I feel this saying is so appropriate now....

[bobbyinlondon]

"You don't know what you have until it's gone". I hope that the anit-McNabb club had a good seat last night. And while we're at it, the anit-Reid brigade, because believe it or not, I don't see very many assistants coming in and accomplishing what he did  or even finishing the job if he should leave at this moment.

[fansince61]

"You don't know what you have until it's gone". I hope that the anit-McNabb club had a good seat last night. And while we're at it, the anit-Reid brigade, because believe it or not, I don't see very many assistants coming in and accomplishing what he did  or even finishing the job if he should leave at this moment.

IMO I don't think anybody is calling or anyones head.  Winning is everything in the NFL Winning, playoff making seasons (regardless of how they get there) gets management/coaching lots of "slack" from the fans and most media (WIP excluded).  But when you are loosing, have an apparent shortage of skill players and are way under the cap, fans will and probably should question what going on

[PhillyGirl]

Stop with the "way under the cap" crap already. SEriously.

[fansince61]

Stop with the "way under the cap" crap already. SEriously.

Ok..they are "SEriously under"

[methdeez]

Stop with the "way under the cap" crap already. SEriously.

Why? Do we get some kind of special bonus for being the team with the most unspent cap space?
Why do you care about how deep the lining is in Luries pockets?

[SD_Eagle5]

Total salary numbers from 2000 to 2004 for all NFL teams.

1. $390,819,249 Philadelphia Eagles
2. $382,673,005 Atlanta Falcons
3. $375,858,731 Chicago Bears
4. $373,833,158 Washington taterskins
5. $371,046,295 New York Jets
6. $369,591,901 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
7. $367,796,346 St. Louis Rams
8. $367,778,644 Detroit Lions
9. $366,583,147 New York Giants
10. $365,392,036 Seattle Seahawks
11. $363,482,362 Oakland Raiders
12. $362,985,446 Pittsburgh Steelers
13. $360,466,117 Arizona Cardinals
14. $354,791,340 Cleveland Browns
15. $352,776,920 Denver Broncos
16. $350,955,368 Indianapolis Colts
17. $349,605,735 Kansas City Chiefs
18. $348,920,137 Baltimore Ravens
19. $348,297,540 Cincinnati Bengals
20. $346,516,357 Miami Dolphins
21. $345,932,228 New Orleans Saints
22. $342,217,872 Carolina Panthers
23. $338,111,783 San Diego Chargers
24. $334,523,217 Tennessee Titans
25. $332,721,594 Green Bay Packers
26. $322,460,470 New England Patriots
27. $322,083,552 Minnesota Vikings
28. $319,287,441 Buffalo Bills
29. $319,163,689 Dallas Cowboys
30. $315,818,591 Jacksonville Jaguars
31. $291,769,266 San Francisco 49ers
32. $258,845,415 Houston Texans

Source: USA Today

[henchmanUK]

I think it preposterous that there is talk of Reid being fired, however, I do think that Smallwood has a point.

Posted on Tue, Dec. 06, 2005

John Smallwood | Reid's dual role catching up to him

WHAT WE CAN be sure of

is that no one in the ivory

tower of the Eagles' front office will even consider this. But at this point, you have to wonder if Andy Reid should learn one last lesson from his mentor, Seattle coach Mike Holmgren.

Things likely weren't as voluntary as the Seahawks' media guide portrays them. But the bottom line is that after the 2002 season when his team finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs for a third consecutive season, Holmgren - who went to Seattle in 1999 as executive vice president/general manager and head coach - "decided to focus exclusively on coaching and relinquished his duties as general manager."

In the next three seasons, with Holmgren worrying only about coaching, the Seahawks have earned three straight playoff

appearances and won the last two NFC West titles, including this

year's.

In embarrassing the Eagles last night, 42-0, the Seahawks improved to 10-2 and moved a step closer to clinching homefield advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.

Reid has gone 53-23, won four NFC East titles and reached four NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl since adding the title of executive vice president of football operations in 2001. So it's silly to suggest he has been a failure as the Eagles' grand pooh-bah of football decisions.

Still, the circumstances of the Eagles' amazing fall from grace brings back the issue of whether it's the best idea for Reid to have complete control over the football decisions.

