Reid Unloads On Media, Plus More Analysis

The reports of Andy Reid’s demise are greatly exaggerated.

We read the same things for weeks: there’s a schism in the Eagles front office, Joe Banner is gaining power over Andy Reid, Howie Roseman was a pawn in that game, Andy was the only one in the front office who didn’t want to trade McNabb.

I’ve debunked that claim a couple times here, but today Andy took to the airwaves to beat back the rumor himself.

On whether there was a split between major players on the McNabb decision:

There was absolutely no debate. And there was never a point where we weren’t on the same page here. This is what we all felt was right for the Philadelphia Eagles and what would work for Donovan… We work very well together. I’ve obviously got the ultimate respect for Joe and Howie… but, when you have three people who work well together… people are going to try to work the gray area on you and try to find out “who’s making the final decision,” and “this guy’s against that guy” and that’s not how this thing operates.

Andy was remarkably hostile about the idea if you listen to his tone. And I think rightly so. He is the “decider” in the front office, and has been for a number of years. If Reid wanted to keep McNabb, that would have happened. He clearly didn’t.

I do think it’s funny that in refuting the debate “schism” argument, Andy had to admit that everyone was on board with trading McNabb from the beginning — if I interpret his meaning correctly that there “was never a point” of debate. If the Eagles were truly so willing to go into next season with McNabb, then there would have been a change in the thinking at some point in the negotiations. I doubt it (as does Les), and Andy confirms. Trading Donovan was on the docket since the last snap in Dallas.

* * *

One of the most interesting parts of this whole deal is who you believe about why McNabb went to Washington. Here are the options:

1. Redskins offered the best deal, even taking into account the intra-division nature of the trade. (Which, by the way, I think it’s ironic that the Eagles have doubled down on NFC East trades to set up Kevin Kolb — once with Dallas to acquire him, and now with Washington to give him the starting job.) Surprisingly, Reid has been careful to actually not claim that the Redskins offered the best package of picks. Of course, maybe he’s trying to set up the next option…
2. The Redskins didn’t offer the best deal, but Andy wanted to do right by Donovan. Some of Andy’s statements have leaned in this direction. And to a certain extent I can see why the Eagles front office would at least want people to think this — for public relations purposes. No one likes the uncompassionate employer who sends his hard-working veterans to the Oakland abyss. But then again, even for Donovan McNabb, I have a hard time believing Andy is anything less than a cold realist for football decisions (which is, after all, why McNabb’s gone in the first place). Which leads me to option three…
3. The Redskins didn’t offer the best deal, but McNabb forced Andy’s hand. Yikes. Jason Cole has been the one giving the most detail for this theory, saying that Donovan threatened to retire, or worse — return for his last season. Donovan’s agent, Fletcher Smith, basically confirmed it: “when we sat down and reviewed all the opportunities, we believed Washington provided the best one.” McNabb was able to review the opportunities? Wow. Sounds like he had way more influence in this process than we ever knew, and was able to basically hand-pick his destination.

The Youth Movement: Andy's Third 5-Year Plan

The McNabb decade is over in Philadelphia.

I’m not talking about the player (yet). Donovan is still no longer an Eagle while I write this. But the other players who have formed the team’s backbone for much of his 11 years now are gone. This turnover, capped by a month-long purge of old veterans, signals the last dying whimpers of the old Eagles.

Gone is Brian Westbrook. Gone is Sheldon Brown. Gone is Jeremiah Trotter (again). Gone is Donovan McNabb — face of the franchise for 11 years.

David Akers and Quintin Mikell (who was just a second-year player) are the only two other guys remaining who played in the Super Bowl in February 2005. Everyone else is gone. Take a look at this chart, showing current roster’s experience with the Eagles:

The green parts are the guys just let go or traded in the past month (I have excluded Shawn Andrews from this analysis since he’s just such a bizarre case).

Look at that graph. There’s Akers, the kicker and outlier. Mikell now checks in as the oldest starter, with 7 years with the Eagles (and only 2 starting). Also with 7 years on the job (first two and a half split between the practice squad and IR), Jamaal Jackson ought to start questioning whether he’ll ever play in Midnight Green again after his ACL injury.

