You're One Year Too Late On This One, Andy, Joe, and Jeffrey

Well it's about damn time the Eagles did something we expected them to do. Not too many people projected Stacy Andrews to be an Eagle. Eagle fans were completely blindsided by the leave of Brian Dawkins. However, this move, this trade we expected. Sad part is, we expected this to happen this time last year and had it been done last year, it could have been a blockbuster.

In case you have not figured it out, the Eagles have finally traded Lito Sheppard. He is now a New York Jet. In exchange, the Eagles get.......(drumroll please).......(are you ready to hear our loot?)...........(are you sure?).......(get ready to be blown a way)..........the Eagles have gotten..........A 5TH ROUND PICK IN THE DRAFT! But wait, it gets even better, this deal also comes with a conditional pick for the 2010 draft! Incredible! What a deal! Via Adam Schefter's blog on NFL.com

New York and Philadelphia are completing a trade that will send cornerback Lito Sheppard to the Jets while the Eagles will receive a 2009 fifth-round pick and a 2010 conditional draft pick.

The pick could be as high as a second-round choice in 2010 and as a low as a fourth. But the Eagles will get two picks and the Jets get Sheppard, who will be in New York Saturday for a physical.

OOH! That conditional draft pick could be as high as a second rounder! Brian Dawkins be damned, this is the greatest day in Eagles history!

Sorry for that, but my sadness over the loss of Dawkins has turned into an unrelenting, bitter sarcasm. In all seriousness, this is all the Eagles were going to get for Sheppard at this stage. He was relegated to being our 4th cornerback, behind Joselio Hanson who got a contract extention a few days ago. As I said above, the Eagles were trying to wave him in front of Arizona last year to get Anquan Boldin or Larry Fitzgerald in a trade, now they've happily settled with a 5th rounder this year and a 2010 conditional pick.

And unlike Dawkins, for me, this is a good riddance, and not a sad farewell. I have made no secret that Lito Sheppard is was my least favorite Eagle. Have fun being torched twice per season by Tom Brady!

Why I Don't Like Lito Sheppard Reason #21 (Fire Andy Reid Now!)

Eagles Thinking Of Some Big Moves This Off-Season?

From the outset of things, it certainly does appear that that's the case. Especially after reading this article from Eagles Gab via The Philaelphia Inquirer describing two rumored off-season moves for the Philadelphia Eagles. One of which, for me, at least, is more of a good-riddance. While the other is a big of a surprise to me.

"If Joselio Hanson doesn’t get a lot of attention on the market, the Eagles could try to bring him back as their third cornerback, because it seems likely that they are going to cut ties with Lito Sheppard and save $3 million in salary-cap space.

The Eagles will also have a decision to make on wide receiver Reggie Brown, who did not dress for Sunday’s NFC championship game. He would be more difficult to cut because he will enter the first year of a six-year contract extension he signed in 2006, and getting rid of him would cost the team nearly $3 million."

If you can recall from earlier in the season, Lito Sheppard is not exactly my favorite Eagle and the fact that he ended last year as a starting corner and is now fourth on the depth chart is not going to help him keep his job. Much to my delight, of course. Sheppard is often injured and when he does play he sometimes a bit too eager to jump routes to make plays that just are not there.

Meanwhile, Reggie Brown does come as a bit of a surprise to me. And while he certainly has underproduced, I always thought that the Eagles were high on him and that if they were to cut a receiver, it would be Greg Lewis, who did very little this year. There's no doubt that Brown has potential and the fact that the Eagles would think about getting rid of him is somewhat odd. Unless, of course, the Eagles are planning to go after a big-money, big-name wide receiver in the off-season. The Eagles made headlines last off-season by trying to pry away Larry Fitzgerald away from the Cards and by offering Randy Moss more money than the Patriots did, which leads me to believe that although we have DeSean, the Eagles want more. In case you have not figured it out, even though he's not a free-agent, the Eagles may be more than a bit interested in Anquan Boldin....

Birds to Cut Ties w/ Sheppard and Brown? (Eagles Gab)

Lito Sheppard Loves Lito Sheppard (And That's About It)

Great thanks to the folks at Bleed Eagles Green for bringing this up. As was well noted, Asante Samuel sat out the Cardinals game with an injury and thus many people thought that Lito Sheppard would get the start. That however, was not the case, it was as Joselio Hanson got the start. Now I saw the game, I noticed that, and not only that, but I also noticed how well he played. Okay, so what's the big deal? This is old news, isn't it JFein? Why didn't you talk about this last Friday when it was relevent?

The answer is because Lito Sheppard just guaranteed himself a one-way ticket out of Philadelphia with a simple answer he gave yesterday (as if there wasn't one already waiting).

When asked by reporters if the whole situation with his contract and the talks of trade and lack of playing time was affecting his play, Lito gave a startling answer.....
YES!

No, that's not a type-o. He said yes. He admits that his personal situation with the team is more important than the team itself.

Now originally I was going to go get on a long soapbox rant like I did earlier at AA on the Seminole Firepower story, but I feel that less will be more. Lito Sheppard, if you actually think you're situation is more important than the team then you're dead to me, you're already dead to Andy Reid as evidenced by his starting Joselio Hanson over you, and you're dead to the Eagles organization. May you end up in arena football.

Let the Door Hit You On the Way Out Lito (Bleed Eagles Green)