On Monday, we looked at the Bleeding Green Nation community's favorite Eagles of the all-time. Now it's time to look at the bottom of the totem pole. We asked the BGN staff who their five least favorite Eagles were and some of the responses may surprise you (and some will bring up names you never wanted to hear again).
Below are some of the staff's least favorite Eagles of all-time:
Brandon Gowton
Mike McMahon
Easily the worst quarterback I've ever had to watch. You just couldn't wait until he was gone.
Reno Mahe
The master of the fair catch. The ultimate anti-weapon. I just never understood the point.
L.J. Smith
The first video game I ever played online was some version on Madden for PS2. I was playing as the Eagles and had L.J. Smith wide open in the end zone. I would have won the game with that catch. Instead, Smith dropped it. I never knew video games could be so realistic.
Steve Smith
...
Stacy Andrews
Did anyone ever think this was going to work out?
Mike Kaye
Trevor Laws
Laws was supposed to be a strong rotational inside pass rusher for the Eagles when they made him their first pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. He somehow managed to make it through all four years of his contract with a grand total of 57 tackes, five sacks, a forced fumble and an interception. He had a grand total of zero sacks in his first two seasons combined and one sack in his final year, leaving his 2010 season (four sacks, for you playing at home) to be his lone "productive" year. He was picked before DeSean Jackson, who outplayed him from the jump. I have a strong hatred for Notre Dame (more on that later) and Laws was a pick I hated from the second it was announced.
Victor Abiamiri
Even typing his name gives me chills of anger. To be fair, a lot of why I don't like Abiamiri is not his fault. A guy can't choose whether or not be injured, but he was injured a lot and given tons of chances to recover. He was the guy that Andy Reid (for whatever season...) was super loyal to and failed to quit on him. Abiamiri was a second round pick in 2007 and somehow lasted on the roster until 2011 (he was on injured reserve for his final two seasons in Philadelphia). He played in a total of 29 games in his career and collected just 30 tackles, four sacks and two forced fumbles. That's a lack of production and a lack of availability on his resume. Also, Notre Dame...
Every 3rd Round Pick Between Brian Westbrook and Nick Foles
This might be cheating but it got to the point where I prayed that the Eagles would trade their third round pick every year. Here are the list of winners: Billy McMullen, Matt Ware, Ryan Moats, Chris Gocong, Stewart Bradley, Bryan Smith, Daniel Teo-Neishem and Curtis Marsh. That is an ugly group. Only Stewart Bradley had one very productive season and was injured for the rest of his career (Flight Night! Come one, come all!). Chris Gocong was an okay starter but was clearly meant for a 3-4 front. The rest were good for nothing really. Marsh is still on the roster (surprise) despite being cut by the Eagles last season, signing with the Bengals and then rejoining Philadelphia. Foles broke the curse somehow, some way (Howie Roseman was in charge of that draft).
Jorrick Calvin
I view special teams as a huge part of the game, but I can't justify a kick returner that can't get more than 22 yards on kickoffs when that is his only job. Calvin was drafted by the Cardinals in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL Draft and was traded at the end of training camp to the Eagles for fellow sixth rounder Charles Scott. Calvin apparently offered things that Scott did not, despite the Eagles taking the fullback over the returner just one spot earlier. Calvin was not only terrible at returning kicks, he was also non-existent on any other unit. Since being cut during the 2011 training camp, Calvin has played for such juggernauts as the New Orleans VooDoo, Chicago Rush and Los Angeles Kiss.
Mike McMahon
Ugh... Everything that Jeff Garcia was as a backup quarterback for the Eagles is the exact opposite of McMahon. The Pittsburgh native played in nine games (seven starts) in 2005 in what would be the most disappointing season for Andy Reid's tenure outside of the post-Dream Team year of 2012. McMahon wasn't good at all. He held on to the ball for too long and seemed lost all the time. If you lost your voice in 2005 at any point, McMahon was the reason. I am pretty sure he cursed the No. 4 jersey for Kevin Kolb and poor G.J. Kinne. Here is what he produced in 2005: 1,158 passing yards (on a 45.1 completion percentage), eight total touchdowns (three rushing), eight interceptions and eight fumbles (two lost). He has not played in an NFL game since that horrific season came to a close.
