Faith in Eagles Management

There has been much lamenting and gnashing of teeth in Eagles Nation over the past week or so as players like Lito Sheppard, Sean Considine, Correll Buckhalter, and most especially Brian Dawkins have either been traded away or left the team via free agency. You also have the two twin towers of the offensive line for the past decade, Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan, very much in doubt as to their own returning for next season. Tight End L.J. Smith is shopping his services and is believed not wanted back by the Birds. These players make up a huge portion of the success that the Philadelphia Eagles football team has enjoyed over the past decade. But as they leave it is important to note something that is extremely important: this current Philadelphia Eagles management team of owner Jeffrey Lurie, team President Joe Banner, and GM/Coach Andy Reid almost always knows when to say 'when' with a player, no matter that player's reputation or popularity. From Duce Staley to Jeremiah Trotter to Hugh Douglas, the Eagles knew when it was time to say goodbye. Probably the only exception was Terrell Owens, and is there anyone out there as an Eagles fan who really wanted him to stay after all the histrionics and drama that he created? He moved on to the Eagles greatest rivals, the Dallas Cowboys, and put up some great stats. He has also continued his controversial ways there, and has helped the Cowboys achieve exactly nothing of note as a team in his two seasons in 'Big D' so far. Since the end of Andy Reid's first season as head coach in 1999, and since Donovan McNabb took over as the starting quarterback, the Eagles have fashioned a regular season record of 92-51-1. They have had just one losing season in that stretch, the injury and T.O. drama-marred 2005 season following their Super Bowl near-miss vs. New England. They have won five NFC East titles, and are coming off a 2008 season that saw them advance to the NFC Championship game for the fifth time. Eagles fans are easily among the handful of most passionate and knowledgeable fan bases in the entire NFL community. They are also notoriously emotional. They form bonds with their heroes that are commendable, but that would be disastrous if such emotion was demonstrated similarly and then operated on by the organization. The Eagles brain trust has to make difficult decisions to remain competitive year-in and year-out. Ask an Eagles fan if he would trade one single Super Bowl victory for ten losing seasons and most fans would take the Super Bowl. Ask the team management if they would prefer to win one Super Bowl and then lose for a decade, or continue to be a competitive club that wins division titles and is in the playoffs most years over the next decade, and I would bet the management would take the latter. That is because management is smart, whereas fans generally are not. 'Smart' in this respect meaning that there comes a time when every player has to move on, and management has to make those tough decisions no matter what the fans feel. It has happened with the popular players already mentioned, and it will happen sometime in the next couple of seasons with players like McNabb, David Akers, and Brian Westbrook. Father Time catches up with everyone, including pro athletes, and especially pro football players who take a pounding in one of the most violent sports ever devised by man. The management team in charge of the Philadelphia Eagles pro football team has proven itself over a decade that it knows what it is doing in keeping the team a strong competitor every year in perhaps football's toughest division. A great deal of leadership has aged and is now moving on as the team says goodbye to Dawkins and Thomas and perhaps to Runyan. But my money right now is on that management team to further develop the players still on the roster, and to bring in more complimentary players via the draft and free agency, and remain strong competitors for that fan base. Due simply to their track record, if for no other reason, I for one have faith in Eagles management to keep the team a winner.

Who is This Marshawn Lynch Fella Anyway?

I used to play Fantasy Football regularly, and was usually pretty good at it too. With a bunch of guys that I knew from my former profession in banking, I kept playing into my early years with the police department. But somewhere around the turn of the century, I dropped out. Part of the reasoning was that I just wanted to simplify things a bit, to get rid of some things that were taking up my time and effort. You see, when I get involved in stuff like that, I get involved. It's fun, sure, but it's not all just fun, I have to win too. So that means that I have to know as much information as possible, which involves reading on the web and in magazines, watching TV shows, watching games, etc. For the past 8-10 years without Fantasy Football, I have found that I enjoyed watching Eagles games so much more. Of course this may also have had something to do with the fact that during this period the Eagles got really good thanks to Andy Reid, Donovan McNabb, Brian Westbrook, Brian Dawkins, et al. I found that I didn't at all miss the Sunday ritual of checking the highlight shows to see if any of my guys had big games, scored touchdowns, and so on. I enjoyed football much more without the Fantasy element. So with all that good stuff, why am I back in the game, cramming suddenly for a Draft to be held tomorrow (Friday) night? Good question. A few guys that I work with are involved, and asked, so I am gonna take the plunge again. I looked down the list of NFL kickers as currently ranked by one of the rating services, and I didn't even know 12 of the top 13 names listed. I don't know the vast majority of the RB's and WR's, and even a few of the QB's. Heck, if it wasn't for some stupid ESPN commercials, I would have never heard of Maurice Jones-Drew at all. So here I sit, having to decide which two players from the team that I have inherited in an ongoing league that I might want as 'Keepers' for my team. I am leaning towards keeping a guy named Marshawn Lynch, because the websites and magazines rate him as around the 10th-15th best player overall. But I don't really know who the heck he is, outside of being a RB on the Buffalo Bills. It is so much different than when I left the Fantasy game a decade ago, when I knew all the players and was educated well on the trends. Now I am playing catchup, which probably means that I am donating my $120 entry fee. At least for this year. Unless of course this Marshawn guy is a stud, and maybe I can spackle and duct tape together enough luck to steal something early. Hope springs eternal on Draft night, where the real fun is enjoyed anyway. Am I ready for some football? Here goes nothin'.
NOTE: The league that I joined decided on Draft night to "redraft" with no 'Keepers' this year, so Lynch was not mine in the end. My first four picks were: Clinton Portis RB, Ryan Grant RB, Steve Smith WR, Donovan McNabb QB