For all intents and purposes this entire team was created post-super bowl. The “old” veterans still around? Players like Mike Patterson, Todd Herremans, Trent Cole, Juqua Parker — who’ve been here a whopping 5 years.

The shift is just as profound when you look at the relative ages of the players let go versus the players acquired in the last month or so.

Average age of the 12 now former Eagles: 30.35 years

Average age of 5 newly acquired: 25.63 years

Average experience in NFL of former Eagles: 7.5 years

Average experience of new players: 3 years

The Eagles eliminated 12 older players this offseason, completing the transition to a “new” team for the new decade.

Andy Reid is now on his third general 5-year plan. The first 5-year plan rebuilt the Eagles, keeping star players like Trotter, Tra Thomas, Brian Dawkins, Duce Staley, and adding new ones like McNabb, Brown, Lito Sheppard, Jon Runyan, T.O. This “team” culminated with the Super Bowl year of 2004.

After the Eagles self-destructed in 2005, you saw Reid reboot — only keeping Westbrook, McNabb, Runyan, and a few others. The team of the second half of the 2000s was that holdover group, plus new players like Trent Cole, Reggie Brown, Kevin Curtis, Shawn Andrews.

Now the refresh button has been hit again. Young players who have proven they are emerging stars during the last few years, like DeSean Jackson, Trent Cole, and Stewart Bradley, are being kept, while over the last two years the previous core has been dropped — even those that starred in both of the first two 5-year squads (McNabb, Westbrook, Dawkins, Thomas, etc.). Reid hopes players like LeSean McCoy, Jeremy Maclin, Kevin Kolb, Jason Peters, and the next crop of rookies can join with the young holdovers to form a new 5-year core.

Still, even with last year’s prelude, this offseason’s been particularly brutal. Look at the drop in average age on the Eagles after just a few weeks of purging, compared to the rest of the league (updated to include McNabb):

Surprisingly, the Eagles were actually one of the oldest teams at the end of the 2009 season. If that seems strange, consider that the Eagles cut or traded 12 players — only 2 of them (Sheldon and Donovan) were still starters in the Dallas games.

Think about that for a second. The Eagles went from the 7th-oldest team to the 6th-youngest seemingly overnight, and only lost two starters.

This is what people don’t seem to understand when they yell and scream that this is “rebuilding.” I actually believe Howie Roseman when he says, “The word rebuilding will never enter our vocabulary.” At turning points between 5-year plans, the Eagles don’t break everything down and build up again, the way the Browns or Rams have to. For the most part, the Eagles are shedding dead weight — older players who no longer contribute much to the team.

Not all the players fit into this, but the front office identified the core of the team as 5 years and younger. Once you do that, even those players who may still be starting-caliber become less valuable to the Eagles than to teams who are more committed to veterans.

In other words, would the Eagles be better next year with McNabb and Westbrook and Sheldon still around? In an absolute sense, yes. McNabb is still a greater player than Kolb. Westbrook is better than any 2nd or 3rd back the team can bring in. Sheldon is better than the hybrid of Hobbs, Macho, Hanson, and Kyle Wilson.

But the priority is not, and has never been (which is why I understand Roseman’s statement), to win immediately at the expense of the future. Especially now, with so many budding young players, the Eagles’ goal is to maximize the window of opportunity for Kolb, DeSean, Maclin, McCoy, Peters, Celek, Cole, Bradley, etc. And that means not crowding their growth with older players — it means getting as much new blood in as soon as possible (especially on the defensive side) to realize a Super Bowl contender every year over the next 5 years or so.

That goal, now, will go on without Donovan McNabb.

SHOCKER: McNabb Traded to Redskins

WOW.

…

…

I was not expecting this. Not at all.

Eagletarian breaks it down:

The Eagles have confirmed the trade of Donovan McNabb to the Redskins for a second-round pick this year, No. 37 overall, and a conditional third- or fourth-round pick next year.

