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.
Comment removed.
Why do people get so upset over this? Fascinating. The Eagles decide not to significantly overpay for a part time player, 3 years past his prime. I applaud them and their ability to see the end of players careers. No wonder they have been to NFC Championship Games in 8 years. With most fans line of thinking, we'd have been to 0 Championship Games with Bobby Hoying and Levon Kirkland leading our team. Fans are morons.— thingfish- Eagles will finish the season at best 3-11. I am starting to believe this is a classless organization. The front office is a bunch of money hungry idiots. They have not taken any steps to improve this team. They have no respect or loyalty to the players or the fans that pay their hard earned money to play this sport. Banner is clueless.. He needs to be dropped off in Antartica and never come back. Booooooooo to the Eagles. I wish Dawk the best. Get your cash fam!!— komplex2005
- The Eagles Front Office knows what they are doing. They seem to consistently keep the team competitive in a league where most other teams struggle. Sure, we haven't won the Big One yet, but if you keep a team a contender year in and year out, chances are you'll hit it big one year. I'm sad to see Dawkins go, but he made a good business decision for himself and the Eagles did, too. If the FO wasn't about business, we'd soon have a floundering team.
- Dawkins is washed up! Good riddance and enjoy the cash you're stealing from Denver.— YodelInTheVlly
- Hasn't this happened before? Whenever a popular player leaves it's because they leveraged the Eagles offer into a larger contract and didn't give the team another bidding chance. I declare shenanigans.— battman21
- Prediction the Eagles will miss the playoffs but they will say they made every attempt to improve their team but they couldn't acquire a receiver like Boldin because the Cardinals aren't trading him. The Eagles could have gotten an impact player like Kellen Winslow but Mr Bean was deciding what to do with his $40 million— ResponsibleAmerican
- Unfortunately for this creep Banner, he has burned his bridge forever with his previous actions. Even if there was no way to keep Dawkins and he is completely innocent, his rotten attitude towards loyal fans has ruined his reputation with them. He has himself to blame.— Bob1
- Hey thingfish you are the moran. We got Kirkland 3years past his prime you dope! Explain one thing to me then. How can a washed up player 3 years past his prime win the freakin defensive player of the month in December???— nate28
- Are you serious? This is honestly how it happened? Reread the article, I did. He all but says "We screwed this up". You HAD Dawkins, Joe it was a done deal and you blew it!— MikeyP
- Liar.— Jay C
- He's a weasel. I can't stand him. You're a joke, Banner! I have the exact same opinion. hair— LukeSneddon
- In a year where you have more money than you can possibly spend, and a special player that is easily your fan's favorite, money can not be used as an excuse.— willy33
- Brian Dawkins helped the Eagles win alot of games this past year. In fact I would go as far to say he is one of the top players on the team. I can believe BDawk lost a step, but he is not in the state of rapid decline as the Eagles would have you believe. Shame on the Eagles organization... and shame on Joe Banner.— RetailWatcher
- wow. Eagles are worried about backlash here. Unprecedented. No worries. We'll still be the 3 to 8th best team in the league. Bronze Standard.— vroc
