Eagles Rumors

Donovan sat down for a one-on-one interview with the Inquirer late this week and said that even before Reid’s end-of-year press conference, he had told #5 personally that he would be back.

“I heard it when he said it to you guys, but I heard it before anyways.”

Take that for what you will, but it sure seems like Donovan is sure he’s going to be back. If Andy actually promised him that personally, we’d tend to believe Reid means it as well.

[Philly.com]   McNabb Says He’s Staying with the Eagles

All signs are pointing towards Kurt Warner calling it a career, and making that announcement official either tomorrow or Friday.

Whether the Cardinals are comfortable moving forward with Matt Leinart as their quarterback could have a major impact on the market for Donovan McNabb.

NFL.com’s Jason La Confora reiterates the conventional wisdom that the Birds will find a way to trade Michael Vick before they owe him a roster bonus this spring.

Sources close to Vick fully anticipate him playing elsewhere in 2010, and say he is intent on being a starter if at all possible. Such opportunities should arise. Clubs to keep a close eye on include Buffalo, St. Louis, Carolina, Oakland and Jacksonville. Those teams are in the market for QB help, and many have struggled to sell tickets and attract attention in recent years, with their smaller-market status.

Several of those teams fit the profile of a team who’d be interested in Donovan McNabb as well.  And with the uncapped year limiting player mobility, the Birds do have some added leverage to use in negotiations.

[NFL.com] Vick Likely to be Traded

The Vikings season just ended and the organization will likely get to spend the next several months as hostage to Brett Favre’s retirement whims.  Unfortunately, if you’re an Eagles fan, there’s good reason to follow closely as well.

While Favre’s annoying back-and-forth could present a timing problem for any potential trade for a new quarterback, there are a number of reasons to believe that the Vikings would be a team interested in McNabb.  From last week’s piece about potential destinations:

• The Vikings are obviously a Super Bowl contender, but only with a competent quarterback.  McNabb is that and more.
• They don’t have other worthy options within the organization.
•  Close ties to the Eagles management.  Childress has taken on former Eagles in the past as well (Pinkston briefly, Greg Lewis).

This is also a fanbase that would be willing to accept giving up draft picks for a veteran quarterback, if its one perceived to be able to keep the Super Bowl chances alive.

Keep in mind that with his style, Adrian Peterson is only going to be a force in this league for a brief time.  The Vikings know this.  If Favre decides he is indeed done, expect the Vikings to look outside the organization for another QB.

These numbers are sort of striking.  That’s two-thirds of the online readership saying they’re ready to move on.  If it makes Donovan feel any better, the numbers are almost the same for Westbrook.

Will public sentiment matter?  Maybe not to Reid, but the Banner/Lurie tandem might be more inclined to listen to it.

What will ultimately happen is certainly unclear.  But we believe the odds are against both quarterbacks being in Eagle green in 2010.  If we’re right, here’s how that might shake out.

If McNabb is to play somewhere else in 2010, that new team would most likely qualify for one or more of these:

• Could immediately be a contender with a change at quarterback
• A head coach or general manager who is at risk of losing his job with another losing season
• A team lacking a young quarterback to develop, or a team who would like to draft one in 2010
• A team that runs the West Coast Offense
• A team with coaching or front office ties to the Eagles
• A team looking to sell tickets
• The Raiders

With that in mind, our list looks like (this is in order of most likely to least):

• Buffalo Bills
• Carolina Panthers
• St. Louis Rams
• Miami Dolphins
• Minnesota Vikings
• Arizona Cardinals
• Oakland Raiders

There’s important details to every situation.  The Panthers have Matt Moore on their roster, for example.  He finished the season pretty strong.  But John Fox is in a situation where he needs to win to keep his job.  This is also a team that could absolutely be a contender in 2010 — but only with good quarterback play.

The Vikings and Cardinals would obviously be on the lookout should their ancient quarterbacks retire.

And there’s always the oddball trade scenario.

More later on McNabb, and a look at what the future could hold for Kolb.

Howard Eskin reported last night that, due to the totality of his injury issues, Brian Westbrook is considering ending his football career.

Eskin also stated that there is “almost no chance” Westbrook plays for the Eagles again. He cites the $7.25 million owed to him in 2010 as the reason for this.

While it doesn’t surprise us to hear that Westbrook is considering calling it a career, Eskin is in no position to make that sort of statement about his future with the team.  If the Eagles decide to bring him back, they could simply rework his contract to reflect his new role on the team.  Westbrook, who may be amenable to a diminished role for a lot of reasons, could be in position to consider that.

Major move for the Eagles today.  They’ve fired special teams coordinator Ted Daisher after only a year on the job.  Daisher was brought in to improve a unit that took a major step backwards in ‘08.

While the unit was improved, it was not enough to satisfy the front office.  They jumped at a chance to grab Bobby April, longtime  special teams guru for the Bills.

Getting April is a huge coup for the Birds — he’s regarded by many as the best in the business and there were no shortage of teams who wished to take him in.

They did not announce that Daisher would not be retained until today, which could indicate they may have retained him if April went elsewhere.

The Eagles also fired their head strength and conditioning coach and his assistant.

The off-season is now upon us, brought on by a demoralizing loss to the worst possible opponent.  It was not a fluke.  The Cowboys essentially dominated the Eagles for 12 quarters this year.  One of the biggest goals of the off-season will be figuring out a way to swing that pendulum back our way.

There are a ton of questions about this team that we’ll see answered.  Among them:

Is the Kevin Kolb era about to begin?
Can Stewart Bradley get back to 100%?
How do the Eagles get a pass rusher to compliment Trent Cole?
Was the slump in the second half of the season a preview of what will happen to the aging Sheldon Brown at CB?
Do the Eagles feel confident about Macho Harris as the free safety moving forward?
Is Moises Fokou a legitimate NFL starter?
Can Jamaal Jackson recover in time for training camp?
Will a healthy Stacy Andrews be an asset to this team?
Shawn Andrews — does he have a career left?

Last season this team said goodbye to Brian Dawkins, Tra Thomas, and John Runyan.  Will we be saying goodbye to Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook this year?

It’s going to be an interesting off-season here at EaglesRumors.  This is when things heat up around here.  And as much as we’re still hurting from the weekend, we look forward to what’s to come.

All Eagles on the active roster appear ready to go for tomorrow as everyone practiced yesterday.  It was a light week of practice, presumably Reid wanted to give his guys as much rest as possible in the short week.

Marty Mornhinweg stated yesterday that he expects the contributions from all three running backs to be significant this week.  We’ve heard that before, but also expect it to be true this time.  The Birds need to keep their offense on the field for longer stretches this week.

The Cowboys are a healthy club as well, they expect to be able to play Marc Colombo, Tashard Choise, and Patrick Watkins this week.  All have been out for several weeks prior.

Eagles GM Tom Heckert is traveling to Cleveland tonight to interview with the Browns GM position tomorrow.  Presumably he would be making more independent personnel decisions with the Browns than with the Eagles, making this seemingly lateral move still worthwhile to him.