* * *

Jay Glazer is god. The man heard “there was more than just mild interest from Skins for McNabb.” Apparently he was right…

* * *

Unlike Jay, I am most assuredly mortal:

Andy Reid is quite simply going to ask a lot more from teams who the Eagles have to compete with. The game is all about relative gains, and trading McNabb a rival won’t help the Eagles’ chances. For example, McNabb’s not going to Washington. And while he could go to another NFC team, it would be much more expensive.

Oops.

* * *

Early 2nd rounder and a 3rd or 4th in 2011? Initial reaction: that’s not that much. Though that’s probably a result of various sources hyping the Eagles’ ability to get a #1 pick.

Also, I was willing to take the Rams #33 overall and OJ Atogwe. This is probably worth more.

* * *

John McClain, Houston Chronicle NFL reporter, says Texans Coach Gary Kubiak told him about Kolb:

“Every time I see him, he reminds me of Favre.”

He better be.

* * *

Anyone still want to read a detailed post on the new Eagles youth movement? Pretty graphs and all. Sigh.

* * *

Andy is not inspiring much confidence up at the press conference.

“He was the starting quarterback until he went elsewhere. I was honest with you.”

Also, Andy says Donovan is the best quarteback the Eagles have ever had. But then in the next sentence, he compares the situation to Drew Bledsoe going to Buffalo. Burn.

* * *

This may have ended up being the best offer the Eagles got. But Andy and company really are not scared about Donovan going in the division.

I tend to think they should be.

* * *

If the 3rd/4th round pick in 2011 is conditional on performance, you have to think that it will either be a low 4th rounder (because McNabb/Redskins didn’t do well) or a high 3rd (because they improved tremenodusly).

That puts the value at an average of 114 on the draft value chart. Add 530 points for the 2nd rounder this year and the Eagles got approximately the 29th overall pick in compensation. Think that’s enough for McNabb?

* * *

So how high do the Eagles take a new quarterback in the draft? Maybe Tebow or Colt McCoy drop to that second 2nd round pick? I’m open to anything at this point.

* * *

As we race to conclusions, let’s also remember none of this can really be analyzed properly until we’re like 3 years down the road. With that said, back to my immediate two cents.

* * *

Mike Shanahan and McNabb. I’m not too happy about that.

Think they might bring out some of the best in each other. Let’s hope that offensive line and runners-of-the-past thing they’ve got going on puts a damper on their aspirations.

By the way, is there anyone who doesn’t think Daniel Snyder is reaching into his deep pockets right now for Donovan?

* * *

Jason Cole of Yahoo Sports says McNabb strong-armed a trade to Washington:

McNabb, who is in the final year of his deal, made this happen by making it clear he wasn’t going anywhere else but Washington. When the Buffalo Bills expressed interest – and even were willing to give McNabb a contract extension – he passed on the offer. When the Oakland Raiders sniffed around and showed willingness to trade for the quarterback without an extension, McNabb indicated to the Eagles through his associates that he’d retire.

“He has plenty of money,” the source close to McNabb said. “He’s not doing anything he doesn’t want to do.”

Yikes. That’s a lot more involved than we were led to believe. And he threatened to retire rather than report? Wow. McNabb playing hardball.

(Sal Pal confirms.)

* * *

Jason Campbell and Donovan have talked? That must have been an awkward conversation.

* * *

Adam Caplan reports the Eagles could have had Albert Haynesworth. Meh. That would have been a lot of money for an older player at a position the Eagles don’t need. Plus, it probably would have replaced any high pick.

LaRon Landry (as Gregg Rosenthal reports) was apparently another interesting name thrown around.

* * *

More live updates as I pick my jaw off the ground…

Joe Banner, Eagles FO Speaks Through Sal Pal

Sal Paolantonio’s new piece, directly from a “senior team official,” aims to shoot down reports that Oakland is now the leading contender for Donovan McNabb:

“There is no so-called front-runner,” the senior team official said. “We continue to engage in conversations with multiple teams that initially contacted us. Some of the offers involve draft picks, some involve a player, some involve many players. We are evaluating the offers. But if some team had totally blown us away, we would probably have made a deal already.”

Translation from Eagles Front Office: “We’re still open to offers. Sure, Oakland may have offered us the most so far, but we’re not biting on that until we give everyone else a chance to exceed their proposal. However, if this report will scare the Raiders into upping their price, we might just go ahead and accept their deal.”

