Everybody and their brother are weighing in on the Eagles trading Donovan McNabb to the Washington Redskins.Former Rams All-Pro and future Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk he can understand why the Eagles made the move.
“For the Eagles, you would think trading him within the NFC East is risky. But, what you’re starting to see — like the Bett Favre situation — is that when you have a player with one year left on his contract, you might as well get as much as you can for him because he might find his way back to where he wants to go. McNabb has one year left on his deal, and he could have played that one year wherever they sent him and then returned to the division.”
Nobody lit into McNabb more than Brian Baldinger who is an analyst on NFL Network.
“The Eagles should be ecstatic. I view McNabb as a flawed player, and it was never more apparent than in the back-to-back losses to the Cowboys last season. His flaws will never go away. Now, the Eagles get at least two chances to expose the same flaws they’ve been covering up for 11 years. It works against the Redskins that McNabb is still in the division. Andy Reid can finally stop covering up for one of the most overrated quarterbacks in the history of the game. The Eagles will go to the playoffs. The Redskins will be watching from the golf course.”
Vic Carucci thinks Eagles have made a mistake and may come to regret it.
“Deep down, McNabb has never forgotten those demonstrators or the larger message they were delivering on behalf of the entire city: You are not who we wanted. He no doubt changed many opinions by setting every major passing record in franchise history, but he also took the brunt of the fans’ wrath for repeatedly coming up short in the NFC Championship Game and for the Eagles not winning the one time he got them to the Super Bowl.”
“Reid and the rest of the Eagles’ hierarchy can give all of the lip service they want to their confidence in Kevin Kolb and his ability to take over as their starter. The fact is that no one knows how ready he truly is. His limited playing time makes him a virtual rookie.”
Jason LaConfora of NFL Network believes both side were winners in the deal.
“It’s a cliche to say, but I look at this as a win-win. I appreciate the guts and fortitude the Eagles displayed by trading McNabb to the Redskins. It’s a gamble, no doubt, but it’s a package of picks in line with what the team wanted.”
let me go in on Baldinger… He was a bum as a player, he’s a third rate announcer and who really cares what his opinion is. Baldinger has no credibility, he’s a talking head that needs to shut up. Love it how he waits until McNabb is traded to rip him. Don’t get it twisted, Baldinger is a Jersey/Philly guy. He is speaking truly as a fan, not an analyst, so hence his credibility is SHOT. McNabb is gone, let’s move on.
Wow….totally disagree. If you ever listen to Baldinger, he knows the game. He’s on 950 all the time and he ripped McNabb all the time…..especially, after the last two Cowboy games. Get your facts straight chump
A lot of questions will be answered in the next year or two. Those questions include: Was Reid or McNabb more at fault for the team’s shortcomings? Is Kevin Kolb the next Joe Montana, Bobby Hoying or someone in between? Can a Superbowl be won with a pass-happy offense, such as Reid’s (now that he’s got receivers)? Can Shanahan resurrect a basement dweller with McNabb and other veterans? Hey, this is all very intriguing, better than any soap opera. Personally, I believe Reid is more responsible for the team’s shortcomings. I believe too many positions were ignored far too long, i.e., wide receiver, linebacker, fullback, running back and TE. Reid had the most success with his three-headed monster (Staley, Westbrook and Buckhalter), but he hated running the ball. Reid also believed that employing 6 ordinary receives was the equal to having 2 top-flight starters. In his system, he only needed to spread the ball around. Unfortunately, with that approach, it was impossible to get the timing down. I believe Reid’s offense was way too predictable. How many times have we heard defenses say they knew exactly which plays were coming? The reason teams huddle is so that the opposition doesn’t know the play It sees that there really was not need for us to huddle. Also, Reid never adapted his game plan to the situation or personnel. Remember when Donovan threw for 4 TDs on a broken ankle? How about when he suffered the sports hernia and was getting killed by the pass rush each game. Reid kept dialing us his number 50-60 times. Who puts an injured QB in that situation? How about the time when we marched down the field, late in the game, running the ball in the NFC Championship (I can’t recall which one). Our offensive line was dominating! We couldn’t be stopped and Reid called a pass play, somewhere inside the 20, which was intercepted and returned for a TD. I do recall Runyan saying it was a bone-headed call. In my mind, this is a very short list of why Reid is the bigger culprit. But, again, this is all great theater and certainly debatable. A lot of questions could be answered in the coming months and years. Anyway, now that I’ve gotten over the initial shock, goodbye, Donovan! You were not the greatest QB of all time, but certainly the greatest Eagles QB. Thanks for the memories. Sorry, but I can’t root for you as a Redskin, even though I now live in DC, because I’m Philly born, Philly bred and when I die, I’ll be Philly Dead!!!! Go Eagles!
