Eagles' NFC Championship Appearance Was a Mirage Due to Mediocre Wide Receivers

Wide Receiver: A lot of people will say we do not need one, but I will not agree with them. We need one and we need one badly.

Well first of all, can you tell me what will happen to our offense if we hear that DeSean Jackson or Kevin Curtis is injured and he is out for the season? Who will replace them?

We saw what the injury of Kevin Curtis did to us. Well, the Eagles organization will say, well, we reached the NFC Championship with these same receivers and we are happy with the receivers we have. That is BULLSH*T.

First of all, reaching the NFC Championship was a mirage of how mediocre our offense was. The defense took us to that NFC Championship, and anyone denying that should look at our season and competitors and judge for themselves.

First, we needed help from the Houston Texans and the Oakland Raiders to get in and not by ourselves.

Second, we did not beat the Giants, and I doubt we would have been able to beat the Giants if Plaxico were not out. If he was in, there is a bigger chance we would have lost to them and not make the playoffs.

Third, the Dallas Cowboys imploded and suffered from injury problems. If Tony Romo was not out for 3 games and the locker room did not implode, will you think they did not win one more game to put them in the playoffs while we sit at home and watch them.

Everyone should jump on the new bandwagon and bang on the Cowboys this new season. They can easily pull a surprise on us and they still have better talents than us. People forget that we had a 9-6-1 record.

After the McNabb benching, who did we beat to go 4-1? We beat an unfocused Arizona team that had no running game (we saw how that went in the playoffs;we spent the whole first half not being to put up points. If the defense had not started stopping them on the second half, would that game had been a blowout?)

We beat a Plaxico-less Giants team. We beat the Cleveland Browns. The Cleveland browns were using a 3rd string backup QB in Ken Dorsey...a terrible team.

We lost to the Redskins twice in the 2008 season and could not put up any points at all. Secondly, how many times did we go down the opponent's field this season without being able to score a TD?

Besides 3rd and 1 situations, how terrible were in red zone in terms of throwing to our wide receivers. How much plays do we have in regards to throwing to our wide receivers?

Greg Lewis has the same deep zone play he always drops. Hank Baskett has the same fade route passes that McNabb throws to him in the red zone. The fade TD passes were the same plays he caught against 49ers and the Giants. If you wonder why it was not be used more after the Baltimore game, well teams had figured him out.

Go look at the INT McNabb threw when he was trying to throw a fade route to Hank Baskett in the Cleveland Browns game. It was also returned for 98 yards. Our opponents created a bubble to discourage McNabb from throwing it to him, and the cornerback never let Baskett beat them again. 

So what are our choices for wide receivers? Draft, trade, and Free Agency.

Trade (Anquan Boldin or Braylon Edwards)

The Arizona Cardinals feel like a hard nosed team and there is a small chance they will release him in a trade.

Kurt Warner has said he will likely take a $2mm cut from that $14mm -$16mm pay day he is looking for so that Anquan can stay. Larry Fitzgerald has said he will likely restructure his contract so that Anquan Boldin will stay.

Also, he will cost first and third or probably more given that Roy Williams looks like where the market is and Anquan is a better receiver than Roy.

Second guy we should pursue, Braylon Edwards. You will talk about the dropped passes, but the upside is way better than the downside and he can correct the dropped passes with better coaching.

He had 873 yards and 3 TDs this year even with a bad Derek Anderson throwing to him, rookie QB Brady Quinn (was only throwing short passes especially to Kellen Winslow and hardly threw deep down passes to Brady Quinn) throwing to him and Ken Dorsey. A year before that, he had 16 TDs, second only to Randy Moss.

Watch his tape and you can tell he will be a great wide receiver with the right QB throwing to him. What are the chances of that happening. Well they traded Kellen Winslow and it looks like they are in a rebuilding mode.

Also, he has one year left on his contract and from what we have seen so far, they will probably entertain trade offers.

The Eagles should see what they can get for him. Braylon is also just 26 years old.

Free Agency

The name being thrown out is TJ Houshmandzadeh. He is a great receiver, but I feel he is a small upgrade from Kevin Curtis, so I am not falling over him. Marvin Harrison and Torry Holt are washed up and from what the Eagles are doing, it looks like they are trying to get young on their roster.

I have heard names like Reggie Williams from the Jaguars and other so called "BIG RECEIVERS." Please stop that. Not because a receiver is seven feet tall does that make him a great fit for us. If those guys were so good, please tell me what they have done for their team to deserve a spot on our team.

Draft

Draft someone who had a great college career and someone who put up good stats in a RELEVANT school (because I hear names like Ramses Barden being thrown around. Do you know the Eagles have a guy on their roster from Delware State University named Shaheer McBride who has put up great numbers similar to what Ramses Barden has put up? But McBride is still on the practice squad.)

The only receiver Andy has drafted with a great college career is DeSean Jackson. See how that turned out.

This same mirage for our 2008 still covers up the dropped passes from our wide receivers. This same mirage covers how bad Reid is in drafting players or identifying players/talents for our offense.

Jim Johnson has a way better eye of identifying talent. Look at the free agents who left our defense (Sean Considine, Brian Dawkins, Lito Sheppard). There is more than a 70 percent chance that all these guys are starters in their new team and any other NFL team.

Is it right that we did not resign Sean Considine, Brian Dawkins, Lito Sheppard, but scrubs like Reggie Brown and Greg Lewis are still on the roster?

Look at the guys on our defensive list, one can say that more than 50 percent of the players on that list are starters on other teams. What about the offense? Besides McNabb, Westbrook, DeSean Jackson and arguably Kevin Curtis, can you tell me who on our offense will be a starter on another team?  I thought so.