Classic negotiation ploy — say publically that you’ve received a lot of offers, that none are perfect. Makes it seem like there’s a lot of competition, and that the teams involved need to increase their offers if they want to end up with McNabb.

The Eagles front office has really made sure they stay on top of the rumors circulating. Whenever something comes out that doesn’t benefit their side, there’s always a competing report to follow shortly.

As Andrew Brandt makes the case for here, don’t get too worried about whether or not a deal will get done. These things can come together fast, and with enough players interested, something will get done. At this point the Eagles are pretty much committed to dealing their veteran quarterback.

Update: Donovan McNabb continues to make his case that he’d rather be pretty much anywhere, as long as his new team isn’t the Raiders:

a source close to McNabb says he would “refuse the trade.”

Yeah… pretty sure that’s moot at this point. Doesn’t seem like the Raiders are too concerned about McNabb not wanting to sign a long-term extension with them (unlike perhaps Buffalo), so I don’t see how Donovan thinks he can get out of playing for Oakland, if they make the best offer.

Dissecting the Recent Rumors on McNabb

There’s been a lot of rumors flying around over the last week. Time to step back and look at them piece by piece. Let’s use Mike Florio’s McNabb magnum opus as a jumping off point, since it seems pretty obvious to me that his source is inside the Eagles organization:

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the Eagles are receiving offers from teams that have not been identified publicly at the request of the teams making the offers.  This is happening for two reasons:  (1) some of the teams have incumbent starting quarterbacks who would be confused, to say the least, if they learned that McNabb could be joining the club; and (2) none of the teams want fans or the media to know that they are courting McNabb, in the event that they fail to land him. This doesn’t explain the fact that the Bills, Rams, and Raiders have been named as potential trade partners.  According to the source, however, the Eagles have disclosed to no one the names of the teams with whom they are or aren’t talking.

Put simply, in order for Florio to be so sure there are teams talking to the Eagles that no one has heard of, he has to have talked to someone with the Eagles. Think about it.

First of all, no one could know that there are other teams in the mix who haven’t been mentioned unless they were working for one of those teams or for the Eagles. Since those teams clearly have no desire to make it public, and wouldn’t know there are multiple “teams” interested, it had to have been the Eagles.

Second, only the Eagles have an incentive to get this information out there — true or not. If there are only negotiations with Oakland, Buffalo, etc. than this could give Philadelphia the upper hand. I’m not saying the new rumor isn’t true — there probably are a number of teams who have quietly inquired about the price tag on McNabb. But this is just as self-serving to the Eagles as McLane’s McNabb-to-Rams report.

In any case, who could these teams with “incumbent starting quarterbacks” be? Basically you’re talking about teams that don’t have a mix of quarterbacks (looking at you Oakland), but rather have a nominal starter. This category of teams would probably include teams like Carolina, Jacksonville, San Francisco, maybe even Tennessee.

We initially believed that Jeff McLane’s erroneous report that McNabb could be a Ram by the end of the week was the Eagles themselves, who were floating a phony rumor in the hopes of sending a “speak now or forever hold your piece/peace” vibe to other interested teams.  Based on our source, McLane apparently had a different source.

“Based on our source…” — i.e. “From what the Eagles told me, they had nothing to do with McLane’s report.” And again, I think it’s funny that Florio would discredit the possibility McLane’s report was the Eagles putting out stuff to boost the offers on McNabb, when that’s exactly what his report here does as well!

It’s possible that McLane’s source was McNabb himself, or agent Fletcher Smith.  (McLane’s subsequent report that McNabb prefers playing for the Vikings suggests he has a pipeline into the McNabb camp.)  This approach by McNabb would allow him to push the issue to a head without pulling a Jay Cutler and openly demanding a trade.

Interesting idea. Thought not sure if it’s really in McNabb’s best interest to push a trade to the Rams that hasn’t actually been discussed — unless he’s really just fed up with the whole process and finally wants out of Philadelphia. But this type of analysis treads awfully close to Deadspin’s interpretation.

