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.