Tight Ends in Motion

Aside from the Eagles signing defensive coordinator Jim Johnson to another contract extension, the other news over the weekend is Chad Lewis' healing from the Lisfranc sprain he suffered in the NFC Championship game. (More here.) Though fans are pulling for Lewis to return to the team in the fall, he's currently not signed with the team and may not be when the season opens. In his moonlighting gig at the Sporting News writing the "Inside Blitz" feature on the Eagles, Trenton Times writer Mark Eckel claims that offensive coordinator Brad Childress has so far been impressed with the two rookie free agent tight ends the team added to its roster after the draft--Andy Thorn from Northern Iowa and Steve Spach from Fresno State. The Birds already signed veteran James Whalen, will most likely keep ace long-snapper Mike Bartrum around, and of course have L.J. Smith returning as the probable starter. It took considerable time for a younger Brian Dawkins to return from the same injury, so whether Lewis will be healthy at the start of the season is up in the air. By then, the team may have figured out its tight end situation one way or the other.

Perhaps because of the nature of the feature, Eckel's reports for "Inside Blitz" tend to be a little juicier than many of his Trenton Times articles. Click here for his latest. (Note, however, that he doesn't explain why Keith Adams has jumped ahead of Mark Simoneau as the starter at weakside linebacker. While both may have a knack for getting to the ball, Adams actually has a knack for making tackles, as opposed to Simoneau's inability to avoid getting blocked out of most plays.)

South Jersey

In a fact unsurprising to no one, the Delaware County Times reports that Terrell Owens' jersey, once the most popular on NFLShop.com, has fallen off its chart of the Top 25 best-selling jerseys on the site. (Donnie Mac's jersey still holds at number 4, however.) That got me thinking, and so I went on the site, jumped to the Eagles section, and then clicked on the option to personalize any jersey. I was then able to get a preview of my idea for the way to get #81 back in the Top 25 (see below):



I don't really have $90 to purchase the jersey and see if it would actually get printed, but if anyone else has the cash and wants to find out, let us all know. It may be possible, because it did not pop up a warning that the jersey could not be personalized this way, the way Michael Vick's does when you attempt to personalize it with "Mexico," referencing his Ron Mexico pseudonym. (For more on that, click here.)

Westbrook Changes Agent

Finally, a bit of positive news on the contract front. Brian Westbrook has apparently dumped his old agent and signed on with Fletcher Smith, who represents Donovan McNabb and Correll Buckhalter. The move could mean the running back has a better shot at coming to a long-term agreement with the Eagles, since Smith already has good relations with the front office. As the Philadelphia Daily News' Les Bowen puts it:

"Eagles officials obviously aren't willing to comment until the change is official, but Smith has cultivated a strong relationship with the team's front office, and does not have a history of holding clients out of minicamps. Unofficially, you could infer that the Eagles see the pending change as a sign that Westbrook is sincere about wanting to continue his career here past this season." (More here)

The odds are more likely that Westbrook will show up to the June 1 minicamp. He was a no-show at last month's minicamp.

Company Man, Company Town?

As usual, Stephen A. Smith's Sunday column in the Philadelphia Inquirer has made waves, intimating that Terrell Owens thinks Donovan McNabb is a "company man," too close to the Eagles brass. Oh, and that Freddie Mitchell's parting shots against the QB have "to say something."

It led SI.com's Peter King to note:

"My guess is that Owens has tanked McNabb privately to Smith. That's just a guess. No inside knowledge there at all. At the very least, there's no doubt in my mind that Owens thinks McNabb is a company man, Smith column or no Smith column. And what that tells me is that something stinks in Philly." (More here)

Now it strikes me that there are several ironies to this new idea of McNabb as a company man. First, is it really a surprise to anyone at this point? After all, McNabb would probably seem less of an enigma to the fans if he hadn't been playing it so close to the vest throughout his career, flatlining emotionally just like his coach. And it would be a bit of fresh air for him to speak more forcefully, and in less semi-wavering fashions as saying the Eagles can do great thing either with T.O. or without him.

But it's pretty clear that the one time McNabb wasn't a company man was getting Owens on the team. And would Owens really like McNabb to his speak his mind now? Because I'm sure it wouldn't be full of well wishes for the petulant receiver.

Then again, maybe Owens would like McNabb to call him out. Owens could then say, well, you got yours. Without a Super Bowl victory in McNabb's, that's the thing that gets in the crawl of the fans I sit near at the Linc. A couple of bad passes, and either: a) "What's he care, he's making $100 million already!" or b) "When are we going to start getting our $100 million's worth?"

But here's the thing about being a company man in this situation--at the end of the day, no matter what Smith writes, McNabb doesn't come out looking like the villain. The smartest thing Owens could have done was to play the upcoming season like he did last year, and then force the Eagles' hand. Because, as we all know, his contract was structured with a fat roster bonus in 2006 that the team would be loathe to pay up. Then it could have played out with T.O. arguing that he gave the team two great seasons, overcame long odds to play in the 2005 Super Bowl, and deserved that 2006 money.

