The Cowboys hammered the Eagles to death last year. 3 times last season. To add insult to injury, the last two losses ended the regular season and the post season. After that, and with Vick and Kolb as QBs of the future, Howie Roseman and Andy Reid decided to fully revamp a team that two years prior had been to the NFC Championship game.

Those weren’t just losses. They were two crushing statements that something was deeply wrong with this team.

The Cowboys jumped on top in both games, and the Eagles didn’t fight back. They couldn’t fight back.

So Eagles head coach and soon-to-be General Manager Howie Roseman tore apart the roster.

Yeah, they dumped McNabb. But they also either traded or released ineffective or disinterested veterans like Darren Howard, Jason Babin, Will Witherspoon, Chris Clemons, Sean Jones, Kevin Curtis, Chris Gocong and Reggie Brown.

They cut ties with Brian Westbrook, Jeremiah Trotter and Sheldon Brown – three of the team’s best players of the past generation.

They got rid of half the team. Some 29 players who spent time on the roster last year are no longer with the organization – 13 of them were starters at some point in 2009.

via Debacles in Dallas changed Eagles’ course.

Michael Vick is having his best regular season ever so far. McCoy is on his way to a very impressive year. D Jax and Maclin have become a prolific receiving tandem and may both break 1000 yards this year. The defense in some situations has been tops, but awful in the Eagles red zone, especially without Asante Samuel (who will miss his third game in a row this Sunday). The offensive line has been solid, but starting right tackle Winston Justice will be replaced by reserve tackle King Dunlap. Overall, the Eagles are a team no one will not get amped to play and the Cowboys are a team who is currently playing above their record.

The last place Cowboys have plagued by injuries have suffered more from a general lack of discipline that may have been remedied with the ascendancy of interim head coach Jason Garrett. There is no better way to start off the last stretch of the regular season than Eagles beating the Cowboys.

If the Eagles beat the Cowboys, they will have defeated every division opponent at least once and will take control of the race to the NFC East division title and there will be much less apprehension in Philadelphia as people will begin to wonder how far the Eagles can go in the playoffs. If the Eagles lose a fourth game in a row to the Cowboys, then most fans will wonder what else needs to change to get the team back on track.

5 vs 7

Looks like everyone in the US except Arizona and most southern of Southern Cali will have Redskins at Eagles on Fox as their featured 4pm game. (via 2010 week 4 – Everything you need to know about sports on television – the506.com).

Philadelphia Eagles last pick by trade, but first pick by chronology is former first round pick linebacker Ernie Sims. The rest is up to Andy Reid and GM Howie Roseman. Trading McNabb to the Redskins means division title or bust. Considering the leadership drain of losing veterans like McNabb, Brian Dawkins, John Runyan, Tra Thomas and Brian Westbrook the Eagles 2010 draft is the most important since Andy’s first draft as Eagles head coach.

I hope they get a top flight safety, another running back and some offensive lineman.

UPDATE: If the redskins get Okung or Trent Williams I am going to throw up.

UPDATE: Mike Mayock on the NFLN is my favorite draft analyst, but Mike Irvin is testing my patience.

Mikell, the Pro Bowl safety and now the team’s senior position player, said the dramatic roster changes the Eagles have made this offseason were necessary to rid the team of a negative element that had infiltrated the locker room.

“There were some things I had never seen before since I’d been here,” Mikell said after a recent workout at the NovaCare Complex. “There were guys who were more concerned with their own individual accomplishments than going out and playing as a unit.

“When we lost, instead of looking at themselves and asking what they could have done better, there were some guys who were questioning the coaches and the game plan. But you can’t bring that negativity to the team, especially when you have a young locker room like we have. Because then the young guys hear it and it spreads, and you can’t have that and be successful.”

via PhillyBurbs.com:  Mikell: Eagles’ moves have been for the better

Sounds like the Eagles veterans suffered from a deficit of leadership. Those veterans would include Mikell.

Redskins QB Donovan McNabb

It was a class move, on behalf of Andy Reid, Joe Banner and the Eagles organization, to send McNabb to the team where he wanted to go and close to his current home. As a football business move, I fear Donovan McNabb to the Washington Redskins for a 2010 2nd round pick and a 3rd or 4th round pick in 2011 will be a transaction even the irrational McNabb hating Eagles fans will regret. Be careful what you wish for.

I really do not like this move. Trading McNabb to the ‘Skins gives a heated in division rival a top 10 NFL QB. ‘Skins GM Bruce Allen and Coach Mike Shanahan now have a QB so they can focus on offensive line and WRs. With the 4th pick, they can definitely start building a  top flight O line with a left tackle. Shanahan runs a west coast offense with similar progressions, likes to run the football and roll his QBs out of the pocket. McNabb is a  pretty good passer rolling out of the pocket and will have to pass much less playing in a Shanahan offense. The Eagles defense has been scorched by QBs like Jake Plummer, Eli Manning and Drew Brees rolling out of the pocket.

The Eagles are rebuilding and now have 5 of the first 87 picks. To be competitive this year and next, the Eagles have to hit on everyone of those picks. None of them can be a bust. Not. One. That is incredibly hard to do. I am not looking forward to Philadelphia Eagles football this fall.

McNabb and Akers are the only ones left from the core team that Andy Reid built. The Eagles are rebuilding.