A good deal for the Eagles and a good deal for McNabb and Redskins,
Now it’s time to move on to the Kolb Era, I wish McNabb well, (but not when’s he’s playing the Eagles)
which will make for some interesting football, especially when they play in Phily..
It was bound to happen and I am glad they moved him now so the Eagles can focus on draft,other possible trades and start the camps with Kolb at the helm..
You go Baldi. Not the most overrated. But this offense should be better with a QB who doesn’t throw gopher balls.
Anyone who claims Baldinger is just coming out and ripping McNabb now has no clue. He’s been on McNabb’s case for AT LEAST the last two seasons and I totally agree with him. I have no idea what everyone’s fascination with McNabb is, but the dude is the very definition of overrated. He’s piled up a bunch of meaningless stats in an offense that passes the ball an ABSURD amount of the time. The only number you really need to look at with him is a career 59% completion percentage. That’s horrendous.
People keep trying to claim McNabb is one of the best QB’s in the NFL, but that lousy completion percentage tells the whole story.
I wish someone would please take it a step further and call out the coach/G.M. If Baldi is accurate in his assement then you have to then look at the otherside of the coin to see a coach who keeps forcing an innacurate Q.B. to “Keep firing” even when it’s apparent he is having more then an off day. The hands off approach to Reid from a both local and national perspective is puzzling.
Drummer; Ditto, 100% on the money
Why hasn’t anyone asked Expert Paulman about his thoughts on the McNabb Trade…
(you guys hurt my feelings…)
IanIJM says:
The only number you really need to look at with him is a career 59% completion percentage. That’s horrendous.
People keep trying to claim McNabb is one of the best QB’s in the NFL, but that lousy completion percentage tells the whole story.
Hey genius‚Ķ this proves right here that the majority of eagles fans don‚Äôt know anything about football and are complete idiots. 59% is horrendous????? Lets look at 3 qbs that are claimed to be the “best qbs of all time”
Marino’s completion percentage – 59%
Elways – 57
Montana – 63
Youre an idiot
also, johnny unitas 55% (thats rounded up)
bart starr – 58%
shall i go on?
Ian you can argue about McNabb’s career completion percentage but you have to also talk about the chumps that started for him the majority of his time in Philly. Pinkston, Small, Thrash, Greg Lewis, and even Kevin Curtis…. yep I said it. I’ve seen just as many passes bounce off their hands then the ones they caught. And I’m talking on crucial 3rd downs. And why doesn’t anyone address the fact that Andy Reid doesn’t like to run the ball and teams know that. How can a QB’s percentage be higher than 59% when the defense absolutely knows its going to be a pass and not a run?
Paulman-How do you feel about the Eagles trading their franchise QB within the division? How do you see this playing out over the next 4 years? Your thoughts?
Paulman- Given your expertise; just What are your thoughts on the trade?
And in regards to the Dallas playoff game why doesn’t anyone talk about how poorly coached that game was. Reid and Morniwhig had DJax run all go routes. No quick slants, no short drag routes at all. Its like they told the kid to just “go deep” on every play. And what about the O Line? McNabb was running for his life all day. D Ware was killing J Peters which is another reason DJax should have short routes. And what about the Defense? Someone tell our Defensive Coordinator that if you play a team for the 3rd time in one season you can’t call the same schemes from the 1st two meetings. Our defense was sooooo predictable and horrible. Paulman maybe you can add some insight to this?
I thought Baldinger was spot on the second I read that quote. I also think that the reason no one will admit it because it would give credit to certain comments made by various other “personalities” about how 5 was over rated. This could never be.
By the way – Just because you say 5 was over rated does not mean you did not support the guy – It means you are able to admit that 5 indeed had more flaws than a QB of his status should have. It also does not not mean he was terrible or that he sucks. The gut was a very very good player – just not as great as some might say.
