Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie let it all out yesterday when he talked to the media. He made a very revealing statement in between all of the Michael Vick talk.
He told the media gathered to hear his state of the Eagles address that the team would have traded Donovan McNabb after the 2008 season, if he didn’t hadn’t had the ACL problem.
“Donovan, coming off the ACL, maybe didn’t have the league-wide [market] value,” Lurie said.
The Eagles went to the NFC Championship game against the Arizona Cardinals after the 2008 season. McNabb didn’t have an ACL injury in 2008, he had the injury previously but showed in 2008 that he had totally recovered. 2008 was the year that McNabb was benched at halftime of the Baltimore game.
Lurie also said that Reid was on board with trading McNabb after the 2008 season. I find that hard to believe since I’ve heard about a conversation between Reid and Kevin Kolb after Kolb’s two starts a year ago. Reid told Kolb he was relieved that he played well because this proved that he didn’t make a mistake a in drafting him.
A year before when Kolb got a chance against the Ravens, he went in and made a costly mistake with an interception that was returned for a touchdown. That was the only meaningful action he had, so you could understand why the jury was still out with Reid on Kolb.
On the other hand, Lurie has been clear about the fact that he was ready to go with Kolb and move McNabb.
Now you can see the lay of the land a bit. Lurie was ready to trade McNabb after the 2008 season, but Reid wasn’t sure about Kolb until he played well in the two starts a year ago.
It all makes sense to me now. I was told rumors that Lurie and the team’s front office were the initiators of the benching of McNabb in the Baltimore game. Kolb was told by then quarterback coach, Pat Shurmur, that he was starting the second half in the Baltimore game when he was walking on the field.
You would figure Reid would have been going over the game plan with Kolb at halftime to make sure the youngster was prepared for what plays they were going to call and what defenses the youngster was going to see.
I was told that Reid didn’t tell Kolb he was starting because the head coach was preoccupied for most of halftime. I was also told an unsubstantiated story that the front office’s involvement in his benching was the reason McNabb was given “apology money” in that offseason.
Nobody has come even close to explain why McNabb was given that bonus in the offseason after the 2008 season.
You can see now that Lurie was ready to move on from McNabb after the 2008 season but Reid wasn’t nearly as sure.
even worse
No wonder Kolb was a bit shakey in that game. IMO he didn’t do too bad. He marched the O right down the field against that Ravens D which was pretty good. Yeah, we all know he threw the INT in the redzone but Ed Reed also broke like 5 tackles, including BWest, to get a TD. I know not many Eagle fans look at the bright side of that loss but the kid didn’t do too bad for being thrown to the wolves the way it happened.
G, this is the insight I love getting from here.
This team is weird.
it’s obvious the organization made a mistake. Reid sold the FO on Kolb but when he was thrown into fire failed miserably. The front office missed out on a 1st rounder trading down for Kolb against everyone wishes and surprised all the experts with that pick. A quarterback was the least of problems and they definately could have improved the team with that pick. Reid put the FO on the limb with that suggestion and now Reid and Kolb is inseperable. If Kolb fails – Reid fails…and without a legitimate Defensive Coach to cover Reid’s behind it’s safe to say that we as fans need to get use to mediocrity or worse for the next decade. We finally have talent at the skill positions without a franchise QB…When we had a franchise QB there was no recievers…only in Philadelphia….I use to wonder how this organization could get away with mistake after mistake… but after hearing the fans continue support to excuse an underachieving organization…I understand. If you’re not accountable and your fan base support you even when you make bone head moves..why change?
The Philadelphia Eagles organization is perfect for Philadelphia.
To Songs,
McNabb is a solid,good NFL QB, but he is not and never was a “Franchise or Elite QB”
To compare him to a Brady,Manning,Farve,Brees,Aikman,Montana,Young, J Kelly” is just ludicrous and not accurate statement. He is definitely the Eagles All-Time best QB but again, that doesn’t mean he’s an “Elite/Franchise QB”.. McNabb is gone, let it go, take a deep breath and embrace the new players on this team, if not, you as a fan,are only going to become more resentful and hateful which is not good for your state of mind or your health.. and for what, time to move on …
Songs, it’s amazing how one could infer what you just did after Garry “turned on the light” for what was really going on behind the scenes. Kolb did not fail! You’ve failed in your analysis of him & FO. He got picked twice, but Reed is an exceptional player too… give him credit. Neither the FO nor Reid remotely had Kolb ready for that game with 1st team practice reps for the Balt defensive scheme, much less at halftime. Obviously Lurie/Banner had been “watching” Donovan for earlier than just 2008 to suddenly tell the coach to pull McNabb. And you want to cut Kolb’s throat because he hadn’t been in a game…. and without any preparation against a team with a great defense! No FO is ever going to admit in detail what mistakes they made. Anthony Spencer would never have been the savior of this team; if you recall, several teams were ready to draft Kolb and that’s why the Eagles pulled that move. Don’t you find it interesting how quickly the team has gotten behind Kolb? They are not looking back, nor pointing fingers.
