Make it a point to remember this weekend when the off season starts because
whatever happens in the Eagles remaining ten games will have a lot to do with how much next year's Birds team resembles this one.
Last week, Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb called a players-only meeting to get everyone on the same page.
I don't know how much the meeting had to do with it, but the Birds were able to go out to San Francisco and overcome a nine-point deficit in the fourth quarter en route to a critical 40-26 victory.
I'm sure that winning the game against San Francisco was his main motive, but McNabb also had plenty of other reasons to want to get this ship turned around.
He's in his 10th season with the Birds and he's missed games due to injury every year since the Super Bowl season in 2004. Since the loss to the Patriots, McNabb has been unable to lead the Birds back to the playoffs, as questions have swirled about his future with the team.
In 2007, the Eagles drafted Kevin Kolb, McNabb's heir apparent at quarterback. And prior to this season, Eagles head coach Andy Reid made it clear that he believes Kolb is ready to play – and play well – if and when he is given the chance.
McNabb has many years left on his contract, but there's no question that his future with the Eagles is going to have everything to do with how the team fares in the last 10 games of their season.
If they flourish and win seven, eight or nine of those games, they'll be in the playoffs and McNabb will probably remain at the helm of the Birds' offense. If, on the other hand, they go into the ditch by losing five or six of those remaining 10 games, there's a good chance he will find himself playing somewhere else in 2009.
During most of McNabb's tenure with the Eagles, the team has been on top of the NFC East and in the middle of the Super Bowl hunt.
So far in 2008, though, the Eagles quarterback has played great at times but struggled at others. He got off to a fast start with a vintage effort against the Rams, but committed a costly turnover late in the fourth quarter of the Week 2 loss to Dallas.
With games against the Bears and Redskins on the line, he had the ball taken out of his hands by Reid in the red zone. He had to stand idly by as the team's running game was unable to punch the ball in for a score.
McNabb can't allow that to happen in the remaining 10 games or he'll be putting on somebody else's uniform next season. He must do whatever he has to do in order to get the Birds into the end zone, even if that means having it out with his head coach about the Eagles' red zone strategy.
