Wanted or not, Eagles receive a little advice

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The Eagles' quest for their first NFL title in nearly a half century came up short again this season, prompting angry debates among the fans on what had to happen for the team to land the elusive Lombardi Trophy.

Here in South Florida - home to this year's Pro Bowl and Super Bowl - there is never a shortage of opinions on any NFL subject, and questions about how to help the Eagles have elicited interesting answers in the last few days.

"They don't need my advice, but I would say run the ball," said former Eagles safety Brian Dawkins, who played in his eighth career Pro Bowl on Sunday, his first as a Denver Bronco. "Run the ball. With that passing attack, the way that thing is shaping up to be, go ahead and bring Donovan [McNabb] back to where he's supposed to be, and run that pill and let those weapons outside go to work."

Run the ball.

That's simple advice a lot of people with no NFL experience have been screaming at coach Andy Reid and the Eagles for years.

Rich Gannon, the former St. Joseph's Prep and University of Delaware quarterback who led the Oakland Raiders to the Super Bowl seven years ago, agrees with Dawkins.

"I think they have a tendency to get away from running the football a little bit," Gannon said. "Obviously, the injury to Brian Westbrook didn't help, but I think in order to be good in that division, you have to be able to run the football."

However, the Indianapolis Colts arrived here at Super Bowl XLIV with the NFL's worst rushing attack. Peyton Manning, perhaps the world's greatest quarterback, enabled them to overcome that flaw.

Like Dawkins, Gannon and Randy Cross, the former offensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers and the owner of three Super Bowl rings, believe McNabb should remain.

Gannon, in town working for Sirius NFL Radio, believes McNabb remains a top-10 NFL quarterback, but also believes he needs to change his off-season approach.

"I know he gets on a plane at the end of the season and he heads back to Arizona," Gannon said. "He likes being there, and I know he brings players out there to work out and I know he participates in the minicamps, but I don't know in this day and age if you can operate that way."

Gannon's solution is for McNabb to be a full-time resident at the Eagles' practice facility.

A lot "can get accomplished in that off-season program," Gannon said. "I think it's important to be in the weight room with these guys, and I think it's important to be out throwing to the young receivers."

"Watch Peyton Manning and what he has done with those young receivers," said Gannon, who also cited the Saints' Drew Brees and "his living down there in New Orleans. I think it's important to be a fixture in the building. If I was coaching, that's one thing I would insist upon.

"You're always looking for that edge: 'What could get us over the top?' That could be something that maybe could be the difference. The young guy showed in those two games that he has a chance to be a fine player, but I don't think we've seen enough of his body of work to say that Kevin Kolb should be the starter."

Cross doesn't think Reid has a bad plan.

"I'm a big fan of what Andy and them have done from a standpoint of consistently winning and consistently being right there," Cross said. "To me, they are like the Patriots and the Steelers and the Colts.

"But I know it has to be especially frustrating for Eagles fans. Before the Terrell Owens experiment, people kept saying they had to have a great receiver, and then they got him and didn't win it.

"Then they had to have a great running back. Now, the Eagles' fans look at the last couple drafts and they say, 'OK, we can't complain about that anymore. It must be the quarterback.' "

Eagles fans, of course, have gone there.

"They've gone there and stayed there," Cross said. "It's not popular, I guess, especially not [in Philadelphia], but I think they have to hang with McNabb. It would be crazy to make a switch at this point."

Cross has another opinion concerning the Eagles that isn't discussed much.

"For my taste, they're not nearly athletic enough on the offensive line," he said. "That's a problem, because they have to compete against some really good defenses. People run circles around some of these guys - Jason Peters or whoever.

"I think the ability is there; there is just too much of them there. There is such a thing as being too big, especially when it affects your athleticism."