Welcome to the offseason.
And, of course, the real No. 1 sport in Philadelphia: Questioning Eagles management.
The Birds are the topic du jour at water coolers, taprooms, offices and coffee klatches all across the region this morning.
That comes in the aftermath of their disastrous back-to-back blowout losses to the hated Dallas Cowboys, including Saturday night’s 34-14 NFC Wild Card shellacking.
The big question in the offseason will be the same question that has hung over the team during the regular season, and in fact for much of the last 11 ydars.
No. 5.
It’s all about Donovan.
Andy Reid is not going anywhere, courtesy of a three-year extension signed a month ago. Donovan McNabb just may be. He is under contract for next season, after failing to get a similar extension, although the Eagles did give him some more money.
In the meantime, Kevin Kolb’s deal also expires after next season, and the Eagles have to decide exactly what their plan is for the guy who’s been sitting at No. 2 since they used a top draft pick on him a couple of years ago, much to the consternation of McNabb.
The Eagles have other issues, maybe even more important ones, but none will be talked about the way McNabb will be in the next few days and weeks.
The fact is the Eagles got manhandled by the Cowboys on both sides of the line. Their offensive line – including jettisoning both starting tackles Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan – and bringing in Stacy Andrews to join his brother Shawn, has been a disaster. Shawn continued to hobble with a bad back and missed the entire season – again. More surprisingly, Stacy turned out to be damaged goods, and played little and not effectively when he did.
There was the Brian Dawkins disaster, only amplified all season as the Eagles defense continued to have problems at the safety position. Missed tackles simply did not happen when Dawkins was here. Neither was any tolerance of such phantom tackling by his defensive mates.
The Eagles stunned the sports world in August by signing Michael Vick, fresh off of two years in federal prison for running a dog-fighting operation. Why remains a mystery. The team never developed a way to use him, even if he did toss a touchdown pass Saturday against Dallas.
The Eagles lost starting middle linebacker Stewart Bradley during their annual show-off practice at the Linc in August, then spent the entire season trying desperately to deal with the situation. The Eagles defense was just as shredded as Bradley’s knee by every good team they played. They never fixed it. Sure, the Eagles defense got by against a bunch of weak teams, but they were savaged by the few good teams they played. Remember New Orleans in Week 2? In the final two games against the Cowboys, they just got obliterated.
But the big question continues to be McNabb, and his future with the team. Nothing new about that. McNabb still licks the sores of being booed by the leather-lunged faithful when he was drafted more than a decade ago.
McNabb’s quirky personality has never really played here. Witness his antics prior to taking the field Saturday against the Cowboys. His air guitar act did not tell me he was relaxed and ready to roll. Instead it told me he was nervous. How did he play?
After the game, Donovan also did little to endear himself to the locals when he termed the 11-win season a success. I think he really means it. More importantly, it’s clear he does not understand how that kind of comment drives fans up the wall.
Talk radio will be filled with calls for his head today. Andy Reid will address the media at noon.
I have 50 bucks that says the first thing out of his mouth is something like this: “It all starts with me. I have to do a better job of putting players in position to make plays.”
Here’s what he won’t say. I need to examine what happened here in the past year and take the necessary steps to fix it. Last year we blew out the Cowboys, 40-6, in the crucial last game of the season. Just one year later, they had reversed the situation. They beat us two times in a row, three overall on the year, and they are now clearly better than we are in most basic aspects of the game. Our challenge now is to do what they did and make the changes to compete with them again.
Time’s yours, Andy.
And, of course, the real No. 1 sport in Philadelphia: Questioning Eagles management.
The Birds are the topic du jour at water coolers, taprooms, offices and coffee klatches all across the region this morning.
That comes in the aftermath of their disastrous back-to-back blowout losses to the hated Dallas Cowboys, including Saturday night’s 34-14 NFC Wild Card shellacking.
The big question in the offseason will be the same question that has hung over the team during the regular season, and in fact for much of the last 11 ydars.
No. 5.
It’s all about Donovan.
Andy Reid is not going anywhere, courtesy of a three-year extension signed a month ago. Donovan McNabb just may be. He is under contract for next season, after failing to get a similar extension, although the Eagles did give him some more money.
In the meantime, Kevin Kolb’s deal also expires after next season, and the Eagles have to decide exactly what their plan is for the guy who’s been sitting at No. 2 since they used a top draft pick on him a couple of years ago, much to the consternation of McNabb.
The Eagles have other issues, maybe even more important ones, but none will be talked about the way McNabb will be in the next few days and weeks.
The fact is the Eagles got manhandled by the Cowboys on both sides of the line. Their offensive line – including jettisoning both starting tackles Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan – and bringing in Stacy Andrews to join his brother Shawn, has been a disaster. Shawn continued to hobble with a bad back and missed the entire season – again. More surprisingly, Stacy turned out to be damaged goods, and played little and not effectively when he did.
There was the Brian Dawkins disaster, only amplified all season as the Eagles defense continued to have problems at the safety position. Missed tackles simply did not happen when Dawkins was here. Neither was any tolerance of such phantom tackling by his defensive mates.
The Eagles stunned the sports world in August by signing Michael Vick, fresh off of two years in federal prison for running a dog-fighting operation. Why remains a mystery. The team never developed a way to use him, even if he did toss a touchdown pass Saturday against Dallas.
The Eagles lost starting middle linebacker Stewart Bradley during their annual show-off practice at the Linc in August, then spent the entire season trying desperately to deal with the situation. The Eagles defense was just as shredded as Bradley’s knee by every good team they played. They never fixed it. Sure, the Eagles defense got by against a bunch of weak teams, but they were savaged by the few good teams they played. Remember New Orleans in Week 2? In the final two games against the Cowboys, they just got obliterated.
But the big question continues to be McNabb, and his future with the team. Nothing new about that. McNabb still licks the sores of being booed by the leather-lunged faithful when he was drafted more than a decade ago.
McNabb’s quirky personality has never really played here. Witness his antics prior to taking the field Saturday against the Cowboys. His air guitar act did not tell me he was relaxed and ready to roll. Instead it told me he was nervous. How did he play?
After the game, Donovan also did little to endear himself to the locals when he termed the 11-win season a success. I think he really means it. More importantly, it’s clear he does not understand how that kind of comment drives fans up the wall.
Talk radio will be filled with calls for his head today. Andy Reid will address the media at noon.
I have 50 bucks that says the first thing out of his mouth is something like this: “It all starts with me. I have to do a better job of putting players in position to make plays.”
Here’s what he won’t say. I need to examine what happened here in the past year and take the necessary steps to fix it. Last year we blew out the Cowboys, 40-6, in the crucial last game of the season. Just one year later, they had reversed the situation. They beat us two times in a row, three overall on the year, and they are now clearly better than we are in most basic aspects of the game. Our challenge now is to do what they did and make the changes to compete with them again.
Time’s yours, Andy.
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