From Bill Simmons latest column......
I thought Warren Sapp summed it up well:
"Donovan, your legacy will be throwing up in the Super Bowl, Rush Limbaugh and now -- not knowing there were ties!!!"
I'd also throw in Campbell's Chunky Soup commercials, but, yes, that's probably it.
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After the benching and the overall debacle that was the Ravens game:
Is it premature to say...it’s over?
It depends what the "it" is. If it is the Donovan McNabb era, you may be early by 6 weeks or so. If by "it" you mean the Andy Reid era, who knows.
Here's what I know. Donovan is still a competent quarterback who can play in this league for another two years assuming he doens't get hurt. He's looked terrible these last few games mostly because opposing defenses have figured out and diagramed every play, every wrinkle in the Eagles offense. Cornerbacks are sitting on pass routes knowing that the Eagles will never run when they really need yards. It's stale playcalling that has the Eagles offense, and Donovan, looking so bad. The talent is there. The imagination is not.
I'd bet serious money that Andy got talked to last week, and was told to make something happen, and quick. Instead of handing over his play sheet to Marty Morningwhig, he decided instead that his players, namely Donovan, were the issue. So, when #5 started stinkin' up the joint yesterday, that was his excuse to make a change. Not the change that needed to happen, ut a change to make him look like a coach who can actually make in-game adjustments.
Then, he decided to have his quarterbacks coach let McNabb know that he was gonna ride the pine in the second half. That's a coward move right there. If you really think about it, what has Andy done so well over this past decade? Why is he considered a great coach?
He inherited a great defense when he came in. He's had Jim Johnson making him look good on that side of the ball for the past 5,6 years. He's got scouts helping him figure out who to pick. They run an offense that gets a lot of yards, but has trouble in the red zone. The East stank ass for the better half of the decade. a lack of serious competition is the thing that kept us winning so many games for so long. I think this season is when Iggles fans may finally realize that the Emporer has no clothes.
Amen to all that.
By “it,” I meant the entire Reid/McNabb era. And I agree with you that Reid is the major problem here. But a man is just a man, and psychologies are frail; even if the front office were to make the seemingly bold move* of ousting Reid, replacing him with a Jeff Fischer type head coach, and convincing Donovan to keep faith in the organization and give the new paradigm a shot — I think it’s over for McNabb. Sometimes a player just needs to go elsewhere.
But to be fair to both men, Donovan IS stinking up the joint. Even if Reid has put him in a position to fail, McNabb isn’t fighting it. To call his recent performances lackluster is a gross understatement; he looks anemic out there. This just provides further evidence that it’s his time to go.
Which means...ugh. We’re heading into a “rebuilding” era. Not good times.
-G
*I say “seemingly bold move” only because the obvious and likely move is trading Donovan, when the logical and not-so-bold move is to do as I sketched above.
Forget bold moves, the front office will be talking about cost-effective ones. McNabb is on tap to make $10.5M next year. There is no way he's making that money, especially with the team not making the playoffs this year. On the other hand, Reid is owed a guaranteed $11M over the next 3 years. Which means it is highly unlikely he is going anywhere next year. The front office is not going to pay Andy 3 years to go coach somewhere else while they pay a new coach to oversee the Eagles. Also, the Eagles believe in Kevin Kolb, which means he's going to get at least a season to prove their faith is well-placed.
So what does that mean? The scenario is, McNabb gets traded or let go, and KK is our starting quarterback next season under the venerable direction of one Andrew Walter Reid. And that is how the rebuilding will begin (by not actually beginning).
One of two things will happen: 1) Andy will shake things up and try some new stuff and actually draft a power runner and the Eagles will be decent because they've got too much talent to be dreadful, or 2) Andy will continue to get free reign and thinking that his new weapon (Kolb) will be able to deliver the goods he will not change his game plan one iota, the loss off old players who used to be studs like Runyan and Dawk will kill us and we will stink. I see the former happening.
What's worse than rebulding? Being a if-then playoff possiblity. You know, if so and so can drastically improve, and this guy can stay healthy and our rivals don't perform up to expectations, we could actually make the playoffs. That would make me just want to shoot my brains out.
The other thing that will very likely happen: Donovan will go to the Bears or some such team and make them an actual contender.
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