How High Will The Eagles Fly

Philadelphia Pa  Sic months will have passed by the time Training Camp gets under way for the Philadelphia Eagles  in Late July.  The 2008 season to many fans it was an unfinished chapter in the book known as the history of the Eagles.  Now the page will turn to the 2009 season and the mystery of this team will begin to unfold. 

                      It will be the eleventh season for both Head Coach Andy Reid and Quarterback Donovan McNabb.  the previous ten have been some of the most successful in the franchise's history.  Since the 1999 Kickoff the Eagles have made the Playoffs seven times.  Won five NFC East Division tittles.  Appeared in five NFC Championship games and a Supper Bowel.  For many fans of other teams that would be considered a pretty good decade.  for many fans of the Eagles it's like a kid running down the stairs to open their Christmas presents only to find a bunch of empty boxes wrapped in festive Holiday paper.  Eager excitement quickly shifts to utter disappointment.  The question which needs to be answered is was the 07 version a building block in the foundation which one day may bring this team and their fans the ultimate prize alluding them for decades, or were they just a symbol of the type of neighborhoods many of their fans come from where a belief that heart can go fruitier than pure talent and the tougher you are the better the outcome? 

                       After appearing in four consecutive Conference Championship games the Eagles  had some struggles in two out of the prior three seasons heading into the 07 campaign.  At one point a 5-5-1 team that is not a misprint look to be hading down a road of uncertainty.  Calls to fire the Coach, bench the Quarterback and rebuild with different Management were quickly silenced when on the last day of the season the team gave their a belated Christmas gift by destroying the hated rival Dallas Cowboys to make the Playoffs and then going on a run  that  would end oddly enough with Kurt Warner throwing all over their elite level Defense much like he did with the St. Louis Rams almost ten years earlier. 

                       Winning has a way of changing minds and the 2008 season will see Reid and McNabb back for yet another run at immortality.  This time they will be bringing some weapons with them.  through the Draft the Eagles have added depth at both Running-back and Wide Raciever and in a league where speed is everything Philly has more then their share.  Not to nemtion how hard it will be to go 9-6-1 two years in a row.  This  year's team has enough Offensive fire power to contend with the top teams in the NFC on paper.  In the East the New York Giants and Cowboys should provide the most competition and as always staying healthy will be the biggest key.  Assuming they do and you can never predict injuries and really should not try the Eagles have a good chance to win ten games. 

                          The next question is how can the team potentially improve on that mark?  Considerign the fact that they play in one fo toughest Divsions in the NFL more than 11 is wishful thinking.  Teh Cowboys and giants would have to fall apart or get raveged by injurries truning the clock back to the beginningof the this decade when the Eagles were for a stretch there the only quality team in the East.  the chance of that happenign is about as likely as the Detroit Lions following up their 0-16 07 season with an undefeted 08. 

                          The other side of the coin is how far in the opposite direction could the Eagles go if everything that can go wrong does.  If Brian Westbrook their starting  Running Back  and arguably best Offensive Player were to hit a decline that some so called experts benign to expect form a player at his position was they reach 30.  If the Defensive Secondary is unable to replace their long time leader Brian Dawkins who has departed for Denver.  If their revamped Offensive Line doesn't pan out and McNabb is running out of  necessity the way he use to by design then the team could be headed to a struggle to reach 8-8 which would put both the Head Coach and starting QB right back where they were 11 games into last season. 

                            Some people like to see the Glass as half full, others as half empty, I prefer to see it as it is which in this case should be a contending success full season for the Philadelphia Eagles.  what happens after that is why we they play the games and the fans watch them.