Paul, you are an idiot…Mcnabb was never a franchise QB? He was a top 3 QB the majority of his career…look at the numbers.
Iggles..let’s make this clear……if the team put Kolb in without reps against Bmore obviously they thought he could play. So don’t make excuses…..they should have drafted better than reaching for Kolb. We needed offensive line help….we needed help on the other side of Cole…..We needed a Receiver…Kolb was not needed. The FO is to blame for puting this team back years for a QB that wasn’t ready then and will fail misreably. The reason you guys don’t want to except he may fail is because the outcome is grim with no light in sight. You all hope….I’ll watch and afterwards you’ll hear…..”I TOLD YOU SO”.
Well I may be an idiot Songs,
But here’s what I do know –McNabb in NFC Championship Games 1 for 5, Super Bowl Games 0 for 1
So that’s a grand total of 1 for 6 in the biggest games of your Teams Season and your Career.
I think a true Elite/Franchise QB would have better than a 16.5% success rate…don’t you….
Numbers,numbers for the regular season are nominal and don’t mean all the mauch in big scheme of things..It’s what you win that counts and McNabb just bottom line did not get it done,plain and simple
Put most NFL QB’s in the Eagles Pass-Happy Offense, where you throw 45 times a game, and at the end of 10 Seasons, you will and should have pretty good #’s, but “Franchise, Hall Of Fame” players are there because they won Championships which McNAbb failed to do… It doesn’t mean I hate him ,for I actually like McNabb, all it means to me is that he wasn’t good enough to bring home a Championship for the Eagles which as a fan is what I care about.. Time to move on
McNabb has a career passer rating of 86, enough said. All Elite NFL QBs are in the mid 90s. have you checked the stats.
Just to show that I spread the blame am an not one-sided about anyone or anything
Head Coach AR is also 1 for 6 in the Biggest Games for the Eagles and his career and I do not consider him an “Elite” or “Hall of Fame” type of Coach… A good Coach to be iget in that position yes, a great or an elite coach, absolutely not .. I feel the same way about D McNabb…
Now we fast forward to Summer of 2010 and I support the team,coaches and players we have now and I am as excited about this group of players that probably any team we have had in camp before.. To me, if Coach AR doesn’t succeed by winning or getting to the Super Bowl by the end of his current contract (2012) then he will no longer be the Head Coach in Philadelphia which I am ok with
Are we ever going to stop arguing about McNabb? Seriously? Love him or hate him, even with his shortcomings, he is the best QB this franchise has ever seen. Period.
Anyway, If memory serves me right, McNabb had the ACL injury in 2006 and that’s when Garcia took over. 2007 was his recovery year where we just missed the playoffs. And he was fully recovered by the beginning of the 2008 season where we went to the NFC championship that year. So that timeline that Lurie is talking about doesn’t make sense to me because at that time he would have had value being a year + removed from the injury and leading the team to the title game. At the end of 2008 season, he was more than 2 years from when he actually suffered the ACL injury.
I think he’s lying about the reason they didn’t move him. I think they may have wanted to because we lost another title game but wasn’t sure about Kolb. So he’s using the ACL as an excuse for why they kept him another year.
Drummer, thats an excellent post. You couldn’t have said it any better. And boy are they ever!
I absolutely agree with the point of who cares about mcnabb anymore. He is gone. Quit crying. He was a good quarterback, not a great qb. The man was favored 4 times in the title games and lost three. From 2005-2009, Mcnabb had missed time. 05 was the Sports hernia, 06 the ACL, 07 he missed 2 games, 08 he got benched, 09 he missed 2 games. He did alot of good for the franchise but it was time to move on. How many franchises would not decided to do what the eagles did?
And I am seriously sick of the constant negativity toward kolb. This guy is no bum off the street as some of you would like to sound. During the draft they said alot of teams where interested in Kolb especially the ravens. You guys make him sound like he was an undrafted guy, but he was the 36th pick in the 07 draft and the main reason he wasn’t a first round is because he did not play under center and played for a junk team. They drafted him with the idea that his skill set was good enough for that pick but would have to take time to learn the offense. Reid and co. saw how he played this past year and probably made the decision to trade mcnabb at the end of the season after the chiefs game. Offensively this team is better set up then last year because the players have experience together. Lastly the “bum” kolb is the only, repeat only qb to throw for 2 consecutive 300yd games in their first 2 starts. Not to mention all the coaches and players talk quite glowingly about him and they did last year as well as this.
