FanPost

The Absence of Rebuilding



Let me preface this article by saying that I am not the most ardent kool aid drinking supporter of Andy Reid or his player personnel decisions. To be frank, if cornered I would probably put myself more in the camp of the Andy Reid detractors. The Eagles seem to go into every season with at least one glaring, and obvious to us fans, personnel need(Backup QB in 2005, ILB in 2006, KR in 2007, FB in 2008, and FS in 2009). He also seems to reach in the second and third rounds of the draft more often then he should( See M McCoy, B Smith, C Gocong, M Ware). But I have to give credit where credit is due. Andy Reid has somehow been able to steward the Eagles through the last decade with only one losing season and that was in 2006 with an Injured starting QB for half of the year and a pitiful back-up for the other half. Only four other teams can make that claim over the last ten years the Steelers, Colts, Patriots, and believe it or not the Broncos. And no team has no losing seasons over the last ten years.

There is a reason that it's so rare for teams to sustain the kind of success that Andy Reid has enjoyed and that's because players age, get injured, or come and go via free agency. Because of this almost all teams find they need a so called rebuilding period where they have very limited success.

I was surprised to find that the Eagles only had six players on the active roster the year they went to the Super Bowl five years ago that were on the active roster in the past year:

2 David Akers, K

5 Donovan McNabb, QB

24 Sheldon Brown, CB

36 Brian Westbrook, RB

46 Quintin Mikell, S

54 Jeremiah Trotter, LB

It could be argued that as few as two of those players could survive to the 2010 season.

Somehow Reid has been able to almost completely turn over the Eagles roster without the fans of the Eagles having to suffer though a protracted down period. While the roster was being turned over the Eagles went to the playoffs three times. So I've decided that I am going to swallow my pride and thank Andy Reid for his many years of service to the team and I will try to be supportive over the next three years. I also pledge that I am going to do my best to trust Andy Reid's decision as it pertains to the quarterbacks. I've come to the conclusion that Reid probably does know more about football than I do.