NFL - Are You Ready For Some Football?! - 2010 Offseason

[Zopperoni]

Reports are surfacing that Donovan McNabb has been traded to the Raiders in exchange for a 3rd round pick and the legendary Chaz Schilens.

[Lord Avalon]

The NY Jets traded LaDainian Tomlinson to the San Diego Chargers for a conditional 2011 draft pick.

[ColdWizard]

The highly anticipated Joey Porter update: No charges will be filed.

[-Jrabbit]

And it appears that Shaun Rogers has been caught with a gun... at an airport...

Supposedly confirmed by Cleveland Plain Dealer and not an April Fools joke...

[ColdWizard]

PHILADELPHIA -- Donovan McNabb is changing uniforms and staying in the NFC East.

The Philadelphia Eagles traded McNabb to the Washington Redskins for a pair of draft picks on Sunday night. The Eagles will receive a second-round pick (37th overall) in this month's NFL draft and either a third- or fourth-round pick next year.

ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter was the first to report that McNabb had been dealt to Washington.

"I'm really excited about my future with the Washington Redskins," McNabb said in a statement Sunday night. "I'm eager to work with Coach [Mike] Shanahan. He's been a very successful coach with a couple of Super Bowl victories on his resume. While it has been my goal to win a Super Bowl in Philadelphia, we came up short. I enjoyed my 11 years, and know we shared a lot more good times than bad."

League sources told Schefter that McNabb wanted to play for the Redskins and not the Raiders or the Bills, which is why the trade happened.

"Donovan McNabb was more than a franchise quarterback for this team," Eagles chairman Jeffrey Lurie said. "He truly embodied all of the attributes of a great quarterback and of a great person. He has been an excellent representative of this organization and the entire National Football League both on and off the field. I look forward to honoring him as one of the greatest Eagles of all-time and hopefully see him enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton one day."

The trade is the boldest move to date for new Redskins coach Mike Shanahan and could spell the end in Washington for Jason Campbell, the starter for 3½ seasons. Shanahan already has signed free agent Rex Grossman as a backup and has been actively scouting the top quarterbacks available in next month's draft, when the Redskins will have the No. 4 overall pick.

"Welcome to our newest teammate to DC!" cornerback DeAngelo Hall posted on Twitter. "Really excited about what Coach Shanahan and [general manager] Bruce Allen are doing to help us compete for a championship!"

The Redskins and McNabb have not had any contract talks yet, league sources told Schefter.

The Redskins still have Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford scheduled to visit on Tuesday, league sources told Schefter.

Washington and Philadelphia are rivals in all the major pro sports, and the idea of Redskins fans finding a way to welcome McNabb in their hearts will be nearly as interesting of a dynamic as the prospect of McNabb facing his old team twice this upcoming season.

Shanahan can only hope the 33-year-old McNabb works out as well as the last big-time Washington-Philadelphia quarterback deal. The Eagles in 1964 sent Sonny Jurgensen to the Redskins, where he played 11 seasons until he was 40 and became a Hall of Famer.

McNabb, a six-time Pro Bowl quarterback, led the Eagles to five NFC championship games and one Super Bowl in 11 seasons in Philadelphia. His failure to lead the team to its first NFL championship since 1960 plus the emergence of Kevin Kolb made him expendable.

McNabb, the No. 2 overall pick in the 1999 draft, leaves as the franchise leader in yards passing (32,873), completions (2,801), attempts (4,746), completion percentage (59.0) and touchdown passes (216). He also rushed for 3,249 yards and 28 TDs.

Kolb, who has started two games in three seasons, becomes the starter. Michael Vick is the backup.

"This was a very tough decision," coach Andy Reid said. "Donovan McNabb represented everything a football player could be during his 11 seasons in Philadelphia. He carried this organization to new heights and set a high standard of excellence both on and off the field. We thank him for everything he did for this football team and for this city."

McNabb threw for 3,553 yards and 22 touchdowns with 10 interceptions in 14 games last season, leading the Eagles to the playoffs. His passer rating of 92.9 was the third-highest in his career.

