You may not have noticed but you don’t hear the Birds talking about they don’t need a number one receiver any more.
I’ll guarantee you that they wouldn’t be 9-4 right now without DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin on the football team.
That was always a ridiculous argument but was brought out by the Eagles and their mouthpieces to explain away the mistake of drafting Freddie Mitchell and the refusal to pay Terrell Owens.
Second year wide out Jackson and rookie Maclin have made that argument by the Eagles look and sound so stupid that it’s ridiculous.
Andy Reid knew he liked to throw ball more than most offensive coordinators and head coaches and he knew he had his quarterback in 2000 as the Birds approached the draft.
That year the Eagles drafted Todd Pinkston in the second round.
In 2001, they continue their efforts to put legitimate weapons around McNabb by selecting UCLA wide receiver Freddie Mitchell.
I don’t know how long it took the Birds to realize thatPinkston wasn’t as good as they thought and that Mitchell was a mistake but Reid and his staff had to be very doubtful of Freddie when he was unable to start over James Thrash.
Mitchell was the slot receiver then because there was nothing else but garbage receivers on the team, namely Gari Scott, Sean Morey, Na Brown and Dameane Douglas.
The Birds admitted they had made a mistake with Mitchell when they traded for Terrell Owens in 2004 but they refused to pay T.O. when he demanded more money.
If they had paid him then they would have had McNabb, Owens and Brian Westbrook at the top of their games and playing together for four additional years.
Instead they let Owens go and wound up paying the price on the field in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. During those years Owens continue to be one of the league’s top receivers and Westbrook stayed healthy.
During this tiime, the Birds and their mouthpieces started claiming that you didn’t really need a number one receiver.
Now nearly a decade later, after hitting the jackpot at the wide receiver position two years in a row, you don’t hear anybody saying that a team doesn’t need a number one receiver.
I wonder why not.
