Our pal Joel Thorman from SBNation.com was awesome enough to transcribe much of the press conference Andy Reid just held on the Donovan McNabb trade.
Opening statements:
We thought this was best for Donovan and obviously the compensation was right. Obviously we thought through this like we do every move that we make. This will be a good situation for Donovan and also I would say is a good situation for Mike Shanahan and the Washington Redskins. They've acquired a tremendous football player and I will always with Donovan the best of luck with the exception of two weeks during the year.
The rest is after the jump
Donovan and I have a great relationship and he understands the business. I'm not trying to sugar coat this either -- I know it's tough on him -- but I know he'll do a fine job down there. He was very good though.
.....
it was tough on all of us. As far as myself, I was very close with Donovan and I will remain close with Donovan. That part won't change. You can't erase the last 11 years. We had 11 great years together and I know he'll go on and have success the remaining part of his career.
....
We sat back and listened to offers. We listened to offers on all three quartebracks and it just became evident with time that this is the why we were going to go. The compensation was right so we felt good about it.
On why this trade happened:
First, obviously is we've got three quartebracks that have a year left on their contracts. The confidence we have in Kevin, who no matter how you look at this, is a young and up coming player and I think everyone in our building has a tremendous amount of confidence in him.
.....
On Kevin Kolb being the starter:
You see somebody that, No. 1 has been taught by good coaches and also had the opportunity to play under Donvoan, which I think is a big thing. He's learned to do it the right way and put a lot of effort into prpearing himself for this opportunity. We see leadership and athletic ability. He does a nice job reading defenses and so on. HE has a good feel for the position.
On the Eagles being a better team in 2010:
I don't know if we're rebuilding. I don't see it hat way. I see that when it's time to play we'll ahv a good football team. We try to do everything in what's best for the team. We just felt that these moves will help us down the road here.
Trading w/ in the division:
You can't say that we didn't think about that. We did. This is a decision we thought was best for Donovan and at the same time the compensation was right for us. WE surely took into consideration Donvoan's feelings here too.
Did you receive better offers?
We're not going to get into that. I'm just going to say what I said. This was a good place for Donovan and the compensation was good.
On Redskins being better:
Well, listen. Are they a better football team w/ Donovan? Absolutely. But again we'll be there a couple sundays with him and we'll see how things go at that time.
Will you be a better team w/ Kolb?
We'll see. We're sitting here on Easter Sunday and I don't think the season starts for quite a while. We'll see down the road how things come together. I think we'll be a pretty good team when it's all said and done.
On McNabb's feelings:
Well, we've been together a while and developed a relationship. Our org felt htat way about him and we wanted to inevitably do what's good for us and good for Donovan. If we could find a nice mix, that's what we'd do and that's the situation here.
....
I think when you really look at it, all three QBs had a year left so we sat back and we listened. That's what happens in this league when you're in this situation. We felt that this was an opportunity to make a move -- one that helped us and was also good for the player.
On Reid saying McNabb was the starter back at the owners meetings:
He was the starting quartebrack until he went elsewhere. There's nothing that changed. It's very hard to predict the future in this league. I couldn't have told you at that time that this was going to happen. I didn't know this. I was honest with you that I listened and again I did what I thought was best for this organization.
On McNabb's legacy:
I think it should be that he was the greatest quarterback to ever play for the Philadelphia Eagles up to this point.