A Great August for the Eagles - Friday, August 29, 2008
266 Views :: 0 Comments ::  :: Team - Eagles, Joe DeCamara It should not have taken you until you saw Donovan McNabb on the cover of Sports Illustrated to realize a positive vibe has developed around the Eagles. Signs were there. Perhaps you missed them. Coming into Training Camp I grouped the Eagles issues in four categories: 1) Big-time troubling problems that we just didn't know where they would go in Westbrook, Andrews and Lito; 2) Donovan McNabb's health; 3) the Wide Receiver position; and 4) the special teams' return games. I mean, we can talk about the young Linebackers. We can discuss if Brian Dawkins still has it. We can go on and on about a lot of things. But the bottom line is that we knew the outcome of those four categories was going to define the season. And to be frank, in my opinion and I think that of most, one month ago things simply didn't look too good. But patience has solved a lot. The Eagles did not cave into fans' demands for Brian Westbrook to get loads of money in February. They waited and rewarded their star back - and themselves - with a fair contract. The Shawn Andrews situation seemed very messy, but despite publicly perceived callousness by Andy Reid the reality is that Big Red knew it was more important for him to have his star Guard ready for September than the start of August. Reid acted in accordance with that when privately handling the situation and all has seemingly worked out since. And with McNabb, this was patience to the max. I still hold great frustration with the position that the organization and McNabb himself put the star QB in last year. He simply should not have been playing those early season games. It had been less than a year since a MAJOR knee injury. But by choosing to stick with McNabb, the Eagles, while blowing the '07 season, got their quarterback and themselves aligned for 2008. No, not everything is great. There are issues that still need to be resolved. The Wide Receiver position, despite DeSean Jackson's strong look, is a major issue of concern ... and would have been even if Kevin Curtis had not suffered his injury. And Lito's situation is still dangling out there, but I think we're all at the point now that as long as Lito plays, plays hard and doesn't pull a T.O., well, then who even cares much anymore. So as the 2008 season draws near we've got to hand it to the Eagles brass for a pretty outstanding August. A LOT got accomplished. Sure, no wins have been garnered, and don't kid yourself - I'm not picking the Eagles to go to the Super Bowl - but you can bet that the developments of August will definitely lead to a better regular season record than we thought just a month ago. |