So forget about mcnabb, hes gone.
When Kolb win a superbowl, we’ll forget Mcnabb
I already forgot about the qb in Washington DC. He was here, now he is not. Time for the next guy up to get a pat on the butt, “Let’s see whatcha got kid.” That is the reality of the situation, it is a stone cold mortal lock that Kolb is the Qback this year unless he gets hurt. Too many people act like the players are the Eagles. That is a mistake, they are just mercenaries, here for awhile. This ownership will be gone too someday, like them or hate them. But I will still be here along with a zillion other fans, WE are the Eagles, we do the chants, we go to the games, to Lehigh, to other cities and take over the stadiums. It is about a shared community experience, not the dummies on the field. Some of them could not find Philadelphia on a map, it is just where they are 8 or so months of the year, collecting a paycheck. Dawk is not going to live here when he finishes in Denver, he is going back to Jacksonville, Sheldon lives in SC, Randall went back to Vegas. They just pass through. I don’t care about the old qb, good for him, he got another year collecting a paycheck in the NFL. We will have a new qb this year, and I hope he plays well. But whining about a player getting transferred, from one team in the NFL to another is a stupid man’s game, and it misses the point of the whole experience.
There are a lot of idiots around here…McNabb a serviceable QB? (that’s laughable)
There’s no franchise in the NFL, older than 50 years with several conference championships, that has a QB that’s better statistically than all the rest that have worn the uniform, but is not considered an “Elite QB”…Try to find one I double dare you. What some of you folks are talking about is just foolishness. McNabb is already going into the Hall of Fame, but if McNabb wins one Superbowl he’ll be a definite first ballad Hall of Famer… there’s no “serviceable” QB that could even remotely make those claims.
I’ll go back to what I said earlier, if this team wins a handful of games and Andy Reid gets fired after this season…once the smoke clears he’ll be certain to explain how he had his arm bent into trading McNabb as well as some of the other veteran personnel moves that have been made in the last two years.
Having non-football people in control of Football teams is one of the worst possible ideas ever. Unfortunately, it’s a necessary evil at this point. The problem is that when you have someone that’s never played football in their life, outside of Nerf touch, running a team for 12 years they get the idea that somehow they’ve become a “Football Person.” This is the second time Lurie has made comments where he tries to put himself in the position of being a “Football Expert” on top of the fact that he has a non-football person with little real world experience with personnel management running the personnel department. It’s clear to me that the wheels are coming off of this thing as there too many delusional people in the kitchen and too many people attempting to stir the pot.
To Butch
AR is safe thru 2011 at least and realistically until his contract is up 2012 so you will have to deal with it .You miss my earlier point ,many fans don’t care about the “regular season stats” of 25 TD’s and 8 Int’s if it doesn’t lead to you the pinnacle of the Sport. It’s what you do, to win Championships and that’s where #05 came up short time and time again and for the record, he is not a HOF QB until he wins a Championship or at least gets back to SB, plain and simple
Songs, let it go man, So many sour grapes! In so many ways the Eagles now have a new regime and maybe they can do what the last one couldn’t and maybe they can’t. I’m ready, willing and able to watch and root them on and see if they can cause, like Anderson said, I’ll be here long after the players, coaches and owners have moved on. I’ve been a fan since Tose was a new owner and I’ll be one after this one leaves too. No, I’m not blind and I don’t agree with everyting but this is MY team and I’ll keep rooting for them because I want to. If you don’t want toroot for them then move on man, lifes too short. By the way, McNabb was a very good QB and maybe the best, so far, on a team that hasn’t won the biggest game of the season in 50 years. I want more than what he was able to do.. He had his time, he had his chances here and I wish him the best elsewhere cause I’m ready to turn the page. GO BIRDS!
I always have to laugh when someone says “#5 came up short.” Anyone who understands football would recognized that the other 52 players may have had a hand in the loss. It’s a good thing Ray Lewis’ defense had Trent Dilfer to carry the Ravens to a Superbowl win.
When I look at Superbowl XXXIX, I see shortcomings at nearly every position. From the very first snap, the QB had no protection. He was getting hit often and hard. For the life of me, I can’t understand how McNabb missed so many blocks. And that Westbrook averaged 2.9 yards per carry is certainly McNabb’s fault. He should have run the ball himself. Kevin Faulk’s 4.8 yards per carry – McNabb’s defense came up way short.
I could go on and on, but why bother? It’s painfully obvious that McNabb “came up short.”
PM
PM, if by “new regime” you mean that Reid finally understands that he needed receivers, a running game, linebackers, etc., I agree.
A regime start when the FO is gone. They are the problem and it’s official…non football people with no experience are running the team…Mr Burns..I mean Banner got his boy toy running things now.