Philadelphia Eagles to move on from McNabb?

This week has been an interesting one so far for the Philadelphia Eagles as rumors heated up regarding a possible trade of 11 year veteran QB Donovan McNabb. Prior to the 2009 season the Eagles made an interesting move by signing disgraced QB Michael Vick upon his release from prison. The team also has second round pick QB Kevin Kolb who is entering his fourth season with the team.

With both McNabb and Kolb entering the final years of their contracts it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that the Philadelphia Eagles would try to move one of them. The rumors that a deal was nearly in place with the St. Louis Rams were the first to hit with Philly set to receive the first pick in the second round (33rd overall) and another player.

While both sides vehemently denied the rumors, on the surface the trade does make a lot of sense. The Rams are in desperate need of leadership and would enable them to focus on the two studs at defensive tackle with their first overall pick. Then the Philadelphia Eagles would be free to enter camp with a true competition between Kolb, Vick and any quarterback they may have the opportunity to draft in April.

2009 Team Record: 11-5
First Round Pick: 24th Overall

Roster Analysis

2009 Active Roster Batting Average (NFL Average): 47.17% (44.69%)
2009 Draft Pick Retention: 50%*
Undrafted Players on 2009 Active Roster (NFL Average): 32.08% (27.89%)

2010 Free Agents

Unrestricted: 3
Restricted: 11
Notable: Ellis Hobbs, CB (RFA); Jason Avant, WR (RFA); Sean Jones, S (UFA)

Last Five First Rounds

2009 – Jeremy Maclin, WR, Missouri (19th Overall)
2008 – No pick, traded selection to Carolina
2007 – No pick, traded selection to Dallas
2006 – Brodrick Bunkley, DT, Florida State (14th Overall)
2005 – Mike Patterson, DT, USC (31st Overall)

DNQBR

For the 2009 season, Donovan McNabb had a Draft Nuggets quarterback rating of 15.5, good for 10th in our rankings.^

Notes & Observations

• Four of the Philadelphia Eagles eight 2009 draft picks made the team’s active roster
• TE Cornelius Ingram (fifth round) and T Fenuki Tupou finished the season on injured reserve
• The Eagles have released LB Will Witherspoon, OL Shawn Andrews and WR Kevin Curtis
• So far in the offeason the Eagles have signed RFA WR Jason Avant to a 5 year deal, DB Marlin Jackson (UFA, Colts), RB Mike Bell (RFA, Saints) to a one year deal and swapped defensive ends with Seahawks (Chris Clemons, 2010 4th rounder for Darryl Tapp)
• S Sean Jones departed the team via free agency signing with Tampa Bay
• The Eagles have been unafraid to trade out of the first round, as they have only made only three picks in the last five drafts

* we have not performed a complete analysis of teams’ 2009 draft selections versus their 2009 active rosters in order to calculate an NFL league average.

^ we will detail the breakdown of the DNQBR in a future post, however, the figure represents the approximate number of points per game that the team’s quarterback contributes. As a point of reference Saints QB Drew Brees lead the league with a DNQBR of 26.3, while Jets QB Mark Sanchez possessed the lowest at .7

Follow all the action with Draft Nugget’s Around the Draft series leading up to the 2010 NFL Draft.

Tagged as: Donovan McNabb, Kevin Kolb, Michael Vick, NFL, NFL Draft, Philadelphia Eagles, Sports, St Louis Rams