The Butterfly Effect: How One Decision Two Years Ago Continues To Shape The Philadelphia Eagles Today

The Butterfly Effect (noun): The phenomenon whereby a minute localized change in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere.

Think about this. Sometime in the summer of 2009, the Philadelphia Eagles made a very crucial decision, that as small in the grand scheme of things as it may have seemed then, has impacted the roster more than anyone could have ever fathomed back then.

The Philadelphia Eagles decided they wanted to take a flyer on Michael Vick upon his release from prison. The Eagles followed their decision to sign him by actually landing him. As controversial as the move was, no one could have predicted what happened next.

Signing Michael Vick led to the Eagles having three quarterbacks on their team. Someone had to go.

Having no more use to them, the Eagles traded one of those QBs, Donovan McNabb, to Washington for a 2010 2nd round pick (Nate Allen) and a 2011 4th round pick (The Eagles traded this pick to Tampa in exchange for Tampa's 2011 4th rounder (Casey Matthews) and a 2012 4th rounder.)

Then after Kevin Kolb got injured in the first game of the season, Michael Vick came in and never looked back. He took the job away from Kolb, and that allowed Kolb to be expandable.

The Eagles traded Kevin Kolb, another QB no longer of any use to them, to Arizona for a former first round draft pick and Pro Bowl CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a 2012 2nd round pick.

To summarize, the decision to sign Michael Vick has given the Eagles the following things:

Michael Vick
Nate Allen (2nd round pick)
Casey Matthews (4th round pick)
Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie
2012 2nd round pick
2012 4th round pick.

All of those guys are penciled in to be starters on this year's team, with the exception of Casey Matthews, who may yet win a starting job in training camp.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is The Butterfly Effect.

Eagles Get Their Man And A Ga Ga Ooh La la

While I celebrate the fact that the Flyers are still the only team in the 2nd round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, here is my good and bad from today's Eagles day in the NFL Draft.

The Good: Nate Allen. The Eagles needed a safety and they got what many are calling a safe bet in the NFL. He is a good cover guy who can also play corner if need be, but he is a safety first and safety is exactly where the Eagles should put him.

The Also Good: Andy Reid's House of Trades! May we take your draft picks? Good grief, after selecting Nate Allen, the Eagles traded down 3 times to garner what would total as a 3rd round draft pick, 4 4th round draft picks, 2 5ths, a 6th, and 2 7ths. In other words, we got picks like Andy Reid has cheesesteaks.

The Bad: Daniel Te'O Nesheim. Rated 2.0 out of 10 by NFL.com, considered a 6th round prospect coming in, cited as an overachiever at the University of Washington, a position we no longer needed to fulfill right away when others still existed. Yeah. Thus far, this is the only skidmark on what has been a solid draft for the Eagles. To me, this is a classic case of Andy Reid trying to show the rest of the league that he is smarter then them, but really, there is little doubt in my mind he could have taken Te'O with one of his 4 4th round picks.

As far as tomorrow goes, I've got my eyes on Bruce Campbell, any center, any corner, a 5th string WR, and a 3rd string QB. Live blog tomorrow at 10. Be there or be square.

E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!