Connecting the dots: Kolb's future and the Eagles

It was almost a year ago today when Andy Reid told reporters at the NFL owners' meetings that the Eagles were keeping their "ears open" in regards to potential trade offers for one of their three quarterbacks.

By all accounts, it was the first time Reid publicly admitted that the team was willing to move either Donovan McNabb, Kevin Kolb or Michael Vick.

Eleven days later, McNabb was shipped to the Redskins.

Notice a similar pattern here? For most of this offseason, the Eagles had been unwilling to discuss publicly the possibility of dealing Kolb, maintaining that such talk was misguided because of the uncertainty of the CBA.

But last week, Reid told the team's Web site that the Eagles were listening to offers for Kolb.

In a piece published today, GM Howie Roseman told the Inquirer's Jeff McLane that there has been "a lot of interest" in Kolb.

And SI.com's Peter King reports that the Eagles already have one team willing to offer a first-round pick for Kolb. Roseman talked to the Daily News' Les Bowen about the report and didn't exactly deny it.

The Eagles might as well send a league-wide memo to the 31 other teams, asking them to make their best offers and to make them now, because it's clear that Kolb is on the market.

Last year, the Eagles risked alienating McNabb in the event that they didn't get an attractive offer and had to bring him back as their starter after Reid made his comments publicly. The situation with Kolb is different though. He wants out; McNabb did not.

The situation with Kolb seems pretty cut and dry. He told Reid and management after the season that he'd like to be dealt so he can start somewhere. They likely told him that they weren't sure they'd be able to make a deal, given the labor uncertainty, but that they'd try.

And so, here we are.

The other tricky aspect of how things are playing out is that nobody knows what kind of window the Eagles could potentially have to make a deal. If the lockout is lifted and the judge imposes an injunction (the hearing is scheduled to begin on April 6), there could potentially be a window of weeks (at the most) or days (at the least) before the draft on April 28. In other words, it's in the Eagles' best interest to get their best offer on the table so they can pull the trigger on a trade as soon as they're able.

Then again, in his column today, King wrote that even with the injunction, it looks like the league year would not start until early May, meaning any potential Kolb deal would not include 2011 picks.

On Friday, I detailed why I think moving Kolb this offseason is the right move.

INTERESTED TEAMS?

In Friday's piece, I explained that the Eagles are in a fortunate situation because there are a lot of QB-needy teams, who don't have a lot of great options to choose from.

Here's the list of teams I came up with (in no particular order) that could use quarterback help: the Redskins, Vikings, Panthers, 49ers, Seahawks, Cardinals, Bills, Dolphins, Browns, Bengals, Broncos, Raiders, Jaguars, Titans.

In his report today, King said the Eagles have a first-round offer on the table from one team, but are looking for a team with a higher draft position in the first round to make a better deal.

So who is the team that King is talking about?

Well, of the teams I listed above, nine have top-10 picks: Panthers (1), Broncos (2), Bills (3), Bengals (4), Cardinals (5), Browns (6), 49ers (7), Titans (8) Redskins (10). It would seem unlikely that any of them fit King's description, considering the Eagles would not have a lot of room to move up from those picks.

The Vikings (12), Dolphins (15), Jaguars (16) and Seahawks (25) are the other four (the Raiders do not have a first-round pick). Of those four, the Vikings, Dolphins and Jaguars all pick in the first half of the first round, which would still seem like pretty good compensation for Kolb.

Adam Caplan of FoxSports.com released a list today of teams he thinks could be interested in making a deal with the Eagles. At the top are the Seahawks, Cardinals and Titans. Caplan points out that Seattle was interested in Kolb last offseason.

If I had to guess, I'd say they're the team that King is talking about. They need a quarterback (assuming Matt Hasselbeck doesn't return), but the Eagles could be looking for a better first-round pick than what the Seahawks have to offer at No. 25.

MORE NOTES...

* King had a couple other under-the-radar, Eagles-related notes in his column. One concerns Plaxico Burress, who is scheduled to be released from prison in June. Per King, Vick is hoping to visit with Burress before he gets out.

* In case you missed it over the weekend, the Eagles will reportedly check out Virginia Tech QB Tyrod Taylor and Oklahoma State running back Kendall Hunter as they continue draft preparations.

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