Dave Mangels
(in order for Dave to really express his thoughts, he decided to go out of format for this one)
Oh man this is tough, there are so many to choose from, and so many reasons to dislike a player. So I will cheat and work in ways to mention many of them! It's easy to hate a terrible player, but for me that's not entirely fair, for the most part it's not a bad player's fault he's bad, he's just bad. It's primarily the coaches and front office's fault for having a bad player play so much. So these aren't my least favorite players just because they were terrible, they are my least favorite because they were terrible and symptomatic of ineptitude.
The 2011 Eagles - Whereas 2012 saw the team acquire quite a few players who made 2013 (and hopefully beyond) so much fun, everything we hated about 2012 began the year before.
First (well, second after the ill-fated decision to make Juan Castillo the defensive coordinator), you had a terrible draft. By definition, draft busts are top picks with high expectations, which is why they are considered busts and 6th rounders aren't. During the draft process, Danny Watkins had garnered near universal praise as a player who would be able to step into the league day one and be an above average player, and a Pro Bowler by year two. But that praise was, again, only near universal. Some of us absolutely hated the idea of a 26 year old rookie who had only been playing the game for only 4 years and on top of still learning how to play, was switching positions. A team that routinely cut players when they reached age 30 or 31, spent a first round pick on someone who would reach that age at the end of their rookie contract. For those of us that hated the pick, Watkins was terrible not just because he couldn't play, but because it had the feel of inevitability. That the rest of the draft was so bad only compounded it, Jaiquawn Jarret was terrible, Casey Matthews was forced in a position he is completely unsuited for, Brian Rolle, Greg Lloyd Jr., Dion Lewis.... what a terrible April.
July was even worse, as the Eagles came out of the lockout and went on a Redskins-like splurge in free agency. Halfway through his journey to Canton, Nnamdi Asomugha arrived, silently, having spurned the Cowboys and reportedly taking less money to do so, and with so setting the highest of expectations as the answer to the secondary problems that had plagued the Eagles for years. Instead, he failed so spectacularly that after two years he was basically out of the league, his reputation having gone from "future Hall of Famer" to "can't play football". It would be one thing if he busted his ass and just couldn't run, but he was a malcontent who embarrassed himself and was quick to embarrass his teammates when things went wrong. If only he could have deflected passes as often as he did blame on the field.
But no one epitomized the awful end of the Reid Era like Jason Babin. He was selfish, caring only about his sack numbers and nothing else to the point where if the other team wanted a first down, they'd just run at him. He didn't care what happened to the team or how his teammates did, so long as he got on the box score he was happy. He was only "good"--afterall he was a one trick pony--because he was in Jim Washburn's system, having spent 5 years bouncing around the league as a first round bust turned journeyman. And Washburn himself was one of the pillars of crap the 2011-2012 Eagles were built on: Washburn beget the Juan Castillo: Defensive Coordinator Experiment, which beget infighting, which beget a terrible locker room, and so on. There were others, Cullen Jenkins was considered by many in the local media to be a leader of a leaderless ship because he spoke to the media; Jarrad Page was praised by Castillo for how quickly he picked up the playbook, he was last seen playing minor league baseball; Ronnie Brown's pass attempt on a goal line run. But nobody exemplified the dysfunction like Babin.
The Rotating Cast of Andy Reid LBs. Like any coach, the Andy Reid Era had its staples of style of play and roster make up. Also like any coach, it had consistent flaws. One of those, for various reasons, was a never ending revolving door of linebackers. There were good years, when Jeremiah Trotter anchored the middle and was flanked by quality veteran players. And then there were bad ones, when the team churned through guys like Jamar Chaney, Brian Rolle, Chris Gocong and Moises Fokou. They all stunk, and it was frustrating watching them constantly be tossed into the deep end when better options such as actually signing someone who can play or using a top draft pick were unchecked options. Instead most were late round picks because the team didn't value linebackers, which was best illustrated when they let Trotter walk and failed to replace him. First they tried a bloated whale carcass wearing a Levon Kirkland jersey. When that didn't work they traded for an undersized backup, Mark Simoneau, who wasn't a 4-3 MLB. Fair or not, Simoneau gave weight to the criticism that the Eagles were cheap, as they had let Trotter go by rescinding his franchise tag, and with MLB still a problem after Kirkland they got a cast off who couldn't play the position. My lasting image of Simoneau is DeShaun Foster breaking two of his tackles on the same goal line play in the NFC Championship Game. Trotter would have sent him back into next week. But hey, the Eagles saved a few million.
