The Philadelphia Eagles just dug thier heels in the ground. They had moved in the past year from a very good team to a good team, by franchising LJ Smith the Eagles are showing the NFC that they are happy where they are. By promising to pay Smith as a top 5 Tight End the Eagles are extending an olive branch to Donavon McNabb and those that still see sunshine through the window of opportunity.
I am of the belief that it is always better to rebuild at the first signs of failure rather than be a plugger. What I see now is the third best team in the NFC East. A team that besides one of the top 3 running backs in football feaures an aging offensive line, no impact wide recievers, and a QB who is looking over his shoulder so much he looks like a middle school boy on the family computer at 2:00 am. Now add an overpriced and overrated TE and do you think you the Giants are worried, even if they're playing in East Rutherford.
Add to that an aging and undersized defense that has already forced Jim Johnson to make more water into wine than any man in the past 2,000 years.
I just don't see why it is important to try to mintain something that is no longer there. Not even through rose colored glasses. I don't want to look back in five years and see this team make the playoffs twice and miss it thre, never really being bad enough to get better or good enough to matter. I don't want to be the Phillies.
I want to be the Eagles of three years ago and the fastest way to get back their is to take a step back. Is that with Kevin Kolb, I hope so, but I don't believe it's with McNabb, Curtis, Runyan or Thomas.
Maybe I'm jaded maybe I picked Smith one to many years for my fantasy team always expecting but never getting his breakout year, but i want to be excited. Youth breeds excitment, age brings you the post Super Bowl Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Baltimore Ravens.
Keywords: Eagles, Franchise Tag, LJ Smith, Rebuilding
