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.

An increasing number of NFL players have turned over the past few years to the field of Mixed Martial Arts to prepare for the grind of the football season.

One of the latest guys to adopt the training regimen is Eagles defensive end Trent Cole.  He recently told PhiladelphiaEagles.com that he will be working with FOX’s Jay Glazer.

Glazer has been tutoring various NFL players over the past few years, including Vikings defensive end Jared Allen, Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart, and 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis.

via Trent Cole takes up MMA training | ProFootballTalk.com.

Glazer obviously gets two bonuses from this:

• Access to players. Access that increases his utility as an NFL insider (Pam Oliver, Adam Schefter or John Clayton is not going to be teaching Julius Peppers how to use their hands to better stun a 300 plus pound offensive lineman out of a three point stance anytime soon).
• A budding side business. NFL players are always looking for regimens to make their bodies more resilient and their play more violent. A few more sacks, 10 more tackles and a player becomes a pro bowler, collects bigger signing bonuses on the next contract and riser bonus are triggered in their current contract.

That being said, its a great idea. Martial arts pugilism, wrestling leverage, boxing footwork and core strengthening is great for what a defensive end needs to do to fend off an offensive lineman and disrupt the quarterback.

The Michael Irvin Show: 1/12

HOF QB Troy Aikman joins the show to talk about Dallas ending the post season drought. Mike, Nate and Kevin simulcast with 97.9 (In Philadelphia) The Fanatic in Philadelphia to rub g…
via The Michael Irvin Show as heard on ESPN Radio 103.3 FM.

Great Soundbite (and I hate to give Michael Irvin props but this was “The U” quality smack right here):

• Michael Irvin to Eagles fan in Dallas named Tyrone: “Tyrone, what they need…is a fan like you! We gonna send you home by yo’ crib, Pack up and GET OUT!, that’s what you do! You pack up and get out and go to Philly wit those losers!”

What kills me is the brazen ignorance of my fellow Philly fan, Tyrone. Tyrone said we need a “Reggie White type of lineman”. They need the reincarnation of the best interior lineman ever to win the championship? WTF. Hold your breath and wait for that clone to be football ready Tyrone. I would rather have the guys we have now be healthier toward the end of the season (namely 3/5 of our offensive line). Because the Eagles o-line couldn’t block, the offense couldn’t run plays, and by extension sustain drives, and our defense played the bulk of the game against one of the best offenses in the league.

Another off season and another long wait for training camp and new hope. Another winter and spring filled with “dump McNabb”. The truth of the matter: McNabb probably stays. Without an extension, heading into an uncapped year, it doesn’t make sense to trade McNabb. He pretty much has all the leverage right now. There are many teams who would take him as he is when he becomes a free agent. He is still a much better than average QB. I think the Eagles front office will try and move Vick, keep Kolb and McNabb as the starter.

Either way, here’s hoping the Cowboys lose.

The fans were livid. Not only do they want their team to take a shot at being the team that goes 20-0 and by extension a team that becomes the best of all time, if they had tickets for schedule weeks 16 or 17, they got to see Painter instead of Manning. They only have to look at the Patriots, who played starters until Wes Welker blew out his knee and Tom Brady’s go to safety valve WR went from being a guy with league leading 123 receptions to  a capable rookie Julian Edelman. I am sure Patriots coach Bill Belichick would have rather had Welker and Edelman to help out Brady and Randy Moss going into this weekends AFC divisional round.

I was in New York the Tuesday (Dec. 28th I believe) after Welker went down for 6 months, and after the Jets had played the Colts’ backups for one of two wins they needed to get to the playoffs and  a cabbie was tuned in to sports talk radio as I rode in a taxi from Penn Station to the East Side. The hosts were calling the Jets illegitimate and though the hosts could be wrong, the point was made that the Jets were being man handled by the Colts before Peyton Manning was benched. All of this, along with many other Week 17 duds, left NFL commissioner Goodell with a bad taste in his mouth.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is thinking about creating a special incentive for teams to play their starters in every  game of the year even if the last few games of the season cannot change the playoff picture for this team. While NFL starters clamor to not play in pre-season games, are pulled during “garbage time” and an injured starter can be the difference between a team being a playoff contender and missing the playoffs completely (see Brady, McNabb and Palmer season ending knee injuries), he wants to find an incentive to make playoff teams play players in meaningless regular season finales. I doubt he can offer enough money and or resources to make it worth the teams’ or players’ sacrifice. The goal of the regular season is to make the playoffs and the goal of the playoffs is to make the Super Bowl. There is nothing Goodell can do that would be fair and enough to motivate teams to go all out in garbage time.

A quick and dirty way to attempt to create a more meaningful last two weeks of the season matter is to make the last two weeks “rivalry weeks” or only intra-division play. So a typical NFC EAST end of season would be:

• Week 16: Redskins at Eagles, Cowboys at Giants
• Week 17: Giants at Redskins, Eagles at Cowboys

As of week 16, 3 of those teams were in the running for a playoff spot, and I believe all three had to win out for the divisional crown. As it turned out in Week 17, the Eagles could have been 2nd or 6th seed in the NFC, the Cowboys could have been 3rd or 6th. We know how that turned out. It may not have changed the Colts situation, but it may created more meaningful match ups in week 17.

The second reason I think divisional play is good at the end of a season, is that misery loves company. The Browns were the loss that took the Steelers playoff destiny completely out of their own hands. Browns WR/KR/Wildcat QB Josh Cribbs was interviewed after the game and intimated that even though the Browns had a bad record, beating the arch rival Steelers was the next best thing to going to the playoffs for his fans.

Another reason Goodell may be especially pissed is that this makes his plan to extend the regular season look especially stupid. Welker and Charles Grant, a dominating defensive end for the NFC 1st seed New Orleans Saints, went down in meaningless football games in week 17. One less game and both of these teams have these players for the 2009-10 playoffs. One more game tacked on to a long brutal season, who else would have been hurt in a game that didn’t matter?

Brian Dawkins Thank You Full Page in Philadelphia Daily News

It has been kind of rough to see Brian Dawkins in Broncos Blue and Orange, and while the Eagles had to push them farther away from a playoff birth, but it was good to see him back in Philly if only for an afternoon.

Andy Reid and Desean Jackson side bump after Desean Jackson score

Defense was a mess. Offense was high powered. The last Eagles drive was a thing of beauty.