Eagles would have matched Stallworth deal?

A familiar villain?

Joe Banner was a guest of Howard Eskin on 610 WIP to talk all things Eagles. He said mostly what you'd expect but dropped a bit of a surprise about the negotiations with Donte Stallworth and his agent Drew Rosenhaus. He told Eskin that Rosenhaus never came back to the Eagles with the deal he got from the Patriots and that if he had the Eagles "probably" would have matched it.

Now, it's easy for him to say in hindsight and without being in the negotiations we'll never know the real truth. However, it does bring to light a troublesome issue. Why are the Eagles and Drew Rosenhaus still involved in a pissing match? It can only hurt both sides as neither have anything to gain from angering the other. Rosenhaus didn't have to come back to the Eagles, but if he didn't he probably was not working in the best interests of his client. Unless Donte really wanted to go to New England, which is entirely possible, Rosenhaus would have no reason not to ask the Eagles to counter. Either way, Banner is trying to pin the fan bases' disappointment in not keeping Stallworth on a familiar villain in Rosenhaus.

Update [2007-3-16 10:51:0 by BleedGreen]: More stuff on the Banner interview. As we know the Eagles will usually always offer a young player a long term deal a few years before they hit free agency if they think he's good. Two guys that left this offseason got such offers but didn't take them. Michael Lewis, who got more than the Eagles offered, and Rod Hood, who got less than the Eagles offered.