But McNabb played poorly in a loss to Dallas in Week 17 that cost Philadelphia a division title and a first-round bye. He also struggled in a loss to the Cowboys the following week in the wild-card game.

Reid said immediately after the season that McNabb would return in 2010. Reid repeated that several times throughout the offseason until acknowledging last month the team was listening to offers for all three of its QBs.

McNabb then issued a statement saying he wished to remain with the Eagles, but understood the situation and hoped for a quick resolution.

"Donovan is the ultimate professional," Eagles president Joe Banner said. "He has an incredible work ethic and has been an integral part of our success. Over the years, Donovan has always carried himself with a great deal of dignity. He's an excellent role model for young men and women from across the region. In my mind, he'll always be remembered as one of the greatest Eagles of all time."

Shanahan was not available for comment. The Redskins had not announced the trade as of late Sunday night.

The Eagles were 92-49-1 in regular-season games that McNabb started and 9-7 in the playoffs.

McNabb overcame numerous injuries and controversies throughout his career, including criticism from Rush Limbaugh and a feud with former teammate Terrell Owens. He sustained injuries that ended his regular season in November in 2002, 2005 and 2006. McNabb missed a total of 24 games because of injuries. The Eagles were 14-10 in those games.

[SlowwHand]

The Eagles are dumb sonsof*****es. Why trade him in the division?
Answer: The Eagles are stupid. McNabb should take this as a full slap in the face.

[SlowwHand]

Yahoo kept the stats for today and then either dumped them or haven't posted.

[Ming]

The Eagles are dumb sonsof*****es. Why trade him in the division?
Answer: The Eagles are stupid. McNabb should take this as a full slap in the face.

They must have been desperate to get something good for him

Yeah... pretty stupid trading him to a team in the division. The predicted number of wins in Vegas for Washington went up, and the Eagles went down. Ya gotta love it

[-Jrabbit]

Kolb and Vick this year? Instead of McNabb??
Shanahan's gonna rub their noses in it and make them like it.

[OzzyKP]

Skins are looking up.

[-Jrabbit]

By season's end, they'll probably still be looking up -- at Dallas and New York.
But at least Shanahan is shaking it up.

[OzzyKP]

Yea, there is too much to do in just one season. But at least they seem to be going in the right direction and Snyder isn't calling the shots anymore.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Haw Haw Iggles!

[ColdWizard]

Haw haw Iggles indeed:

Donovan McNabb(notes) stood his ground against the Philadelphia Eagles for the second straight year. Now, the question is whether he’ll get his revenge.

After being told last month that the Eagles would not deal him to NFC East-rival Washington, McNabb essentially forced Philadelphia’s hand by refusing to talk with any of the other teams that had expressed interest in recent weeks. In the process, McNabb can now take out his simmering anger on the Eagles’ front office that essentially forced him out of a city where he had played his entire career.

“Frankly, I’m a little shocked,” a source close to McNabb said. “I never thought [the Eagles would] do this. Never. But, yeah, this is the same thing that happened last year.”

That’s a reference to when McNabb leveraged the Eagles to give him a “financial apology” after he had been benched in Week 12 of the 2008 season during a blowout loss to Baltimore. This time, McNabb won a stare-down with Eagles president Joe Banner and right-hand man Howie Roseman.

A stare-down that could come back to haunt the Eagles if they’re not right about new starter Kevin Kolb(notes), who is going into his fourth season but remains largely untested. If Kolb fails and McNabb, who is going to play in a similar system under strong offensive head coach Mike Shanahan, makes the Redskins a consistent contender over the next three to four years, the results could undermine what has been one of the league’s most consistent front offices.

McNabb, who is in the final year of his deal, made this happen by making it clear he wasn’t going anywhere else but Washington. When the Buffalo Bills expressed interest – and even were willing to give McNabb a contract extension – he passed on the offer. When the Oakland Raiders sniffed around and showed willingness to trade for the quarterback without an extension, McNabb indicated to the Eagles through his associates that he’d retire.

“He has plenty of money,” the source close to McNabb said. “He’s not doing anything he doesn’t want to do.”

