Jason Cole of Yahoo Sports tells an interesting story about the Eagles decision to trade Donovan McNabb to the Washington Redskins.He talks about a battle going  on in the front office between head coach Andy Reid on one side and team president Joe Banner and general manager Howie Roseman on the other.
According to Cole’s sources, Reid thinks young Kevin Kolb can be a great quarterback but he’s not sure about him.¬† He already knows McNabb is a great quarterback, so he didn’t want to get rid of him.
Reid was willing to retain McNabb, even if it meant parting with Kolb.  Banner and Roseman on the other hand wanted to trade McNabb, then turn the offense over to Kolb and their side won out because they had more votes and they wore Reid down.
Cole writes that Banner and Roseman worked on Reid and eventually forced his hand to move McNabb, while the quarterback forced the Eagles’ hand to send him to Washington and not to basement dweller’s in Buffalo or Oakland.
McNabb balked at being sent to play for the Bills or Raiders and he made it clear he wasn’t going to sign an extension with them.¬† Reid wanted to find a way to both get good compensation in a trade and also send McNabb to a team which he would be happy about going to.
They weren’t looking forward to sending him to a team within the division but the goal of getting good compensation was regarded as more important.
Mike Shanahan of the Redskins came on the scene the last three or four days and they made the kind of compensation offers which made all of the Eagles front office content with, so they pulled the trigger on the deal.
As for trading McNabb within the division, Cole writes that the long-time Eagles signal caller forced management’s hands by making it clear that he wanted to play in Washington.
I hear that once the Skins sweetened their offer to two draft picks, all of the Eagles decision-makers decided to pull the switch on the deal.
On the Redskins side of things, there have been reports that they offered Pro Bowl defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth and also mentioned young safety LaRon Landry as part of a compensation package for McNabb.
Great- So Reid can run Roseman as and Banner as shields if this blows up. It won’t I have confidence in 4. Slick Andy Slick, especially since its what you have said about 4 in the past 3 years that helped them form this opinion.
Now theres rumors that the Skins might sign TO
Reid will be gone in 3 years.
Agreed. Reid will be gone – but he never should have been given his extension.
Shanahan is a far better coach, not for bringing in McNabb, but because he has better coaching/play calling skills, and a ring.
Reid is only under contract for two years, but Eagles fan will be suffering for at least 5-10 years regardless.
Roseman probably bull-dogged his way into the trade by his self. Outside of contract negotiations Banner seems to always have made it clear that he’s not going to way in on football operations issues (i.e. talent evaluation) Banner is more of guy that says (outside of 30+ year old players) “Set up whatever you want and I’ll deal with the financial part.”
This is a win-win for the Birds fans. If Kolb can play, we build the defense back up and do a Green Bay turn around. If Kolb sucks, Reid gets fired.
Just ridiculous
Whats really scary is that the people who are running the Eagles are no non football people, especially Banner and Roseman. You never trade within the division. Its always about money, never about saying, let’s see if Kolb can beat out McNabb. I think right now by having McNabb in the same division and if Kolb doesn’t perform well, its a perfect recipe for failure. To me, I kind of think of McNabb’s situation as one similar to Elway. You had a coach in Dan Reeves that never could think oustide the box. I think he did similar things to Reid. So, that ownership brought in a new coach that finally got him to win a championship. Notice they kept Elway, because they new they had a great quarterback. They ran the ball a lot more.
I bet what you’ll see with the Redskins is that McNabb won’t have to throw 40 throws a game. They’ll run it a lot. They will be a real good time and their defense is pretty good.
But for now, we have to see McNabb twice a year. To me this trade will do what Lurie, Banner want. Get them on the front page. Meanwhile, we have a huge draft coming up. If they don’t draft right, and hear about guys that projects or colleges you never heard of, then we are in serious trouble.
For now, its time for baseball and see you later Eagles. Definitely need a break from the Eagles..
Does it really matter if he’s in the division when they can’t even beat the Cowboys for the title? Missing the point. This was the best deal on the table so they had to make it. In the division is irrelevant until the defense and offensive lines are rebuilt
Eagle 81…I’m with you, you hit that one right on the head. The Skins have 3 RBs that can carry the load, and the deep ball is a McNabb strength, so the Play action will help them. Also the Skins do not have a bad core of Rec and TEs. Their backup TE killed us last year. Enough of that stuff, it’s Phillies time…I will be back G in July/August. Oh, one last parting shot, here’s our draft history lately: 2009: 1 Jeremy Maclin Missouri, 2 LeSean McCoy Pittsburgh, 5 Cornelius Ingram Florida
5 Victor Harris Virginia Tech 2008:2 Trevor Laws Notre Dame 2 DeSean Jackson California 3 Bryan Smith McNeese State 4 Mike McGlynn Pittsburgh 4 Quintin Demps Texas-El Paso
4 Jack Ikegwuonu Wisconsin 2007: 2 Kevin Kolb Houston 2 Victor Abiamiri Notre Dame 3 Stewart Bradley Nebraska 3 Tony Hunt Penn State 5 C.J. Gaddis Clemson 5 Brent Celek Cincinnati. Does this excite you…
Chuck rob – yes it does excite – I was waiting for the wife to shop and i read a bunch of draft preview magazines. Every one of them wrote glowing reports on the Eagles (Lindy’s gave them an A) for drafting over the last 5 years. Stated they have transitioned to a much younger team with an outstanding core of skill players, maybe the best WR/TE/RB grouping in the NFL. Stated if the OL gets squared away this team will be tough to stop. Needs mentioned were the D side. Almost all gave the birds higher grades. As for the Skins.. Can we at least wait till pre-season or maybe camp before we start declaring seasons good or bad – how bout we actually wait and play a game or two?