There is a ton of speculation surrounding whether McNabb will be traded this offseason.  The Eagles have a decision to make and they cannot keep delaying the inevitable.  Do they stick with #5 or do they move in a new direction and hand over the reigns to the quarterback that they surprisingly drafted with the 36th pick in the 2007 NFL draft?  I say the Eagles should go with Kevin Kolb and here’s why.

I’ve always been critical of Donovan McNabb.  He simply strikes a nerve with me.  It’s for all the obvious reasons: he has never won a Super Bowl after having several legitimate chances to do so, he has been injured way too many times, he doesn’t take the game seriously enough, and he is terribly inaccurate.  What bothers me the most is when he throws the ball straight into the ground or 10 feet over the receivers head on 3rd down and smiles and laughs about it.  That drives me absolutely nuts.

McNabb is far from a consistently accurate QB.  McNabb supporters will point to his interception to passing attempt ratio being amongst the best in the league.  That is a great characteristic of McNabb.  He rarely turns the ball over. That’s because he rarely gives the opposing team to opportunity intercept him because the majority of his passes are over- or under-thrown.  I would rather focus on his completion percentage.

In 2009, McNabb was 20th in the league — not even in the top half!  Alex Smith, Jay Cutler, David Garrard, and Jason Campbell all had better completion percentages then McNabb.  That is unacceptable!  This wasn’t just one isolated year.  In 2008, McNabb was ranked 18th in completion percentage.  Jason Campbell, Shaun Hill, Trent Edwards, and Jeff Garcia all ousted McNabb in the category.  McNabb beat out Ryan Fitzpatrick by a mere 0.8%.  In 2007, McNabb was ranked 20th.  Beaten by Joey Harrington, Brian Griese, Jon Kitna, Sage Rosenfels and Vince Young. In 2006, McNabb was ranked 23rd.  Again beaten by Joey Harrington and others such as Damon Huard, J.P. Losman, and Mark Brunell.  I could go on, but I think I made my point.  For the last 4 season, McNabb hasn’t even cracked the top 50% in completion percentage and his completion percentage was worse than Joey Harrington during 2 seasons.

I’ve made my case about McNabb.  Now what do I like about Kevin Kolb?  Everything.  I like Kolb’s work ethic, attitude, and most importantly his skills on the football field.  Kolb has the attitude of a winner.  You can see that he takes the game very seriously when he plays.  He plays the game with a passion that cannot be met by McNabb.  Kolb throws a beautiful football.  It’s usually a tight spiral delivered right on the money.  He rarely over and under-throws receivers like McNabb.  Unfortunately, we haven’t seen enough meaningful games from Kolb to have a perfect picture of his capabilities.  We have the previous season’s Ravens debacle and two games this past season against the Saints and Chiefs to judge him.

I don’t put any weight into the Ravens game.  If McNabb was playing awful against the Ravens on a full week of preparation, what makes anyone think that Kolb would do any better against the Ravens without any preparation?  Kolb at least was able to move the football and pick up first downs.  He just made a few stupid rookie mistakes against a pretty good safety by the name of Ed Reed.  A more telling story of Kolb is how he played against the Saints and Chiefs.  In both games, Kolb threw over 300 yards and had 2 TDs.

Another reason that I feel that the Eagles should choose Kolb as their starting QB next season and trade McNabb is because the Eagles have a young football team at the skill positions.  With DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Brent Celek, and LeSean McCoy all 25 years or younger, I think it’s better to have a young QB to grow and develop with them.  I think Kolb has a better rapport with those players.  Just look at how well the offense played together with Kolb against the Chiefs.  Granted, it was the Chiefs, but we got a glimpse of what the future offense would look like with Kolb and these great young players.  Bleeding Green Nation has reported that when the young players have a question about the offense, they tend to go to Kolb instead of McNabb.

I think it’s time for a new era in Philadelphia and that Kevin Kolb should be the Eagles starting quarterback next season.  Trade McNabb for a 2nd-round and a 5th-round pick.  Pick up an offensive lineman in the first round and then focus on building up the defense in round 2 and 3. It’s the Eagles blue print for success.

Jay should be making his case for why McNabb should return to the Eagles shortly.

The Eagles roster has been set.  A.J. Feeley was released this morning.  Fenuki Tupou has been placed on IR.

The loss of Stewart Bradley now becomes glaring on the depth chart with a few new names at the LB position.   Here’s a good read on rookie LB Moise Fokuo, Fokou who? Word is also going around that Macho Harris may have the starting FS role over Quintin Demps.

It’s also good to know that Danny Amendola and Jack Ikegwuonu have been added to the practice squad.  The practice squad also includes guards Paul Fanaika and Mike Gibson.

