Donovan McNabb traded to Washington

Disclaimer: Usually journalist and especially good journalist don’t usually use “I” in articles and recently I’ve been trying to improve on that and just stick with reporting. However I’ve decided to try a little experiment and create a new series of articles titled “In my opinion” which will include players, coaches and other aspects of the NFL an give my opinion on those topics. So articles titled “In my opinion” will be the only time I use “I” in an article, but when it comes to reporting on the Seahawks and the draft, “I” won’t be included. Just needed to clear that with this disclaimer. Even though my typical “in my opinion” slogan isn’t in the title this is still apart of my series.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reported that the Philadelphia Eagles have agreed to trade quarterback Donovan McNabb to the Washington Redskins in exchange for their second-round pick (No. 37 overall) and either a third or fourth-round selection in the 2011 draft depending on McNabb’s performance.

Right off the top the first three things that come into my mind are one, was there really nothing better in terms of compinsation for Donovan that the Eagles could have gotten? Two, why trade Donovan inside the division? Third, who was the final person in the Eagles front office that pushed this trade through.

I had a feeling that Donovan wouldn’t be apart of the Eagles franchise past the draft and it was only a matter of weeks that he would have been traded. The fact that McNabb was traded was the least surprising part of this entire fiasco.

The most surprising part was the fact that McNabb, the Eagles best quarterback in franchise history was traded within the division, and above all the Washington Redskins.

Throughout the off-season the biggest move the Redskins had made was to bring in former Broncos’ head coach Mike Shanahan as the teams new head coach and executive vice president. Other than Shanahan being tabbed as the head coach both Washington and Dallas, the two teams expected to be big spenders in this uncapped year have seemingly been dead in terms of player movement.

Today the Redskins came out of the shell in grand fashion by trading for the 33-year-old quarterback McNabb.

Not only does this trade effect the Redskins and Eagles but it also shakes up the upcoming 2010 NFL draft and more importantly the top 10 picks.

Over the last few weeks the Redskins had growing interest in the top two quarterbacks in this years class, Sam Bradford from Oklahoma and Jimmy Clausen from Notre Dame.

Most recently the Redskins brought in Clausen for a two-day workout and visit with Redskins brass but now with the acquisition of McNabb the move allows them to turn away from Clausen and move to their second biggest need of the off-season, left tackle.

Russell Okung, Trent Williams and Bryan Bulaga are all now stand atop the Redskins draft board and all could have their names called by Roger Goodell come April 22nd when the Redskins pick at fourth overall.

For the Eagles it turns the page on the storybook career of Donovan McNabb to second-year quarterback Kevin Kolb, who the Eagles selected in the second-round of the 2008 NFL draft.

With the Eagles arming themselves with another second-round draft pick it allows them to look around and pick and chose if they want to move up in the draft OR make a move for Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha should they decided they want to.

Either way you look at it the Eagles now have one first-round pick (No. 24 overall), two second-round picks (No. 37, 55 overall), two third-round picks (No. 70, 87 overall) two fourth-round picks (No. 105, 121 overall), and four picks from rounds five through seven.

Fair to say the Eagles could be looking to rebuild around Kolb or move to acquire help around Kolb. I don’t see anything bad coming from this trade for both the Eagles and Redskins.

In the end in my opinion the Eagles will come out the winners of this blockbuster trade for three reasons.

One, Kevin Kolb while mostly untested gets to become the full-time starting quarterback in Philadelphia with a world of talented players around him. Receivers DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and Brent Celek coulped with running backs LeSean McCoy and Leonard Weaver.

Looking at the moves the Eagles have made this off-season it’s clear that head coach Andy Reid wants to get a lot younger on offense and move on from the “McNabb/Westbrook era”.

Two, it allows the Eagles to continue to revamp the team roster from last season with the addition of another second-round pick that could net safety Taylor Mays, Eric Berry (it’s possible if they want to move way up to get him) as well as a few other possibilities.

Three, they finally turn the page on Donovan McNabb to Kevin Kolb. Plain and simple the Eagles could not move forward with McNabb as the teams starting quarterback and that became very clear after Reid announced at the NFL meetings a few weeks ago that the Eagles “were willing to listen to offers for McNabb, Kolb and Vick”.

Now for the Washington Redskins they can’t really go wrong with McNabb as their starting quarterback because no doubt he’s the better quarterback over Jason Campbell and can make them a more competitive team next year than both Campbell and Clausen/Bradford.

The only question coming from Redskins fans will be who was really behind this. It has the looks of a typical Dan Snyder move, bring in the biggest name you can to drive up premium ticket prices.

If you go back to last off-season the Skins’ were linked to anyone not named Jason Campbell that could throw.

Jay Cuter (now in Chicago), Mark Sanchez (now in New York), Brett Favre (now in Minnesota) as well as numerous other “franchise” quarterbacks who could replace Jason Campbell.

So as I stated before, in my opinion the Eagles will come out the winners of this shocking blockbuster trade that will see long-time Eagles starting quarterback Donovan McNabb head to Washington D.C for two draft picks.

NOTE:

One other side note that I would like to point out and as I touched on above is how this trade effects the upcoming draft.

All indications show that Sam Bradford will be heading through the arch in St. Louis and become the first overall pick of the 2010 draft.

However the second best quarterback in the draft, Jimmy Clausen, had been highly touted to Washington but with the acquisition of Donvoan McNabb the Redskins no longer become a team interested in Clausen’s services allowing him to slide down the draft board a bit.

The Seattle Seahawks become the next team inline for Clausen’s services now that Washington has passed on him for the veteran McNabb.

