Banner's Regrets
Eagles president Joe Banner appeared with Howard Eskin on WIP Radio Wednesday evening. He said the Eagles were not given an opportunity to match Denver's offer to Brian Dawkins.
Banner's Regrets
Les Bowen, Daily News Staff Writer
Regrets, Joe Banner has a few.
That might have been the most surprising thing about the Eagles' team president's appearance Wednesday evening with WIP Radio host Howard Eskin.
Heretofore, the assumption was that the Birds took their best shot at keeping Brian Dawkins and fell well short, that they declined to meet what Banner termed an "extremely, extremely aggressive" offer from the Denver Broncos. Banner sketched out a different scenario -- one in which the Eagles weren't immediately aware of how offended their seven-time Pro Bowl safety was coming out of their initial meeting over a new contract, and in which Dawkins and agent Jim Steiner did not come back to the Birds after getting a five-year, $17 million offer in Denver that will pay Dawkins $7.2 million even if he only plays one season.
"(Steiner) indicated Brian was going to take a trip to Denver. That was the last conversation we had," Banner said. "We found out Brian was doing a deal in Denver at the same time everybody else did. We didn't know what the deal was."
Banner said Dawkins and Steiner "were under the impression that we weren't going to change what we'd offered anyway, which may or may not be true."
Asked by Eskin if it was unusual for an agent not to call back in that situation, Banner said: "Trying to be fair ... they did have reason to believe that they had our best offer. It's not totally unreasonable that they didn't call back, though we've been in plenty of situations where somebody thought they had our best offer and in spite of that, just to be absolutely certain that we weren't bluffing or that we hadn't had second thoughts, frequently you still get that kind of one-to-one call.even though you've described something you've presented as your best offer."
Banner indicated that the two-year-total of the Broncos' offer -- a little more than $9 million -- wasn't dramatically different from what the Eagles offered, though the one-year total was.
"The longer the horizon got the smaller the difference there was in the proposals," Banner said.
Banner said he believes the Eagles will still be effective defensively in 2009, but he said they will not be able to really "replace" Dawkins. "None of the possible options are Brian Dawkins. They're never going to be Brian Dawkins. We'll all be very lucky if we ever see another Brian Dawkins," Banner said. "Whether it's his character, his charity, his family, his play on the field, his leadership -- we don't have any illusions, and nobody should, that somebody's going to step in and be the next Brian Dawkins. I don't know if we'll have another Brian Dawkins going forward at any position. As you look around, those are few-and-far-between types of guys. But we do believe we'll have another quality player prepared to step in."
More to come in Thursday's Daily News.
How did this happen?— KINGOFZED- Why did this happen?— KINGOFZED
He's a weasel. I can't stand him. You're a joke, Banner!— jimbo712- So, it was probably a 2 year , $4mil per year or so deal. I love and will miss Dawk, but there's no way this was a one-sided "Eagles suck" deal as everyone wants to portray it. He got a GREAT offer from Denver, and took it.....good for him. End of story.— guit10
- Bull. This is a PR move by Banner. They would not have upped their offer by 1 penny.— MDefl
- If Banner had shown Dawk any respect, he may have gotten a call back. Asi t was, according to Dawkins, it was a "take it or leave it" deal. "You're 36 and this is all we think you're worth. Bye." Also, there were apparently clauses that said that Dawkins wouldn't ahve gotten the $3 million if he didn't play in all 16 games. Knowing how Reid screwed Hugh Douglas out of a sack bonus by not playing him a season's final game, why would Dawkins agree to that? This is just more banner BS trying to cover his backside because of all the bad pub the Birds got over this.— mike l
- PS.......radio is scooping you guys left and right. I guess print IS dead. Bummer.— guit10
- You aren't going to pull the wool over the fans eyes, Banner...Dawkins made the right decision and quite frankly the Eagles management needs to do a better job of working with their players before free agency starts!— sspn09
- Damage control - this is Banner, with Eskin-the-puppet, making sure that we, the Eagles' fans, still buy their merchandise. Next, Spadero interviews Reid - as they discuss how much these veterans mean to them - and how they wish they could keep everyone if the salary cap allowed.. with only $40M to spare.— AllDawk_AllTheTime
- I don't believe the Bean-counter. How do you sleep at night, Dimwit?— ItalianSausage
Comment removed.- The Eagles ownership has very much disappointed me and most of the fans. If they want to some how make this up to us, they should retire Dawkins number when the Broncos come to town this year. There is no reason we let our heart and soul of the team go like that.....but yet we are trying to reconstruct McNabb's contract. That makes total sense!!!— Katharine
- Looks like Brian Dawkins took the sure thing in Denver rather than make Denver wait and go back to the Eagles one last time. Good for him - he has a wonderful deal for himself and his family. Excellent business decision.— joe19131
- "...which may or may not be true". This man talks sideways and really strikes me as one serious horse's arse. And that's regardless of whether they are 'correct' about the player, which they very well might be in the end. Denver offered serious money and I don't think you can really fault anyone in this, it's just unfortunate.— PhillySubsMac
- Comment removed.