For the past two weeks, the Eagles had hoped McNabb’s resolve would thaw. He refused to budge, even telling the Eagles he’d be glad to return to the team even though he knew full well Philadelphia wanted no part of the season-long distraction his presence would create. What the Eagles wanted more than anything was to clear the way for Kolb to start and, in the process, sign him to a contract extension at a more favorable price. Kolb also quietly has been forcing the issue by making it clear that if he’s not the starter by this season, he wouldn’t sign an extension. Kolb’s contract is set to expire at the end of this season, meaning the Eagles would have had to put a high tender on him after this season to keep him.

While the Eagles may have paved the way for a new Kolb deal, Banner and Roseman could be paving the road for their dismissal if this doesn’t work. This could be a tipping point in determining who really runs the Eagles. Coach Andy Reid called the shots on the roster, until most recently, when that power increasingly shifted to Banner, a clever contract negotiator who has become expert in locking up players to long-term deals and keeping the Eagles competitive.

The problem is that Banner’s semi-Moneyball techniques haven’t produced a championship. Neither has McNabb, but he has gotten the Eagles to five NFC championship games and one Super Bowl. Was that success more McNabb or Banner?

Reid believed it was McNabb and had voiced his desire for the Eagles to keep him, even if it cost them Kolb. “Andy thinks Kolb is going to be really good, maybe great. But he knows Donovan is great and probably will be for three or four years,” said a source close to Reid.

Now teamed with Shanahan, a brilliant playcaller, McNabb could exact some serious payback from the Eagles. It would be sweet justice for McNabb, who never has felt respected in Philadelphia.

“Not from Day 1,” the source close to the quarterback said, referring to when Eagles fans booed when McNabb was selected instead of Ricky Williams(notes) in 1998. “Never, and after a while you get tired of it. He’s put up with this for his whole career. They never gave him real weapons until now with those guys [wide receivers Jeremy Maclin(notes) and DeSean Jackson(notes)]. He took them to how many title games with a bunch of stiffs at [wide] receiver?”

McNabb did have Terrell Owens(notes) in 2004, but that turned into a well-documented disaster the following season.

While the Redskins don’t feature a bunch of stars at wide receiver or running back and are rebuilding their offensive line, they have the No. 4 overall draft pick. They also have Shanahan.

Not a bad situation if you’re McNabb.

Campbell gets no respect

Campbell found out about McNabb trade from reporter

By Doug Farrar

Generally speaking, players would perfer to learn about trades that affect them from their actual team -- that way, the team can do whatever damage control is necessary and assure the player in question that he's still a crucial part of their plans. The truth may be altogether different, but damage control isn't always about the truth.

What current (soon-to-be-former?) Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell(notes) now knows is that his team didn't think enough of him to let him know when they dropped the hammer on the Donovan McNabb(notes) trade. Campbell, who's been Washington's primary quarterback since 2007, found out about the trade when he got a phone call from John Keim of the Washington Examiner just after the deal was consummated.

Me: Did you hear about what happened?

Jason: What?

Me: The Redskins traded for Donovan.

Jason: Really? Ummm... I didn't know that, man.

Me: I'm sorry I had to be the one who told you. I can't believe they didn't tell you.

Jason: No, that's the first I heard of it. ... I'd better go call my agent.

When I called back later, it went to voice mail. His mailbox was full.

Campbell has a first-round tender on his head that he hasn't signed, and that the Redskins will most likely rescind. According to ESPN 980, several teams are interested in Campbell's services -- the Bills, Raiders, Panthers, and Jaguars (plus an "unknown team") are reportedly in line to make offers.

Though his performance in Washington was far from elite, it's also fair to say that Campbell never got a fair shot. He dealt with different offensive coordinators and a declining offense as the Dan Snyder/Vinny Cerrato "brain trust" mowed the offense down with a series of questionable moves. A new start would be best for all involved, and Campbell will most likely get it.

At this point, he's probably just hoping that when he is traded, he won't have to hear about it first from a reporter.

[SlowwHand]

Umm, Wiz? Your team is run by meat heads.