Instead Owens' ego and his new agent's sweet-talking--Drew Rosenhaus doesn't get a cut of that old contract, does he?--got in the way of his best interests. Other criticisms aside, McNabb isn't the one wanting to cut out after the first year of a deal, isn't the one who blew the public's sympathy crying poor, isn't threatening to derail another Super Bowl run.

The final irony of Owens' complaining about McNabb being a company man is that is that it would have served the receiver best in the long run to have been one himself.

Doubting Thomas

With Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie telling the Philadelphia Inquirer (see here) that there are no plans to renegotiate Terrell Owens' contract, Hollis Thomas shouldn't expect a call to rework his contract, either. Still, that's what he told Comcast SportsNet (reported here) he hoped for. Thomas did attend the team's first minicamp, but said he may not show up for the next one. While I get the sense the stout defensive tackle wants to remain an Eagle and isn't just trying to talk himself out of town, his agent isn't doing his client any favors divulging details like these:

"The last contact between the two sides occurred about a month ago and didn't last very long. According to Thomas’ agent Ron Slavin, coach Andy Reid yelled at Slavin’s partner Mike Bauer because they had decided to air their grievances through the media.

'All it really entailed was Andy yelling at Mike and a hang up,' Slavin said. 'The only reason we ever contacted the newspaper in the first place is because we didn't have any communication with the Eagles. Once we did, it was all negative. They were hollaring and screaming at us over the phone, very unprofessionally. The reason I'm doing this now is to get it back out there that what's going on with Hollis isn't right.'"

I don't seem to recall Thomas complaining about his deal when he missed major playing time in 2002 and 2003 with injuries. Nor will there be much sympathy from the fans for a player who showed up at a recent charity appearance decked out with 4-carat diamond earrings (see here under "Giving back" heading).

Catching Up

I've been out of town the past two weekends (including during the first minicamp) so I need to play a little catch-up here. As you know, this is the Death Valley of the football season, after the draft and before June 1 cuts and then training camp (which opens this year on July 29), so news is less frequent. Still, the Birds did finally release disgruntled wideout Freddie Mitchell, letting FredEx deliver himself to any other team that's interested. No team was interested enough to trade a draft pick, any draft pick, for the motormouth receiver, even as Andy Reid held on to him through the draft and an extra two weeks.

Of course, the team has enough problems with its other motormouth WR, Terrell Owens, who didn't show up for minicamp and, for once, isn't talking. But expect things to get worse before they get better with T.O. Why? For one thing, Redskins receiver Santana Moss just ended his holdout after signing a six-year, $31 million contract, which included $11 million in guaranteed bonuses. And guess who Moss' agent is? Yep, Drew Rosenhaus, the very same new agent for Owens. Think he won't bandy about Moss' contract to leverage the Eagles into changing Owens' deal? Me neither.

You may or may not have noticed that Rosenhaus is also WR Javon Walker's new agent. Walker had a breakout year last season for the Packers, and is also holding out for a renegotiated contract. As is Redskins safety Sean Taylor, a rising star after his rookie season whose agent is ... Rosenhaus. He wants Taylor's contract renegotiated after one season in the NFL. Now Owens has played a very messy part in this ugly holdout affair, including hiring a new agent to begin with, but it's obvious that Rosenhaus is the ultimate source of these various problems. After all, he doesn't earn a commission on a past contract negotiated by a previous agent.

The Eagles may juggle a few numbers around to give Owens a little more money--though it's doubtful--but in the meantime, the wideout has squandered all the goodwill (and potential endorsements) in Philadelphia. Fans loved the tenacity with which Owens returned from a serious injury for the Super Bowl, but have absolutely zero tolerance for a multimillionaire crying poor and mistreated.

With Owens and Mitchell causing trouble, more attention was paid to the Eagles newest wideout, secound-round pick Reggie Brown, including a piece on ESPN.com from Len Pasquerelli. As usual, mention is made of the difficulty for rookie receivers to make an impact for the Birds, due to the "complexity" of the West Coast offense. Brown may have it a little easier, Pasquerelli claims, because he had to learn some of the WCO terminology working with Jon Gruden during the Senior Bowl.

At this point, I have to rant a little here. On the surface, do there really seem to be so many complications to the Eagles' offense? I know that in the nitty-gritty that we fans don't see, Eagles receivers are supposed to be making various adjustments for each play, etc. etc., but I can't particularly tell that the team's version of the WCO is any more complex than any other version. I can tell you that Gruden called a superior game with his version in the 2002 NFC championship, and I can also tell you if your receivers can't get off the line of scrimmage, it's kind of hard to make any adjustments to your routes (see: 2003 NFC title game). You may have also noticed that the complexity of the team's play calling results in numerous timeouts to avoid delay of game calls, and otherwise leaves Donovan McNabb little time at the line of scrimmage to call audibles.

In other words, maybe the Eagles have made their offense a little too "complicated"--that is, complicating without the need for it. Just a theory.