As I spoke about in my last article “Why Jimmy Clausen is still an option for the Seahawks” the possiblity becomes even greater with the Skins’ bowing out.

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Check out Lars’ sports blog: http://hansonsportsblog.blogspot.com/

My One On One Interview With "Invincible" Vince Papale

It took a couple of emails back and fourth to get the time and the date to work for both Vince and myself but I finally got the chance to interview one of my most inspirational football players ever, former Eagles Wide Receiver Vince Papale.

It was a 45 minute phone interview and our topics varied from Papale's era to modern day to the controversial Brett Favre. With that being said here is my interview with Vince Papale.We are both watching the Giants-Redskins game on MNF while the interview took place.


Lars: Hey Vince

Vince: Hey Lars whats up, give me one second.

Vince: You ready?

Lars: Yea, my first question to you is who are you rooting for tonight?

Vince: Redskins of course because as an Eagles fan you need the Redskins to win to keep a two game difference between them and the Giants. It doesn’t look good now with the Skins down 14-0 but still rooting for them.

Lars: Yea I agree it makes sense, not looking good right now for the Skins and Jim Zorn. My second question to you is going back to your head coach Dick Vermeil, what’s your opinion on current head coach Andy Reid compared to the man you played under Dick Vermeil?

Vince: Two difference personalities mostly. Andy is very close to himself and doesn’t share things with many people “outside his circle”. Dick, on the other hand was very emotional in how he coaches, with his players and it’s really hard to compare them because they are two different personalities in regards to their coaching. Now on the X’s and O’s we had it very simple with simple packages and not so much movements and motions before the snap where as now the game has developed so much to the point where is a lot different than when I played. But like as a person with the times I’ve talked with and been around Andy he seems like Mike Holmgren, very calm and close to himself like you have said Lars.

Lars: Yea I agree and like I said the way you describe him (Andy Reid), he seems a lot like Mike Holmgren.

Lars: My next question is what’s your current connection with the Eagles organization?

Vince: Well they do have an alumni organization, much like the Philadelphia Flyers do. Since I use to play for the Eagles, when they call me sometimes and ask me to do speaking I kindly accept. I do speaking everywhere when someone asks me to. I love your state, Washington and I did a speaking near Seattle before the Super Bowl. The stadium the Seahawks play in is phenomenal. So I do it when people ask me to or if the Eagles do but I don’t make a living off the Eagles, I don’t have to.

Lars: Yea it's really nice and relaxing in Washington and we have some of if not the most passionate fans it football. My next question to you is who is your favorite current eagle WR Desean Jackson or Jeremy Maclin?

Vince: Well if I could I would take both because they both are two great receivers. Maclin has great speed and he’s very young but watching DeSean Jackson is just unbelievable. So I’d take Jackson if I had to chose because watching him last night adjust to a route on a ball that normally you don’t see young players adjust to is just amazing to see. He’s got extremely light feet and that’s very key. DeSean is a complete game breaker.

Lars: Yea I'd pick DeSean in a heart beat, the guy is 5-10 but he's one of the most electric wide outs in the game. My next question for you is I’m sure u’ve been asked this a lot but what did you think of the Movie Invincible, based on you and how do u think Mark Wahlburg did playing you?

Vince: The movie was phenomenal, I think it was one of the best sports movies of all time of course but I still liked Rocky until some other more recent ones came out. Remember the Titans, Coach Carter, and the Rookie which really touched me and hit home. The Miracle on ice, another Disney based movie about the US Russia game was also another great movie that I think is one of my favorites. I’m proud of it and I’m sitting here opening mail that the postal lady dropped off this week with letter from over 30 people saying how the movie and story affected them so it’s impacted a lot of other people. Mark did the part better than anyone else would have. He worked his butt off to learn the information and the wide receiver work outs. He respected me throughout the entire process when he had to learn all the information. He was also a very nice, young respectable man about the city of Philadelphia, and the entire piece all around. Absolute blast to be with. He’s intelligent, talented and a part of my family. When he comes into Philadelphia we’ll have dinner with him and the entire family, my wife and two kids love him. Nothing but great things to say about Mark. I wrote a book the Reel story which fills in all the cracks of the movie and goes beyond everything. The movie goes beyond football and being a school teacher Lars, I survived cancer, I was a full time school teacher so I always try to reach out to people who need it.

Lars: Man Vince that's phenomenal and that's great, I was greatly affected after I researched your entire story, not just watching the movie. My Final question for you is what’s your opinion on Brett Favre?

Vince: Tremendous quarterback, such a role model and I feel he's entitled to take his time to make the right decision he wants. I admire him as a man and what he's gone through with his father dying and having to go through all he's had to go through it just shows how great of a man he is and always will be.

Lars: Yea I agree, when you get to the point Brett is at you need more time to make sure the decision you made is right. This season it's paid off.

Vince: So you got all you need there Lars?

Lars: Yea that just about raps it up, hopefully the Redskins get their act together.

Vince: Haha yea well it's not looking good now. Hey Lars take care and have a happy holidays.

Lars: Thanks Vince, you to and for the rest of your family. Stay warm as well with the snow.

Vince: I will, take care.

Lars: Bye

Vince: Bye

It was one of my top three interviews that I've had the pleasure of being apart of. When you get affected by a story through a movie is one thing, but to hear it from that person directly to you is a whole nother ball game. I thank Vince and his family for letting him spend the time to do the interview with me.

Hope you all who read it enjoy it aswell.

You can follow Lars at Twitter http://twitter.com/larshanson