Staff Blog
Did McNabb Name Names?
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As the wake of the ‘Donovan McNabb demanded weapons’ story continues to clear, reports have come out about just what went down at the now infamous meeting that may or may not have happened. GCobb chimes in with the latest one, a post entitled “McNabb Was Specific With Birds.”
Money quote:
I’ve done more background work on what exactly ESPN’s Michael Smith said about the McNabb-Eagles meeting. It seems that McNabb was specific about what he wants.
Yesterday Smith was on 950 ESPN with Mike Missanelli in the afternoon after breaking the story.
He said McNabb would be happy with guys like Anquan Boldin, Tony Gonzalez or T.J. Houshmanzadeh but he’s not going to be happy with somebody’s discarded number two or number three receiver.
He wants veteran impact players.
He also mentiond that being committed to winning a Super Bowl doesn’t mean trading out of the first round and drafting an offensive lineman every year.
I missed the Missanelli interview, but from the sounds of this GCobb’s “background work” may or may not have consisted of listening to the radio. Granted, he’s got me beat there, but I’m not exactly claiming this is breaking news, just chiming in. FWIW, BleedingGreenNation believes this is all bullshit.
Now, from where we stand it looks like the meeting happened – Les Bowen’s most recent most certainly seems to suggest it did – and that Michael Smith’s original details were more or less right. Donovan met with the Eagles brass and demanded certain assurances, namely that the team adds offensive playmakers and make a concerned effort to focus on the here-and-now.
However, I agree with BGN that the probably wasn’t a “bring me this guy or else” ultimatum (and almost certainly didn’t include a reference to not drafting offensive linemen), but rather a demand that the team won’t be picking players like Kevin Kolb who is explicitly not supposed to help for years or Trevor Laws, who the team viewed as a bit player through his first season or two.
Donovan’s contract runs for two more years, and I think he just made it clear that – right now – he doesn’t give a fuck about the team beyond that.
If this is the case you kinda have to understand where McNabb is coming from: He’s notoriously been upset by public criticism and is obviously concerned about his legacy. I may be projecting, but it sounds like McNabb is annoyed that the Birds’ business model seems to revolve around remaining competitive for the long term as opposed to playing for a Bowl in the short-and-narrow. That’s justifiable – I certainly feel that feel. Now I happen to disagree with him the Housh is the answer, but if the Birds QB1 is going to strong-arm the organization, maybe it is time they just gave in and overpaid for a Boldin type.
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