Mr. McNabb goes to Washington

Eagles fans have been complaining about Donovan McNabb for years. Let's see how they enjoy life without him. Say what you will about him but very few quarterbacks have ever played at a high level for one franchise for 10 years. Very few quarterbacks have all but guaranteed a contending team for every year of their career (since becoming the full-time starter in 2000, the Eagles have finished 8-8 or better in all but one season, the one being the 2005 season that had the Eagles at 4-4 when McNabb suffered a season-ending injury). Very few quarterbacks lead their team to the NFC Championship game five times in a nine-season span. And he did all of this despite having a complete offensive arsenal only once (2004, and that's arguable because their receivers besides Terrell Owens that season were terrible).

I always told Eagles fans to be careful what they wish for because they just might get it. Well, they've gotten it and now we'll see how things play out. I think Kevin Kolb has a good future and, like Aaron Rodgers when he took over for Brett Favre, he has a lot of good, young weapons around him (DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, LeSean McCoy, Brent Celek). What remains to be seen is if he has the mental makeup to succeed in a town as tough as Philadelphia, one that never fully embraced McNabb even though he was quite clearly the best quarterback in franchise history.

In sending him to the Redskins, the Eagles did right by McNabb because, according to Jason Cole of Yahoo!, they had no other choice. McNabb wouldn't go elsewhere (certainly not to Oakland or Buffalo) and, according to Cole, Andy Reid actually preferred to keep him. So now McNabb gets the chance to face the Eagles twice a year (something the Packers tried to avoid having to do when they traded Brett Favre to the Jets; so much for that working out) and goes to a team whose offense is similar to the one he ran in Philadelphia. The Redskins have a very good defense in terms of personnel, and perhaps the arrival of the best Redskins quarterback since...Joe Theismann?...will wake up talented malcontents like Albert Haynesworth and DeAngelo Hall. Their offense is a work in progress (sorry but I don't trust a running game built around an aging Clinton Portis, a washed-up Larry Johnson and flash-in-the-pan Willie Parker) and needs playmakers but McNabb has excelled without playmakers before (wonder if they would investigate a trade for Brandon Marshall).

For the first time ever, the Redskins have made a big offseason move that actually was smart. They traded for a perennial playoff quarterback while giving up only two draft choices, none of which was a first-rounder.

One more thing: when Mike Shanahan went to Denver, his quarterback was a 34-year-old John Elway who at that time was known more for his inability to win the big game than he was for his late-game heroics. Now Shanahan gets a 33-year-old McNabb who has the same can't-with-the-big-one tag Elway had. McNabb is not as good as Elway was, although he's a possible Hall of Famer in his own right, but the situation is pretty similar. Shanahan has only won one playoff game since Elway retired following winning Super Bowl 33 and McNabb is easily the best quarterback he has had since then.