indicates, but to give up the most points the Skins have scored all year doesn’t bode well for future endeavors against the Giants, Cowboys and Chargers in upcoming weeks.

Neither does rustling up a measly 11 first downs and a terrible 26 percent conversion rate on third downs. McNabb looked bad (for him), completing 60 percent of his passes; which seems all right until you remember how many passes of the 5-yard variety he missed. Meanwhile, Andy Reid’s play calling continues to be so retarded (I mean that in the strictest definition of the word, so please no angry e-mails), someone on the staff could do the team and McNabb a favor by melting Reid’s laminate menu.

At the rate he’s getting hit, it’ll be a miracle if McNabb survives the season.

Too many missed tackles, too many penalties, too many injuries and too much self-delusion clearly leave little hope for success the rest of the way as the Eagles embark on the toughest part of their schedule.

The good news: They’ve played two stinkers in a row against dreadful teams and still are only half-a-game behind the Giants, who may be overrated in their own right. The bad news: Keep playing like this and there’s absolutely no chance of beating the Giants or Cowboys, much less the Saints, Vikings or any of the even more dominant AFC teams like the Steelers, Colts and Patriots.

Should Westbrook be out for any extended period of time (and he should be), things are looking pretty bleak for the Eagles. Thank goodness for that World Series thing to distract us all in the meantime.