If McNabb was so damn inaccurate why did Reid keep dialing up pass plays? Isn’t the job of the coach to put your players in the best position? So while we can agree that McNabb has accuracy issues, we should also be able to agree that Reid is at fault for his playcalling. Any good coachs would know what they have in a player and the player’s negatives and do things to stay away from them. Not Reid. Let’s throw the ball 50 times into the wind. Or let’s do 5 and 7 step drops when our line isn’t protecting. Let’s do play action even though we don’t run the ball. McNabb is totally at fault for is shortcomings, but I’m not going to excuse Reid like he had no part in this. Shanahan would out coach him anyday of the year. Shoot, Wade Philips outcoached him the last 3 times.
Reid needs to go just as much as McNabb. People want to give McNabb the blame for not winning it all. Well if you do that, you gotta give him the praise for at least getting there. Can’t just take one side of the coin. Reid will be gone in 3 years because this team still doesn’t have a defense and this team can’t draft good defensive players. 2 very good defensive players in 11 years. Give me a break.
I decided not to comment on until after the players lockout in Niovember of 2011 is over…
Keep 5, the reason they didn’t have Djax run slants and short crosses is because McNabb has shown time and time again that he cannot make those throws. He’s just not very accurate. You would think with all of the speed on our offense last year u would see much more YAC. Go back to the 2 games Kolb played. The majority of his passing yards were YAC. Why? 2 reasons, the birds were playing it safe throwing short passes, and he’s better at throwing to receivers in stride. That’s what the west coast offense is all about, and you’ll no doubt see those routes this year with Kolb at the helm.
Wow Paulman thats a long time to hold your peace
Of course by then you will have a season of watching 4 at the helm behind your comments making them much more informed than the speculators
BYOB you got it
On a serious note,
I like the trade and don’t think they were going to get a better deal.. I’ve stated that the Eagles would more than likely be looking at a 2nd & 4th Rd picks in return for McnAbb given his age, his contract
status and no CBA Agreement in place which probably prevented a few teams of being active in trading for a #1 QB… All in all, I am ready for the Kolb era to begin and wish McNabb well for he is a good player and a good all-aound guy and the Eagles did him right by trading him to someone that he wanted to play for (Shannahan), a chance to win and an opportunity to get 1 last big contract by signing a new extension when you really think about it, not many other teams outside of Redskins with Owner D Snyder would be willing to make this move and spend this kind of $$ with no CBA in place.. So again, I think everyone wins in this deal…
Is the question “why did Reid keep passing”, a serious one? Because he is an egomaniac who knows better than anyone else and won’t change even if he is proven wrong. McNabb might have won a ring had Reid ran more. But that doesn’t mean McNabb is off the hook.
While McNabb has his weaknesses such as inaccurate short passes, he is really a symptom of the cause. Reid is the source with his poor play selection, poor clock management and overall unwillingness to change in order to get better results.
I wish McNabb well and won’t take any cheap shots like Baldy. It will be interesting to see what happens if Baldy has to interview McNabb sometime in D.C.
It’s not that I disagree with him, but sometimes you have to move on.
Reidsucks: Are you perhaps biased at all on Reid? Do you maybe have a set-in-stone opinion of him that might cloud object judgment of his coaching? Just curious. I personally don’t think he’s perfect. But you’re calling a guy an ego maniac, who is a long time NFL HEAD coach who has won a LOT. And therefore, he has to think he knows things and have pride in his theory/philosophy – not having those qualities would make you a bad coach. We’re talking about a guy who’s famous for constantly saying “We could have done a better job of….”, “I need to do a better job of….” and “It starts with me as the head coach, I could have done a better job of”….
BYO I respect your point but I disagree. McNabb was not his best at the short throws I will admit that 100%, but to say he could not make those throws is completely inaccurate. I’ve seen him make those throws plenty of times. Heck, you cannot be a starting QB in this league if you can’t make those short throws.
Now if you are talking about Kolb and giving his receiver yac then lets talk about it. The short throw to DJax against KC in which he took it to the house was a nice pass. But does he normally take that one to the house against a quality secondary? The safety wasn’t deep enough at all. Both the corner and safety went for a Pick 6 and missed. DJax basically caught the pass and scored with thought even being touched. Nice pass by Kolb, “Great” catch and play by DJax.
