Will McNabb trade haunt the Eagles?

We all knew this was coming. Yet somehow the Eagles still managed to shock the hell out of us.

Andy Reid telegraphed this move when he pretty much slapped a "for sale" sign on Donovan McNabb at the NFL owners' meetings. Still, Reid and Co. totally sideswiped Eagles fans far and wide with the stunt they pulled tonight.

Donovan McNabb traded to the Washington Redskins? Unthinkable. Absurd. Blasphemy!

True, Jay Glazer of FoxSports tweeted yesterday about the Redskins being a possible player for McNabb, but who was gonna believe that? Surely, Jay was just pulling a late April Fool's joke. Certainly, the Eagles would never trade McNabb within the division.

Well, it turns out that they would. And now, the joke might be on them. Instead of shipping their 6-time Pro Bowl quarterback off to play for Al Davis and the Raiders in Oakland -- the NFL equivalent of Siberia -- they sent him just down I-95 where he can face their Brian Dawkins-less, Sheldon Brown-less secondary twice a season.

If this move baffles you, you're not alone.

How about this statement from Clark Judge of CBS Sports:

I'm absolutely flabbergasted the Eagles sent him to a club that must play them twice a year; worse, it's a club run by Mike Shanahan, who knows something about quarterbacks and offenses.

Or this rosy picture painted by ESPN's John Clayton:

The McNabb trade should make the Redskins and Cowboys the early favorites to win the NFC East, and put the Eagles, who have moved 10 players this offseason, into just a wild-card possibility at best.

Happy Easter, Eagles fans. The Birds may have just laid an egg.