The McLane report isn’t the only nugget that might not reflect reality.  ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio says that no one is willing to offer more than a third-round pick.  But as our source pointed out, “Has he talked to every team and have they told him their offer?”

Or I don’t know, maybe he just talked to one team that’s interested in keeping the price low… Sal Pal is close to worthless these days.

Finally, the Associated Press reported that the Eagles want the 42nd pick or higher in the 2010 draft.  (And, of course, the AP report was taken as gospel truth because the AP has never been wrong.)  Said the source, “Does anyone really believe the Eagles would pick such a random number and draw a line in the sand?”  We’re told that something higher than this reported threshold already has been offered.  The source believes that the “42 or higher” requirement was leaked by one or more other teams in order to frame the value — and possibly to create local pressure on the Eagles, many of whose fans generally are anxious, to say the least, to see McNabb get run out of town.

First of all, yes, I can see the Eagles saying they want a first round pick or early 2nd rounder (probably plus something extra) for McNabb and not budging. And how exactly does this create local pressure? The fact that the Eagles are asking for a high pick doesn’t sound crazier than anything else — a better way to put the pressure on the Eagles would be to release Sal Pal’s report, or (better yet) say the team would be willing to take a 3rd rounder.

Instead, this basically affirms the stance the Eagles took if they were the ones to leak the 33rd overall pick and FS O.J. Atogwe deal to McLane — they want first round value, and aren’t afraid to ask for it. By telling the AP this, the Eagles front office has essentially told the teams that are snooping around, offering late-second or third round picks to get serious or get left behind. And Florio affirms that the Eagles have in fact gotten an offer “higher than this reported threshold.”

As we understand it, the Eagles have received a variety of offers, with draft picks only and players only and players and picks.  We’re told that the Eagles have never placed an asking price on McNabb.  Instead, they’re doing exactly what we reported in early March that they’d do — sitting back and waiting for the offers to come and evaluating them at the appropriate time.

Ha. No asking price on McNabb. I don’t believe that for one second. Maybe early in the process, but by now the Eagles have to be seriously telling teams, either through the press or in direct talks, that they want at least one high pick.

* * *

By the way, a couple notes on Michael Lombardi’s post yesterday about McNabb and similar rumors:

A team executive told me the Raiders and Vikings are discussing the availability of backup quarterback Sage Rosenfels. Trading Rosenfels would only happen if the Vikings know for certain that Brett Favre is coming back.

The Sage Rosenfels chatter is the most obvious sign Oakland is in serious negotiations with Philadelphia about McNabb. They’re trying to show they can go other directions.

Many executives I talked to last week wondered why the 49ers are not actively pursuing McNabb. With McNabb, the 49ers would be the favorites to win the NFC West. As I often write, the biggest problem in the NFL is evaluating your own team, and the 49ers really believe they’re set at QB.

Agreed 100%. If San Francisco isn’t one of those teams who, according to Florio, are in quiet talks with the Eagles, they truly are incompetent.

Sizing Up the Rumored Contenders for McNabb

Trade winds are blowing, folks. Looks like the action’s dwindled to a few teams competing for Donovan McNabb. One piece of news comes from sources talking to Tommy Lawlor:

“The latest reports I’m getting are that the Raiders are the frontrunners… The Jaguars remain interested, but it seems as if the Raiders are being more aggressive with their offer.  I don’t have any firm details, but the 8th overall pick in the 2010 draft is being talked about.  Jacksonville may try to come up with a counter-offer, but it doesn’t seem like they want to get into a bidding war.”

Lawlor also says Buffalo was more involved in trade talks yesterday, but that the Bills conversations have died down today.

Mike Florio has a tipster who gives some ridiculous terms of a trade with the Raiders:

“Per the tip — uncorroborated but nevertheless intriguing — McNabb and cornerback Asante Samuel would go to Oakland, and cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha would go to Philadelphia.”

I don’t buy that one. Asomugha is better than Samuel, but not by an amount of McNabb. Especially since the cornerbacks are the same age and the Raiders just gave Nnamdi a lot of money. Still, interesting to see outlines of deals emerging. Oakland could be deeper into conversations about getting McNabb than we thought.

