If Howard Eskin’s report about the Eagles being 85% sure that Donovan McNabb will be their quarterback next year is true, then it tells me that McNabb is on the trading block.
On the NBC 10 Sunday night sports show, Eskin said that an Eagles source told him that they are 85% sure that they want McNabb to be their quarterback next season.
What exactly does a statement like that mean? To me this is the language of a negotiator.
As far as I’m concerned, it means that McNabb is on the trading block and the Eagles are interested in moving him for the right price.
It means that the Birds want to convey the image that they really want to keep Five but would move him if they’re bowled over by an offer. This really means they want to move him for the highest price.
This isn’t an easy thing for the Birds to do. They want to keep McNabb’s trade value high while alerting the rest of the league to the fact that he’s on the trading block.
They also want teams to call them rather than the Birds having to get on the phone and call other teams because that’s the way leaks occur.
If teams are seriously interested in trading for McNabb, they don’t want any other teams even aware that they’re talking to the Eagles about obtaining him, so they don’t have a motive to leak the information.
