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Originally Posted by GMScud
Let me just say that I agree totally with your first bolded statement. Letting Dawkins walk for what is essentially a 2yr $9M contract with Denver was just dumb.
My argument with CRedskinsRule is that I would take their current FO over our current FO. They win more than we do. Plain and simple. And, as you point out, they are perennially flush with cap space. So if they win more and spend much less, I'd say that makes them better on and off the field.
I don't know if I'd "thank the good Lord for Danny." Sure, he does everything in his power. But he has a history of kidding himself into thinking he's a football mind, and that power you speak of has often turned into foolish big spending.
I would however thank the good Lord for Danny if he gave personnel autonomy AND a blank check to a solid group of football minds and said, "build me a winner the right way."
Again, I apologize to all if I sound pro-Eagle in these posts. I'm just trying to take my fandom out of this and judge the situation based on facts.
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The reason the Eagles win more often than we do isn't their front office and their scouting. The reason is the QB. Donovan McNabb is (and has been) a far better QB than anybody we've been put on the field during the past 10 years. Other than that, their front office has not acquired an appreciably greater level of talent than the Redskins have.
Their first round DTs, Bunkley and Patterson are starting to come into their own, but neither has reached the Pro Bowl, and when you're picked that high you should. Their attempts to find a TE worth a darn have been a dismal failure - franchising LJ Smith and giving him top 5 TE money? Their best offensive lineman, Shawn Andrews, has major mental problems and has trouble staying on the field. The rest of the linemen can't drive block to save their lives, and consequently the Eagles can never run the ball successfully on 3rd and 1 or 4th and 1. Their linebackers are solid, but underwhelming. Safeties and corners are underwhelming, except for Asante Samuel. And I don't think I need to get into the WRs.
The Eagles have had some success, but so have we. You have to be thrilled with Brian Westbrook in the 3rd round, just like you do with Chris Cooley. Trent Cole has developed into an impact player, just like Mike Sellers. Overall, there is nothing about the non-QB personnel that makes me think the Eagles are better than the 'Skins. And it showed last year, we swept them.
While the Redskins have made boneheaded mistakes in free agency, like Adam Archuleta, the Eagles have made the mistake of doing too little. What's the bigger crime? Having a franchise QB capable of taking you all the way, and doing NOTHING to give him a significant weapon in the passing game, even though your team has both the cash and the cap space to do so? Or shelling out as much money as the cap allows to fill out your team, but missing badly?
See, the thing is, if the Eagles were willing to spend in free agency like the Redskins, combining that with Philly's ability to avoid the blunder on such decisions, and combining that with a franchise QB? You'd have at least one Super Bowl right now, and there's no Eagle fan that doesn't feel that way right now. How can you leave your fans thinking that McNabb's great career was wasted, all because the front office wouldn't sack up and pay a receiver?
I'd rather have Danny and Vinny any day. They'll make mistakes, but at least they'll try. And hell, even a blind squirrel has to find a nut eventually. When McNabb is done in Philly and they have to rely on Kevin Kolb, that team will enter a VERY dark period.