Finally, no more reputable a source than the Associated Press reports that “a person familiar with trade discussions involving McNabb” says the Eagles:

“will only consider a deal for the six-time Pro Bowl quarterback if it includes a pick among the top 42 in next month’s NFL draft.”

That’s a strange number. Until you consider that its just outside the Bills’ second round pick. Maybe the Eagles are trying to signal to the Bills how serious they are about getting at least their 2nd round pick.

Also it means maybe Eagles fans should temper their enthusiasm about getting a high 1st round pick like one from the currently discussed teams. If the Eagles are putting it out there that they want a high 2nd rounder, it may mean that top picks are already off the table.

In any case, let’s take a closer look at the three teams being talked about:

• Oakland Raiders — Draft Picks: #8 overall, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, two 5ths, two 7ths. Drafting a 1st round quarterback bust is killer in the NFL. Tim Couch, Joey Harrington, and now JaMarcus Russell. You whiff in the first round and it just messes up your team for years. Maybe the Raiders think trading for a proven quarterback is the way to jump start a turnaround. While I disagree with Lawlor’s assessment that McNabb might actually be “open” to starting the season in Black and Silver, Oakland may not care. They had no problem trading their 2011 first round pick to the Patriots for another veteran who didn’t want to be there, Richard Seymour, then slapped the franchise tag on him last month to keep him around for another year.
• Buffalo Bills — Draft Picks: #9 overall, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, two 6ths, 2 7ths. Another team that’s made some bad decisions on quarterbacks, and now has a new coach in Chan Gailey who doesn’t seem all that intent on grooming someone for awhile in the competitive AFC East — he’s said he wants the position resolved before the draft. The problem is McNabb may not want to go to upstate NY either. Buffalo really doesn’t have much talent — maybe even less than Oakland. And I’m not sure the Bills, unlike the unconventional Raiders, will be as willing to play it year to year with McNabb.
• Jacksonville Jaguars — Draft Picks: #10 overall, 3rd, 4th, 5th, two 6th. It’s easy to say that after committing to David Garrard two years ago as starting quarterback that Jacksonville must not want anyone else. But Garrard has really stalled the last two seasons, since getting his 6-year, $60 million deal, showing he’s little more than a mediocre passer. Coach Jack Del Rio has expressed concern about Garrard and even the QB himself has acknowledged that he’s competing for the starting job with journeyman back up Luke McCown. If the team is even considering starting McCown, especially knowing it needs desperately to sell tickets, McNabb might be a good place to start.

Besides uncertainty at the quarterback position, there’s one interesting common thread through all three of these teams: each one was bad, but not bad enough to ensure a shot at one of the top quarterbacks in the draft. For example, I don’t think there’s much separating St. Louis and Buffalo. They’re both bad franchises that need to rebuild. The difference — which may be why Buffalo’s pursuing McNabb and St. Louis is shooting down rumors — is that the Rams can go out and pick the best quarterback in the NFL draft (presumably Sam Bradford). Buffalo has no shot at Bradford, and a small chance even to get less-liked Jimmy Clausen, who could end up with Mike Shanahan in Washington with the 4th pick.

One thing I still don’t understand is why San Francisco hasn’t been linked to McNabb. Alex Smith really isn’t any better than Brad Gradkowski or David Garrard and the 49ers have a team that overall could be ready to take the next step with a solid quarterback. With two picks in the first round, I’d be clamoring for McNabb if I were Mike Singletary.

What We Learned Yesterday

So yesterday was rather hectic. You can see the bizarre up and down nature of the day, rife with Andy’s reveal, very specific trade rumors, and more at yesterday’s updated thread.

But now that we’ve moved on from thinking the McNabb trade is immediately imminent, what have we learned?