Quarterbacks (3) – Donovan McNabb, Kevin Kolb, Michael Vick

Running Backs (3) – Brian Westbrook, LeSean McCoy, Eldra Buckley

Fullback (1) – Leonard Weaver

Wide Receivers (7) – DeSean Jackson, Kevin Curtis, Jason Avant, Jeremy Maclin, Reggie Brown, Hank Baskett, Brandon Gibson

Tight Ends (2) - Brent Celek, Tony Curtis

Offensive Lineman (10) - Jason Peters, Todd Herremans, Jamaal Jackson, Stacy Andrews, Shawn Andrews, Nick Cole, Max Jean-Gilles, Winston Justice, Mike McGlynn, King Dunlap

Defensive Lineman (9) – Trent Cole, Brodrick Bunkley, Mike Patterson, Victor Abiamiri, Chris Clemons, Juqau Parker, Jason Babin, Darren Howard, Trevor Laws

Linebackers (6) – Chris Gocong, Omar Gaither, Akeem Jordan, Joe Mays, Moise Fokou, Tracy White

Safeties (4) – Quintin Mikell, Quintin Demps, Sean Jones, Macho Harris

Cornerbacks (5) – Asante Samuel, Sheldon Brown, Joselio Hanson, Ellis Hobbs, Dimitri Patterson

Specialists (3) – David Akers, Sav Rocca, Jon Dorenbos

OUTCOME: EAGLES LOSE 27-25 AFTER AKERS MISSES GAME-WINNING FG FROM 43 YARDS.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: ELDRA BUCKLEY
8 CARRIES, 23 YARDS, 1 TD; 6 RECEPTIONS, 56 YARDS, 1 TD

GAME NOTES:

– Jeremy Maclin must have had some jitters early on.  He fumbled his first punt return, which the Eagles recovered, but he shined later in the game.  He had a couple nice catches and great returns later in the game.

– DeSean had a tremendous game.  He made a great play on an end-around, as well as some very nice catches.  LeSean McCoy was also outstanding.  If Westbrook was out for the whole season, I would not be worried a single bit with McCoy taking every snap for the Eagles this season.  With DeSean, McCoy, Maclin, and now Vick, the Eagles could have the fastest offense in the history of ever.

– Lorenzo Booker made a nice 30+ yard grab right by the sidelines from Feeley.  He displayed his nice set of hands and showed why he deserves to beat out Buckley for that RB spot.  Buckley one-upped him just a few plays later with a nice 6-yard TD run.  I still like Buckley over Booker.  He can block and he runs the ball hard.  Buckley also had a nice 4th down reception form the 3 the next drive for a TD.  I like this guy!

– WR Brandon Gibson, the Eagles 6th-round draft pick, received many praises.  He caught everything that came his way and laid a sick block to help Eldra Buckley gain some extra yards on a reception.  The Eagles have a lot of wide receivers.  This guy is worthy of making the team, but how many WR’s can the Eagles keep? DeSean, Maclin, Curtis, Avant, and Baskett should be locks.  Do the Eagles take a 6th WR and keep Gibson.  Is Reggie Brown the odd man out?  This should be interesting.

– Joe Mays played well.  I would give his performance a B.  He’s definitely no Stewart Bradley.  That’s a huge loss, but if all 11 players on defense play well together, they should be able to overcome that loss.  He has the skills.  With more time with the 1st team, he can step up into that role.

– Brent Celek left the game with a sprained shoulder.  Let’s hope it’s not serious.  The last thing we need is another injury.

– Jason Peters didn’t look to good in his first preseason game.  He’s missed a lot of time this preseason, so let’s hope he just has to get his timing down.

– Macho Harris looked good and was great at getting pressure on the QB. I love the Macho Man.

Eagles traded Greg Lewis and a 2010 draft pick (presumed to be a 7th-round pick) for an undisclosed 2009 draft pick from the Patriots (presumed to be a 5th-round pick).  The Eagles now have four 5th-round picks in this year’s draft and a total of 12 picks in the draft.

I don’t really get the big buzz about 5th round picks.  We traded Lito for a 5th rounder and another conditional pick in 2010 and certain people are saying how the Eagles got such “good value.”  How valuable is a 5th round pick really?  This is just my guess, but 9 out of 10 times, a fifth-rounder never becomes a starter in the NFL.  More than half the time, they probably don’t end up making the active roster in their first few years.

The Eagles don’t even get their 3rd-round picks right the majority of the time (Billy McMullen, Matt Ware, Ryan Moats, Tony Hunt, C.J. Gaddis).  However, you have to respect these 3rd-round picks: Westbrook, Burgess, Stewart Bradley, Staley, and Trotter.

On the other hand, the Eagles have landed two very good pieces over the years from the 5th round: Trent Cole and Brent Celek.  I guess the more picks you have, the greater your chances of getting it right, so maybe all these trades will work to their advantage.

