McTrade?

-- S0 most of the teams that were implied in a possible trade for Donovan McNabb have now publicly backed out, save for perhaps the Bills and the Raiders. Which honestly, doesn't make that much sense. If you look at the teams other than the Bills and Raiders that were being mentioned seriously (Rams, Redskins, Cardinals) all of them would find a great benefit in scooping up McNabb. Now, we have to temper this by pointing out that McNabb is not a long term solution. He's more of a temporary stop gap who will give you maybe 3-5 years while you find and develop your future franchise guy. It should also be pointed out that McNabb has taken the Eagles to one unsuccessful Superbowl and five NFC Championship games, of which they've obviously only won one. The trouble with McNabb seems to be that as the pressure mounts, he starts to choke. Stick on an NFC Championship game involving McNabb and/or one of his more recent high pressure games, and what you see is a lot of his balls hitting receivers in the knees, balls bouncing short off the ground, and WR reaching back behind themselves to catch misplaced passes. But despite that, he's still better than anything possessed currently by the three teams mentioned in brackets above, and a trade for his services makes a splash beyond just his position, leaving them with some fantastic options. Let's take a brief look at how all three could be improved with a bit of McNabb magic: St. Louis Rams The Rams have probably the most to gain by trading for McNabb. Realistically, the best the Eagles can expect for McNabb now is a second round pick. Now the Rams hold the 33rd pick in the draft (1st in the second round) and that should be more than adequate compensation. But what does it do for the Rams? Well first off, they get a proven QB to finally help them generate some offense and take the pressure off of outstanding RB Steven Jackson and possibly off their D as well. Even if McNabb can just keep the Rams defense off the field for a bit longer, that will help keep them a little fresher and maybe give them time to reorganise and regroup once in a while, hopefully boosting that entire unit. And secondly, it frees up the number 1 overall pick for the Rams to go away from Sam Bradford. Now the choice is two fold; take a DT (Suh or McCoy, with McCoy probably a better fit for Steve Spagnuolos' defense) or take an OT who can protect McNabb and again boost that offense. Personally I would want the OT to keep McNabb upright. The Rams need some form of offense desperately. Their priority at the moment is just getting to a stage where they can be considered good, even though they wont be exceptional. Building that offense will go a long way to cultivating that 'good' team. Washington Redskins Much like the Rams, the advantage in trading for McNabb comes in freeing up that 1st round pick. There is much speculation as to the direction the Redskins will go in, but certainly QB is a perceived need for them. Picking up McNabb allows them to invest the fourth pick overall in an OT, again to help keep McNabb upright, and now the 'skins offense will at least be at a point where it can start to compete properly. The beauty as well for the Redskins is that like many teams that have a solid Defense, their offense doesn't have to be exceptionally productive in order to win games. Just pretty good will suffice. McNabb + a new Left Tackle gives you that. Arizona Cardinals Arizona perhaps won't feel the benefit so much on draft day, but during the regular season they certainly should. With the loss of Warner, there is a big, QB shaped hole in the Cardinals offense. Thinking that either Matt Leinart or Derek Anderson could fill the void appears to be slightly wishful thinking at this stage. McNabb could. Given the weapons that the Cardinals have on offense, and providing their defense can hold up despite the offseason changes, the Cards should hardly miss a beat from their previous playoff form. Should..... Have a great day everyone.