• Don’t believe every rumor you hear over the next few days and weeks. The Rams rumor sounded nice and the whole web got caught up in it, but sometimes where there is smoke there is no fire at all.
• With that said, you can now safely assume that McNabb will not be in Midnight Green next year. It’s nice to look at Andy’s words and see that he never rules out that possibility, but you have to consider his words before yesterday. All Andy had said was that he was happy with his quarterbacks and that he wasn’t looking to trade any of them. After probably weeks of limited interest, the Eagles front office decided to kick trade talks up a notch — by going public with their interest. There’s no way they do that if they aren’t set on trading McNabb.
• It sounds like someone close to the Eagles might have unleashed the 33rd pick and FS OJ Atogwe rumor to drive up McNabb’s price. Whether or not the Rams are actually involved in talks (and I never thought they were a likely candidate), clearly there are now trade conversations going on with multiple teams. The Rams rumor and Andy’s announcement that the Eagles were open for offers has worked — at least to some degree — to drive up immediate interest.
• Tommy Lawlor says the Bills, Raiders, and Jaguars have “all made serious inquiries into trading McNabb.” According to Lawlor’s sources the teams “have shown some willingness to deal their 1st round pick” but the Eagles are also “exploring scenarios where a lesser pick and veteran player would be the compensation.” If true, the Eagles have finally gotten multiple teams to bite. That’s what they’ve needed all along — a little bidding war. We’ll keep track of this.
• It seems like the Eagles are getting desperate enough that they won’t be trading McNabb to a playoff contender. One would have thought that Reid would try to accomodate his best and closest player, but with serious rumors about Oakland, that’s tough to do. I still have to ask: where is San Francisco?
• I think the more you hear about the specifics of a particular offer, the more likely it is that that offer is not true. Any actual trade, if talks are progressing well, will take place entirely behind closed doors. It’s in neither team’s best interests to publicize details and risk talks collapsing. We’ll probably get rumors about who’s talking to whom constantly now, but the actual announcement will come out of the blue.

Keep checking back for more updates, news, and analysis. The blog may not be much longer for this world…

McNabb Trade Rumors Swirl: Updated Thread

Regardless of the intentions of Andy Reid finally opening up on the possibility of McNabb being traded, it certainly has set the NFL media world on fire. Check here for the latest rumors as we hear them.

7:21 pm — Jay Glazer gets off a plane and chimes in. Affirms that there is no Rams deal, but that Buffalo, Oakland, and two other teams have “shown interest.” Apparently the Eagles rebuffed offers for Kolb but were open on McNabb.

6:47 pm — Might be time to call it. To the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Rams general manager Billy Devaney shot down the persistent McNabb rumors, calling them “absolutely false.” He added:

“It’s utterly ridiculous. I haven’t talked to Philadelphia about any of their players.”

That sounds about as definitive as it gets. Maybe this blog will last untill tomorrow after all.

6:29 pm — Yahoo Sports, the third outlet to do so, reports on Twitter that a “dependable Rams source” says St. Louis has NOT offered its second round pick for McNabb. Might all of this talk have been based on false information?

6:18 pm — Mike Holmgren weighs in on the McNabb rumors. The Cleveland Browns president told the Cleveland Plain-Dealer that his team is not pursuing Donovan (anymore?):

“The ship has sailed.”

6:11 pm — NFL FanHouse gets in on the debunking. Sources say Rams trade “pure speculation right now.”

6:05 pm — Tommy Lawlor’s got a “new source” that indicates “something could be going down with the Bills.” He also talks about the potential Rams deal.

5:30 pm — Anybody else notice this from Andy Reid’s talk earlier, when asked what he thought of the new draft format:

I’d love to have that first pick of the second day. Where you can sleep on it, regather your thoughts, which you normally don’t get to do.

That sly bastard.

5:20 pm — PFT cites a Rams source that there is “zero truth” to the McNabb to St. Louis rumors, that “all focus” is on draft options at that position. Could just be posturing in negotiations with Eagles.

5:00 pm — Jeff McLane (who certainly has come a long way in a hurry from Happy Valley) reports that there’s already “an offer on the table” for “St. Louis’ second-round draft pick (33rd overall) and free safety Oshiomogho Atogwe in exchange for McNabb.”

While “not yet completed,” this seems like the best offer we’ve seen for McNabb so far. And apparently McNabb would be willing to sing a long-term deal with the Rams.

3:00 pm — Yahoo Sports reports “the Buffalo Bills and Oakland Raiders have inquired about the quarterback’s availability.” However, as we anticipated, “McNabb likely wouldn’t sign a long-term deal in either Buffalo or Oakland.”