Spads conducted an interview with Eagles President Joe Banner.  Here are some highlights:

– Why no moves were made at the trade deadline: Eagles are always looking for ways to improve the team.  They were in talks with KC, but they did not want to trade Tony Gonzalez.  They felt compelled to listen to offers due to Tony’s request, but none of the offers were good enough.

– How Banner views Roy Williams being traded to the Cowboys: The Cowboys paid a lot.  Banner wouldn’t pay that much despite the player that Roy is.  Cowboys traded two 1st -round picks for Galloway and 12 years later, they still haven’t won a playoff game.

– The acquisition of acquiring Tracy White and releasing Tony Hunt: The addition of White will help the Eagles on special teams.  It’s disappointing when a first day draft pick doesn’t work out, but even the best evaluators usually hit only 50% of their picks.  You go into draft knowing some will work out and others won’t.  When a situation doesn’t work out, you have to move on.

– Thoughts on the Fullback position: Eagles are back with Klecko and they feel good about him, but they’re still searching for the answer.

– Eagles players coming back to the team (Westbrook, Curtis, Brown): Adding players to what we have is optimistic going forward.  It’s time to get on a roll with these players.

– Salary Cap: It’s time to offer extensions to players.  Eagles are evaluating options, but don’t want to discuss publicly who they’re approaching and not approaching.  The Eagles  both starting tackles are in the final year of their contract.  Unfortunately, the Eagles will have to let some players hit free agency this offseason.

– Draft Moves: We got good value for the picks.  We essentially traded Anthony Spencer for Kevin Kolb, Stewart Bradley, and Brent Celek.  It looks like the Eagles won that one.  The Eagles also essentially traded Jeff Otah for a 2009 first-round pick and Trevor Laws and then got DeSean Jackson to boot.  The Eagles gained a lot of value there.

– The Falcons: Amazing turn around for them.  Great QB and they play aggressively.  Obviously a game the Eagles have to win going forward.

There is an outstanding article I came across over at the Eagles eye that talks about where the Eagles stand in 2008.  They discuss which players will be the starters next season, which free agents they may go after, which players they will let go, and what the Eagles may look for in the draft.

To summarize the article: Trent Cole and Juqua Thomas should the starters at defensive end next year.  Jevon Kearse and Darren Howard have been disappointing this season, so the Eagles may target another defensive end in free agency, possibly the Chiefs’ Jared Allen or Ravens’ Terrell Suggs, or the Eagles may draft another defensive end if they don’t think Victor Ambiamiri is making the progress they had hoped for; he didn’t get a lot of snaps this year, so it’s hard to tell how he is doing.

We all know the four safeties the Eagles were looking at in last year’s draft (Landry, Griffin, Nelson, and Meriweather) were drafted before the Eagles were up in the draft, so they really missed out  on a player that they hoped could attempt to assume Dawkins’ role when Dawkins’ time to retire comes (I hate talking about it, but he is 34).  Mikell has had a pretty good year; J.R. Reed hasn’t been bad, especially for a player who was counted out because of injuries; and Sean Considine simply sucks. If the Eagles like a safety in this year’s draft, you can be pretty sure they will use their first round pick on that position.

We all know how well the Eagle’s young linebackers are developing.  I’m extremely impressed with Gaither, Gocong, and Bradley. I like what they have at that position, so if Ohio State’s James Laurinaitis or Penn State’s Dan Connor are available, I think the Eagles would pass on them.  Laurinaitis should be drafted in the top 10 because he does stuff like this (YouTube video), but Connor could fall to a spot where the Eagles could pick him up.

The Eagles could use another OT to succeed Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan and I’m scared about Winston Justice’s development after the Giant’s debacle, but the guy never gave up a sack in college football (I think; regardless, he was damn good in college).  The Eagles were going to draft him with their first pick, but Bunkley fell so they took him and then Justice fell, so they traded up in the second round to get him, so a double bonus for them.  The Eagles could use another OT, but I think they should target one in the 2nd or 3rd round rather than their 1st round pick, which I think they should use to get a safety or DeSean Jackson.

Finally, what will the Eagles do about L.J. Smith?  I think they’ll let him go unless his free-agent stock decreases because lets face it: he’s injury prone, drops passes, fumbles, and is a below average pass blocker, but other than that he’s awesome!  He does a lot of good things to the passing game and has bad-ass tattoos.  The article mentions that Dallas Clark is a free agent, but Indy will almost certainly resign him.  I think Brent Celek will be a very solid player,  not a pro-bowler, but a sure handed player who can block, and that’s about all you can really ask for from the 5th round selection.  I think the Eagles should draft another TE late to add depth, but I have no problem with Celek as the starter going into next season.

One final note.  Apparently there were some rumors the Eagles would trade for Chad Johnson in the offseason, but the chances of that are probably as good as the Eagles making the playoffs this year: none.