TRUSTS CHOOCH IN A PINCH
Hope nobody out there is getting too worked up over those "intense internal conversations" the Rams supposedly are having over the possibility of trading for Donovan McNabb.
Sure, anything's possible. But let's think this through. The Rams, the worst team in the NFL last season, are undertaking a huge rebuilding project. Their draft picks are precious. To get McNabb, they'd have to give up something pretty darned significant -- at least the first overall pick in the second round, maybe more. OK, if they're going to do that, they're projecting McNabb as their quarterback for at least a few years, right? Yet, he's only signed through 2010. To make such a deal happen, you'd think the Rams would have to be assured they could sign McNabb to a new deal. Why on earth would McNabb be willing to play along?
BTW, maybe the McNabb camp had this scenario in mind last June, when contract revision talks reached that odd conclusion of more money but no added years. The assumption then was that the Eagles didn't want to extend McNabb -- but what if he saw he could retain more control of his destiny by keeping his 2011 options open?
Maybe I'm missing something here, tradewise. Just yesterday, ESPN's Adam Schefter opined that he thought McNabb was the most likely Eagles quarterback to be dealt, ahead of Michael Vick. I don't see it. The only situation that makes sense for McNabb is a contending team, that he'd like to sign with beyond this season. How many of those need quarterbacks? The Vikings seem to be willing to wait indefinitely for Brett Favre. The Cardinals have indicated they intend to go forward with Matt Leinart, and unlike with Minnesota, there is no obvious McNabb connection (where a guy lives in the offseason has nothing to do with anything). San Francisco, a borderline contending team, also has shown no inclination toward trading for a 33-year-old QB, and no McNabb connection.
If you told me the Eagles really were ready to move on from the McNabb Era, despite everything Andy Reid has said since the season, I wouldn't be shocked. I'm really not sure how the moving on gets accomplished, though, unless they decide to sell a "one-year" McNabb at a discount to a bad team ... which you'd think would not be looking for a one-year solution.
I'll believe it when it happens.
Les
Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News
since 2002.
Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les
only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no
penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite
what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News
from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much
lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their
two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with the paper covering the
Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a
selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre
and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas
Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was
boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
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