I really don’t like being a negative person, and for all intents and purposes I’m excited about the Eagles chances of making it to the Super Bowl after the first two up and down weeks of the season.
An all too frequent sight for Eagles fans...
There’s just one problem: Two of the Eagles most important players are struggling to stay healthy AGAIN and you can’t help but feel there is an enormous storm cloud following this team around. There were the incredible number of injuries in camp, where it seemed almost everyone on the active roster was out at one point or another. There were Stewart Bradley and Shawn Andrews’ season ending injuries. McNabb’s rib, Westbrook’s ankle…if I told you Kevin Kolb, LeSean McCoy, and Winston Justice would be Week 3 starters back in July you’d probably assume the season would over before it really began, right?
Let’s focus in for a minute on #5 and #36. These two have been staples of the Eagles offense for years; beloved figures (most of the time) that have led the Eagles to some of their most successful years in franchise history. Both could realistically be gone at the start of next season.
The first sign of trouble? The organization’s recent moves on each of their contracts. Rather than give Donovan an extension, the team simply gave him a pay raise over the final two years of his deal. Not exactly a resounding sign of confidence in your franchise QB. As for Westbrook, the Eagles this month declined a $7 million roster bonus in his contract due in 2010, meaning after next season he could become a free agent. Again, that’s not a move you make if you expect a player to be sticking around longterm.
Q: When was the last time Westbrook wasn't listed as "questionable" before a game? A: 2004.
The fact is both of those guys are on the wrong side of 30, which is the first criteria for a swift exit from Philly. Both have had serious injury issues throughout their time here, and both are starting to see subtle declines in production. We saw what happened to Bobby Taylor, Troy Vincent, Duce Staley, Jeremiah Trotter, Brian Dawkins, William (“Tra”) Thomas, and Jon Runyan in recent years…all popular mainstays on the roster, all gone against the fans’ collective will (in most cases) once they hit 30 and stopped playing at a high level.
Who’s to say McNabb and Westbrook’s fate will be any different? The Eagles could clear plenty of cap space next offseason by releasing both of these high profile players, paving the way for promising youngsters to fill their roles (after all, the team didn’t draft Kevin Kolb and LeSean McCoy to sit on the bench for the rest of their careers.) Will this happen if the Birds win the Super Bowl? Probably not, but any other end to the season and we may be on the verge of massive changes to this team’s roster. Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook have officially been put on notice, and the only way they can save themselves is to stay out of the trainer’s room and settle for nothing less than the franchise’s first Super Bowl Title.
