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Reid's drafting, the Dallas trade and Portis

Where does Andy Reid rank among league executives when it comes to the NFL draft?

That's the question Nate Davis of USA Today tackled in a recent article.

Davis ranked the top 20 league executives based on draft decision-making, with one stipulation - to be included, you had to be on the job for at least three years.

Reid came in at No. 7:

The boo-birds in Philly will be quick to point out that Reid's been on the job for 11 years and has yet to end their championship drought … they'll also probably express dissatisfaction with some of his pass-biased playcalling. But Reid's a very good coach and very good executive, and despite the lack of a Lombardi, he's turned the Eagles into the class of the NFC over the last decade. So his moves in the personnel department deserve some praise. The Philly faithful might still be bridling, but picking Donovan McNabb over Ricky Williams in 1999 was the right choice. And if you look at Reid's draft history, you'll find several players that went on to start for other teams (Bobbie Williams, Raheem Brock) even though they didn't stick with the Eagles.

Davis lists Brian Westbrook as Reid's best pick and Freddie Mitchell as his worst.

Other notes and links:

* The Eagles apparently had another offer on the table when they traded their second-round pick to the Cowboys last weekend. Jaguars GM Gene Smith told reporters he wanted to deal with the Birds to acquire Sean Lee, the Penn State linebacker that Dallas ended up getting.

"They chose to go in a different direction," Smith said, per Gerry Fraley of The Dallas-Morning News. "We obviously liked him (Lee.) We started to talk to every team we thought we could match up working a trade."

The key here is obviously how the Jaguars' offer compared to the Cowboys', which we don't know.

* Clinton Portis apparently thinks Donovan McNabb has a better supporting cast now than he had with the Eagles:

"Everybody hot because he's never been to the big one, but how many people get to the championship game?" Portis said during an interview with radio station 106.7 FM. "If we can get to the championship game, I promised Donovan — he'll have some help. If you get us to the championship game, somebody else will take over. I'll definitely be looking forward to that. I don't think he had a lot of talent in Philly, but he made it all work."

* Yesterday, Reid revealed to the beat guys that Max Jean-Gilles had lap-band surgery Tuesday and won't be able to participate fully in practice until late May, early June

Assuming Jean-Gilles is healthy, what's his role on the offensive line?

One scenario would have Nick Cole starting at center and Stacy Andrews starting at right guard. If that's the case, Jean-Gilles would likely be the first reserve at guard. If Andrews stinks it up and Cole is at center, Jean-Gilles could conceivably start. And if Cole doesn't play center, it's reasonable to assume he'd be in front of Jean-Gilles on the depth chart at guard.

Glad we cleared that up.

Now is a good time to remind myself that it's only May 1.

* The newest members of the 2010 Eagles are all over Twitter. It was funny to see tight end Brent Celek (@brentcelek) offer a Tweet welcome to his new teammates Thursday night, including fifth-round pick Rick Sapp (@sapp7) and seventh-round picks Jamar Chaney (@jamar22chaney), Jeff Owens (@jeffowens95) and Kurt Coleman (@k4coleman).

Celek and Stewart Bradley (@stewbradley) are competing for followers. Who you got?

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