I've never been a fan of a coach

also wearing the hat of general

manager. I think it limits creativity within an organization and hampers its ability to be flexible and make adjustments. Certainly there have been exceptions, but as a

general rule, it doesn't add up to a championship equation.

In most cases, it ends up in a situation like Holmgren's - where a great coach becomes an average one because he's bitten off more than he can chew and gets bogged down with so many other responsibilities.

And while there are a lot of

reasons the Eagles went from

preseason Super Bowl favorite to the league's biggest disappointment, you have to wonder how different things might have been if Reid had nothing to do than coach.

Maybe some decisions and situations that ruined the Birds' season would have been handled differently. If the Eagles had a general manager who wasn't as joined at the hip to Donovan McNabb, the decision to delay surgery on the quarterback's sports hernia might have been different. Everything might have been done the same way, but it would have been nice to have a more objective view from someone who hasn't completely hitched his success to the QB he hand-selected.

At the very least, you have to

believe that if the Eagles had a GM other than Reid, they would have had a legitimate contingency plan to deal with McNabb going down with a significant injury.

The idea that Reid went into the season with Koy Detmer and Mike McMahon as the backups was a

suicidal gambit at best. As their pathetic showing against Seattle revealed, neither was equipped to fill in for McNabb. With those guys as the backups, Reid virtually guaranteed the season would fall apart if McNabb got hurt.

A GM who wasn't also the coach might have brought in a proven

veteran who has won NFL games

instead of keeping a guy at No. 2

because the kicker likes the way he holds the football.

And if Reid were just the coach, maybe the Terrell Owens saga would not have gotten as bad as it did.

Owens' beef was with the Eagles' management. But since the head coach is also management, it made it virtually impossible for the situation not to spill onto the practice and playing field.

And considering the cutthroat

nature of the salary cap, you have to wonder how much distrust of Reid there is because he's ultimately

going to side with management.

In a year when the Birds needed their coach to take them to another level, Reid might have been hamstrung by his responsibilities as general manager.

[MURP]

Stop with the "way under the cap" crap already. SEriously.

Why? Do we get some kind of special bonus for being the team with the most unspent cap space?
Why do you care about how deep the lining is in Luries pockets?

because the whole "Lurie pockets loads of money that could be spent on players" is nonsense and has been proven so many times. 

[SunMo]

i will say this about cap space.  every year, we say that the taterskins are heading for cap hell with all their signings, and it never seems to happen.  now, they have spent their cap money on poor players so it's not a big deal.  but they never have to blow up their team like everyone thinks they will have too.  i wonder how they are able to sign all those players for big money and still make it work with the cap.

[PhillyPhreak54]

They're still a ticking time bomb, Mo.

The way they do it is they restructure and restructure until they cannot do it any longer. For instance they restructured Trotter's contract 1 season after he got there so they could sign a few guys. And they restructured Chris Samuels and many other guys as well. When they do that they keep pushing dead money off until years later.

Thats why they still have Trotter on their books as dead money despite cutting him two years ago.

I read somewhere that the Skins, right now, have something like $120M committed in 2006. The cap might get to $100M but maybe less. So they have to do some more tinkering and releasing and all that jazz.

[ice grillin you]

They're still a ticking time bomb, Mo.

this may be true...but mo is right in that everyone been saying this since they signed stubblefield wilkinson six years ago...they may be a bomb but it has a long ass fuse and ill believe they are in trouble when i see it happen...until then i fully expect them to be major players on the free agent market

[bobbyinlondon]

I think it preposterous that there is talk of Reid being fired, however, I do think that Smallwood has a point.

Posted on Tue, Dec. 06, 2005

John Smallwood | Reid's dual role catching up to him

WHAT WE CAN be sure of

is that no one in the ivory

tower of the Eagles' front office will even consider this. But at this point, you have to wonder if Andy Reid should learn one last lesson from his mentor, Seattle coach Mike Holmgren.

Things likely weren't as voluntary as the Seahawks' media guide portrays them. But the bottom line is that after the 2002 season when his team finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs for a third consecutive season, Holmgren - who went to Seattle in 1999 as executive vice president/general manager and head coach - "decided to focus exclusively on coaching and relinquished his duties as general manager."