Reid stands alone this coming season. His picks, his QB, his defense. Let’s see what he can do in a non rebuilding year as per Howie (Fantasy Football) Roseman. If McNaab was so flawed as per Baldy’s evaluation, then why didn’t Reid either fix these flaws or change QB’s a long time ago. Reid is also flawed.
and he will continue to exhibit his flaws.
@schiller: I am completely biased against Reid. See, I am not a shill for him or the front office. Won a LOT! You mean everything but 4 NFCG games, three of which they were favored in and the Super Bowl. If something isn’t working after 11 years, only an egomaniac wouldn’t change a little to make things better. How many people get to say “we should have done better” for 11 years and still stay employed? It has been proven that this guy’s philosophy isn’t working. Now, we have opposing players laughing at us saying we are predictable on both offense and defense. He is more at fault for us not winning the Super Bowl than McNabb.
keep 5…. exactly. If every goes back and look at the game against KC, the TD that both Desean and Celek got were relatively short-intermediate passes where the defenders made poor plays on the ball and/or break tackles. It’s not like Kolb was fitting the ball in tight places and throw the ball into lanes where the receiver could keep going. Desean damn near stopped and changed direction and ran right up the middle. Of course we loved the play but let’s see how it works over a 16 game season. Unfortunately for Kolb we can’t play the Chiefs every week. Ummm who are there starting corners? And please don’t give me the Saints. Most of the yards were in garbage time. And if you take the yards, you have to take the INTs as well. So he threw over 150 yards in garbage time and 2 INTs. Let’s just wait and see. I hope he is the next coming but I’m waiting and seeing just like any other unproven player on the team.
Eagles should have gotten rid of Reid and got Shanahan.
drummerwinslow says:
Well said!!!!!!!!!!
Baldinger is putting it lightly a F____g dumb A___ M____F_____r!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How does a guy who has 32,873 passing yards with 216 TDs and only 100 INTs overrated. Stats dont lie.
Hey Baldy if you want to say a Qb is overrated go ahead but talk about the Terry Bradshaws of the world. If you wanted to say a QB was the most overrated in the history of the game you would have to look at Bradshaw and Nameths stats.
The Hall of Fame should be for players with great stats. If you want to start a Hall of Fame for great teams then hell yeah put Bradshaw and Nameth in it.
true_eagles_fan……1-5 in conference championships. The Hall of Fame is for winners…..and rarely for guys with stats. Learn this game son before you post something stupid
The Hall of Fame is filled with Winners bottom line…
If you win the big one, you have a chance, if your simply a player with great stats but lose in your big games, then you have to be exceptional to get in (Fouts,Marino,Kelley) come to mind..
Right now if McNabb’s career ending, he would not be a HOF Candidate, now if he puts up good stats for the next 3-4 years his culmualtive #’s would probably get him in…
But to compare him with say someone who was less talented but won the big one is not an apple to
apple comparison.. Bradshaw played on some the greatest teams ever.. I could have probably played QB and won at least 1 Super Bowl with some of those teams..
Having good Stats and being a Winner are 2 totally different things and McNAbb did not cross that thresehold as an Eagle…
Well son the hall is for winners huh so I guess they should put brad Johnson and Trent Dilfer in there huh. I’m not sayin he is a hall of famer I’m just tryin to say that he isn’t the
most overrated qb. I’m saying Bradsaw is. Son. Bradshaws stats are horrible same as Nameth. Nameth is in the hall and he basicly won one damn game. SON
Baldinger has lost all my respect. He has become cowardly and classless.
How is he cowardly? He is right about most of what he said. You could argue that he is wrong. He is far from being cowardly.
When will the McNabb bashing ever end. What makes Baldinger an expert by bashing NcNabb again? What was his record when he played 3rd string guard for the Eagles. This guy has his faults (NcNabb) but he tries to be a model citizen. I wish him the best. He gave us his best when he played quarterback for Eagles. As far as the media goes in this town with only a few exceptions they are mindless and mean. As an example Didinger in the 99 draft. Cade McNown is the quarterback in the draft and we should pick Rickey Williams. What a joke