Fantasy Football

Note: We failed to post on Monday like we promised, seems necessary that we acknowledge as much. Our sister was getting married and we thought we would have time to post this, but as it turns out weddings require a lot of needless legwork so they seem more important than they already are. Anyways, here we are, yet another day behind. Enjoy.

Say what you will about Donovan McNabb, Andy Reid and Joe Banner, no one excels at getting to conference title games quite like they do. Sure, they lose roughly 80% of them and have failed to win a Super Bowl in their tinier with the Eagles, but how many teams can say they’ve made five conference title games in eight years (including four in a row from 2001-04) and the playoffs two additional times? I tell you, the answer is one: the New England Patriots. The main difference being, of course, that the Patriots also have three rings to show for their efforts, something the Eagles fell short of too many times.

Many in Philly like to chalk this up to Reid and McNabb failing to come through in crucial moments, and their has been some failings on the part of both of them. Everyone carries some burden when you lose as many franchise making games as they have, and the coach and quarterback are obviously no exception. But this argument has always struck us as shortsighted, and the front office have left them short-handed, especially at receiver. I know he didn’t play in the playoffs, but its no coincidence that they made the Super Bowl also happened to be the one year they had and were on good terms with Terrell Owens for the majority season.

If nothing else, he helped earn them home field advantage and was their one offensive player that performed as expected in the Super Bowl (thus we thought he had earned the ear of Eagles management for a restructuring of his contract, but he couldn’t have argued his case in a more deplorable, self-obsessed fashion). Once he left the franchise looked like it was on the verge of imploding, as the fallout between Owens and Reid, Owens and the front office, Owens and his offensive coordinator and Owens and McNabb seemed to open up some unsealable wounds. Not to mention that McNabb struggled to stay healthy, and they stayed loyal to him as perennially under-appreciated NFL whipping boy Jeff Garcia was shown the door yet again with another franchise he helped win games for.

But, for every seemingly ill-fated decision, every bizarre on-field instance that works against them, every contract dispute and devastating injury (McNabb, Westbrook is always banged up, Stacy Andrews, Jevon Kearse, etc), the Eagles are still a member of the NFL proletariat. A team that always has to be regarded as a playoff contender so long as McNabb is there, Philly looks as strong as they were at the beginning of the aughts. With the drafting of DeSean Jackson in 2008 and Jeremy Maclin in 2009 to accompany Kevin Curtis and Brian Westbrook (who was more or less a receiver) , they’ve sufficiently addressed what has been their biggest weakness before and after the Terrell Owens season of 2004. Progress!

I don’t want to be too laudatory, this team isn’t without its limitations. Namely the defense and Westbrook’s health/age are both concerns for Eagle nation. But barring injury — which has been the sole reason they’ve had a sub .500 record at any point in the decade (2005 and 2007), they will contend for the Super Bowl in the NFC.

Can’t Miss (for what one could reasonably expect): Donovan McNabb, DeSean Jackson. As much as we like this offense going into 2009, we can’t really guarantee a lot of productivity from players like Curtis and Westbrook (we’ll get to that in a moment) or rookies McCoy and Maclin. But McNabb, with about five legitimate receiving targets and Jackson being the number one option (plus return duties), we like both of them to meet and exceed any reasonable expectations one might have for either the veteran QB or te flashy young receiver.

Tread Lightly: Brian Westbrook. Let me explain, I still think he’s going to have a perfectly reasonable fantasy season, but most still have him ranked as a top ten or (in some cases) top five pick. When he plays, he will produce. The Eagles offense is built to accomodate the running back and he’s taken full advantage of it for the past seven seasons; but with a suitable every down back in rookie LeSean McCoy and Westbrook aging faster than Jack, they’re going to be overly-precautious about him playing with injuries of any degree. In short, Westbrook’s time will be cut down (especially later in the season) and even if he’s still capable of producing like he has the past five years, he won’t get the opportunity to do so. The same principal applies to Kevin Curtis, but to a much lesser extent, as he was never the beast that Westbrook was/is.

The defense is also going to take a mild step back. Despite the plethora of key defensive losses over the past couple seasons (most notably Brian Dawkins, but they’re certainly others), the biggest of which doesn’t ever play a down. Jim Johnson, the legendary Eagles defensive coordinator whose had to deal with constant short-changing from the front office and unsuitable backups for pretty much his entire career with Philly has always made the defense credible. With him taking a sabbatical, I’m not sure they can maintain the same level of efficiency without Akeem Jordan, Stewart Bradley and Chris Gocong as their starting linebacker corps.

Some of the greatness still resides.

Dark Horses: Jeremy Maclin, LeSean McCoy and Cornelius Ingram. In other words, the Eagles first three picks in the 2009 draft. With this and the addition of Jason Peters from Buffalo, I honestly think Philly was the runaway leader in “best draft” speculation. Maclin’s going to become a desperately needed playmaker, much in the same way Jackson was last year, only he’s going to be complimentary to their ace (assuming he eventually signs, that is). McCoy was projected by most as the second or third best back in the draft. They drafted him at great value (53rd overall) and is probably ready to start as an every down back (if last year’s crop of rookies were anything to go by). If he went to a team that didn’t have the best back of the decade, he’d almost certainly be starting by week 10, but the circumstances being what they are, he’s probably going to see about 35% of the carries when Westbrook is playing.

Cornelius Ingram makes this category since he went to Florida and the Eagles let LJ Smith skip town after six seasons of mediocrity. I don’t have high expectations for him, but a starting tight-end whose virtually unknown but posessing talent is always a potentially lethal commodity, especially for a pass-happy team like Philly. It’s also important to note that he might have slipped under the radar with an injury during his 2008 season.

As an admitted fan of the team, it’s somewhat disappointing that they’re still missing the prototypical 6′5, 195LB wide receiver that can bail them out of broken plays and throw desperation passes too. But the offensive line should be ramped up with the resigning of Andrews and the trade for Jason Peters that the pass protection will be among the best in the league, and with one of the speedier receiving units, they should be able to compensate for the lack of size. The real problem is if the offense will be able to compensate for the losses they’ve endured on defense. Right now, we’re of the opinion that they can, but remain skeptical that they will.

Tomorrow we take a look at the regularly disappointing Dallas Cowboys.