And finally, there's one of the worst draft picks in Eagles history, Jon Harris. Reach is the word that defines Harris. For one, the team could not stop raving about his wingspan, as if they had just taken some raw center from a Balkan state in the NBA draft. And he was such a draft day reach that even Jon Harris thought he was taken too early, saying he thought he was a second rounder. That was optimistic, Harris wasn't a starter until his senior year and wasn't very impressive when he was one. The criticism over the pick, who Ray Rhodes compared to Too Tall Jones, was so high the Eagles resorted to lying. Rhodes told reporters "We had some defensive line coaches from around the league call and say they liked this pick." No way in hell that happened. Other things that didn't happen was getting Harris to play along:
Rhodes said Harris' weight, listed at 269 pounds, was up to 287 when he visited. But Harris said he was in the ``high 270s, maybe 280.'' Rhodes said the Eagles knew that several teams were high on Harris, including Green Bay and New Orleans. The Packers had the final pick of the first round. The Saints picked third in the second round.
Harris said the Jets and Saints had shown some interest in him. Asked about the Packers, though, he replied, ``Uh . . . no.''
Unsurprisingly, he was terrible. Most draft busts fail because they get on the field and stink. Harris was so bad didn't see the field, starting only 8 games in two years. After 1998 he was, like everyone in charge of acquiring him, shown the door. Rhodes took him with him to Green Bay in 1999, but Harris didn't make it out of camp and Rhodes didn't make it to the next one. Like JaMarcus Russell, Charles Rogers, Lawrence Phillips, Cade McNown and other epic busts, Harris was out of the league by the time he was 25.
Dan Klausner
Asante Samuel
FUCK Asante Samuel (Ed. note: DON'T TRY TO CENSOR ME, MIKE!). I broke remotes because of his pathetic tackle "attempts." I loathe obscenely selfish players and think they do more harm than good in the long run, regardless of the stats they put up.
Jason Babin
The Asante Samuel of the defensive line, but probably a worse person.
Chris Boniol
Nine- and ten-year old me thought he was an embarrassment to his profession. Killed the Eagles as a member of the Cowboys, then morphed into the worst kicker in NFL history as an Eagle. Of course. Chris Boniol helped ruin two years of my childhood and I will never forgive him.
Nnamdi Asomugha
Surprise, he was toast when he got here! I felt bad for Nnamdi, honestly, he was the symbol of the clusterfuck inferno that was Andy's last two seasons. But he still sucked. A lot.
Terrell Owens
You stupid asshole, we could've been something.
James Keane
Reno Mahe
I never saw anyone move their legs so fast and not go anywhere.
Todd Pinkston
I never saw an NFL player get tackled by a stiff breeze before.
William "The Refrigerator" Perry
I never saw a defensive tackle that big be so awful.
Kurt Coleman
I never saw a veteran get de-helmeted by a rookie before.
Nnamdi Asomugha
I never saw him.
Allen Rodriguez (New Staff Member)
Jeremy Maclin
I've just never liked Jeremy Maclin. He's not exceptionally good at anything (maybe drawing Pass Interference? Lame skill if it even is one), and I've never seen a player score more touchdowns as a result of being ignored by the defense. I know he's a solid player - just not my type.
Ronnie Brown
I like Coach Kelly's run/pass option plays a whole lot better than Brown's.
Dhani Jones
I'd be more comfortable if Malcolm Jenkins ran a rap label instead of a bow tie business thanks to Mr. Jones.
Nnamdi Asomugha
I swear I never wanted Nnamdi, but I wasn't writing or tweeting much back then, so I have no proof. He combined for a lot of blown coverages with (and made a show out of blaming them on) the next guy on the list.
Kurt Coleman
I played baseball against Kurt Coleman once, which helps that play where he threw Antonio Brown's shoe make sense. Sadly his play at safety too often made baseball look like his better sport. Plus he went to Ohio State.
And your winner of the BGN staff's least favorite Eagle is... Nnamdi Asomugha with four votes! He wins a free Jimmy John's sandwich delivery to his car and some wet naps. We thank his runner ups: Kurt Coleman (2 votes), Mike McMahon (2 votes), Jason Babin (2 votes) and Reno Mahe (2 votes). They will receive a Matt Barkley bobblehead that is now on sale at NFLShop.com.
Now it's your turn! Tell us who your five least favorite Eagles down below!