Assessing The Eagles Quarterback Situation

I wanted to wait a while after that playoff loss before doing a post on this, but with the dawn of free agency just around the corner and with a cool head on my shoulders, now is as good a time as any to break down the Eagles situation, what is likely with each situation, and who is likely to suit up in midnight green next season.

First we will take a look at the starter, Donovan McNabb. I am officially meh on McNabb. If he comes back, great. If the Eagles trade him, great if the haul is semi-decent. As for will he come back, if there is one thing the Eagles organization has showed is that they are completely loyal to Donovan McNabb. They may not be that way with other players, but they are with McNabb. Reid said that McNabb would be back next season and at this stage, I have no reason to not believe it. If they were keeping mum on McNabb, then I think you could legitimately talk trade speculation, but given Reid's statement over a month ago and the Eagles' past history in dealing with #5, it would be shocking if there was trade. The way I see it, if the Eagles trade McNabb this off-season, chances are I'll be giddy because I think that Lurie, Roseman, Reid, and co. would need to be floored with a team's offer in order to pull the trigger. There seems to be a new team everyday added to the list of teams that want him, so the market is there, the question is, what is Reid's price and are teams willing to pay it?

Kevin Kolb: The great unknown. When the Eagles drafted Kevin Kolb, a QB out of Houston, I thought it was a dumber move than trying to divide by 0. Now I can legitimately see him as the starting QB of this franchise. For what it's worth, he has already gained the respect of the locker room and he has proven himself competent in first 2 NFL starts where he had something called a full week of practice taking all the snaps. Whenever Reid had used him before in regular season situations, it was always because either McNabb was hurt or McNabb was benched and Kolb was forced into action. Granted whenever you breakdown Kolb's stats, you are looking at an unreasonably small sample not adequate to make a judgment about his potential as an every week starter, but the kid has the tutelage, the potential, and the respect of his team to make it all happen. Kolb is also the Eagle the least likely to be traded. Andy Reid has seen something in this kid since day 1 and who knows, maybe he is right. Heck, the schmuck that said Tyler Thigpen was the best QB in the 2007 NFL Draft is looking pretty darn good right about now. While my feelings for a McNabb trade would solely depend on the haul in return, I will be disappointed if the Eagles gave up Kolb, someone they have long-touted as the future of their franchise. The kid has potential and when given the opportunity to start after a full week of practice, has gotten the job done. When he has not been starting, he only done everything ever asked of him.

Michael Vick: Oh boy. Here we go. Certainly the QB that is most likely to be traded by the Eagles. The good news for the team that trades him is that the Eagles took the big PR bullet, even if it was not as big a bullet as many feared it would be when the Eagles announced the signing last pre-season. The bad news is that we are talking about a QB who has not started a football game in 3 years. Toward the end of last year, he showed flashes of what he is able to do and what he might be, but the ultimate question is what will the Eagles get for him? If the Eagles can trade him to a team and get a 2nd or a 3rd round draft pick, it will be a huge success for them. They would have taken a QB out of jail, played him a few times with very little effect either way, and then traded him for a darn good draft pick. That would be flat-out awesome maneuvering and would make the whole Vick fiasco look like a big win for the team. And if the draft pick they get for him turns into somebody, it will be a big win for the team. Let's face facts here, Michael Vick was not the reason the Eagles ended up a #6 seed and he was not the reason they lost in the wildcard playoff. The Eagles would essentially trade nothing for a great big something. If they keep Vick, then surely we will see the same shenanigans as last year, most of which were ineffective, although as Vick spent sometime with the Eagles and as he slowly got back into football shape, he could see the improvement in his game.

My prediction: Vick gets traded for a 3rd round draft pick. McNabb starts the year and plays his last snap ever as an Eagle when he suffers a season-ending injury. Kevin Kolb then steps in and does his Kevin Kolb thing to end the year and take the Super Bowl in Big D. Okay, maybe the Super Bowl depends on a lot other factors, but I am being serious when I say I think this year will be McNabb's last in Philly.

Update: You can use this as your Eagles and NFL Free Agency Commencement open thread