In the next three seasons, with Holmgren worrying only about coaching, the Seahawks have earned three straight playoff

appearances and won the last two NFC West titles, including this

year's.

In embarrassing the Eagles last night, 42-0, the Seahawks improved to 10-2 and moved a step closer to clinching homefield advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.

Reid has gone 53-23, won four NFC East titles and reached four NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl since adding the title of executive vice president of football operations in 2001. So it's silly to suggest he has been a failure as the Eagles' grand pooh-bah of football decisions.

Still, the circumstances of the Eagles' amazing fall from grace brings back the issue of whether it's the best idea for Reid to have complete control over the football decisions.

I've never been a fan of a coach

also wearing the hat of general

manager. I think it limits creativity within an organization and hampers its ability to be flexible and make adjustments. Certainly there have been exceptions, but as a

general rule, it doesn't add up to a championship equation.

In most cases, it ends up in a situation like Holmgren's - where a great coach becomes an average one because he's bitten off more than he can chew and gets bogged down with so many other responsibilities.

And while there are a lot of

reasons the Eagles went from

preseason Super Bowl favorite to the league's biggest disappointment, you have to wonder how different things might have been if Reid had nothing to do than coach.

Maybe some decisions and situations that ruined the Birds' season would have been handled differently. If the Eagles had a general manager who wasn't as joined at the hip to Donovan McNabb, the decision to delay surgery on the quarterback's sports hernia might have been different. Everything might have been done the same way, but it would have been nice to have a more objective view from someone who hasn't completely hitched his success to the QB he hand-selected.

At the very least, you have to

believe that if the Eagles had a GM other than Reid, they would have had a legitimate contingency plan to deal with McNabb going down with a significant injury.

The idea that Reid went into the season with Koy Detmer and Mike McMahon as the backups was a

suicidal gambit at best. As their pathetic showing against Seattle revealed, neither was equipped to fill in for McNabb. With those guys as the backups, Reid virtually guaranteed the season would fall apart if McNabb got hurt.

A GM who wasn't also the coach might have brought in a proven

veteran who has won NFL games

instead of keeping a guy at No. 2

because the kicker likes the way he holds the football.

And if Reid were just the coach, maybe the Terrell Owens saga would not have gotten as bad as it did.

Owens' beef was with the Eagles' management. But since the head coach is also management, it made it virtually impossible for the situation not to spill onto the practice and playing field.

And considering the cutthroat

nature of the salary cap, you have to wonder how much distrust of Reid there is because he's ultimately

going to side with management.

In a year when the Birds needed their coach to take them to another level, Reid might have been hamstrung by his responsibilities as general manager.

If you read the Seattle papers, all would not seem as it appears. Yeah, they re-hired Mike Reinfeldt to be the cap guru (Banner's job in Philly), and they hired Bob Ferguson, late of the Cards, as a personnel VP (like Heckert is in Philly); but HOLMGREN STILL CALLS THE SHOTS. HE still has final say over the roster. Basically, the Hawks have won the West the last two years because the Rams have disintegrated and you have the perennial bad Cards and 49ers.

As far as "capable No.2 QBs, exactly WHO was out there? Brad Johnson, but he preferred to go back to the Vikings. I don't think the Eagles would want to give a 6.2M contract to a 37 year old QB (with 1.2M in SB).

Plus, as far as Owens goes, well, it still would have gone to pot no matter who was in charge. Remember, "he wasn't going to be happy unless he got a new contract"? Does anyone think that a different GM in Philly would have given him a new deal 1 year in?

[henchmanUK]

What the hell does it matter if the Skins are major players in the free agent market? On the field, they suck under Snyder, every year without fail.

[SunMo]

What the hell does it matter if the Skins are major players in the free agent market? On the field, they suck under Snyder, every year without fail.

no doubt, but the point being, while the Eagles have been very cautious with how they spend their cap money, and rightfully so, the taterskins have been spending money out the ass for several years and are yet to pay for it.  the fact that they spent that money poorly is inconsequential.  had they a real GM, who spent money on good players not just names, they might have been able to put together a very good team and win a SB with all the money they spent.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

I've contended for weeks now that Reid should hand over the final personnel reins to Heckert.

Now, I also think he should shake up his staff and get some new blood in assistant roles.