Eagles

Your Eagles Free Agency Running Commentary

By Kyle Scott

Published: Jul 29th, 2011 · 4:00 PM EDT

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This is a sticky post at the top of the site, updated in reverse chronological order, with the most recent post coming above the jump. Got it? Good.

We stopped updating this once Nnamdi was signed. Read below for all the previous moves.

12:15 P.M., Friday: Howard Eskin reports DeSean Jackson hold out will be for the long term. Not expected in camp anytime soon.

Surprised by this, we are not.

10:47 A.M., Friday: Tim McManus confirms Vince Young to the Eagles. He will be in camp tomorrow… ya know, if he doesn't get lost on that windy Northeast Extension.

10:01 A.M., Friday: The Eagles may have jumped the gun on Vince Young. An NFL spokesman told Pro Football Talk the following: 

“Until a player appears on the transaction report, then any transaction is not official, including if the move has been discussed publicly, etc.  So if a player is still a member of a club’s active roster — as Young is in this case — no other team can talk to him until he appears on that transaction report.”

 

Technically, Young wasn't yet released by the Titans when the Eagles contacted him. In theory, the Titans could pursue tampering charges, but it would most likely be a waste of their time.

7:58 A.M., Friday: Leonard Weaver is tweaked. He Tweeted the following last night:

Richie'd.

Derrick Gunn (Gunn on One!) first said he was the first to alert Weave at 9:40 P.M., but then quickly changed his tune and said the Eagles did, in fact, alert Weave of the trade first. The Eagles often lie and Weave is a religious man, so I'll go with Weave for now.

7:54 A.M., Friday: Late last night, Albert Breer reported that the Eagles reached a one-year deal with Vince Young and he will sign it today. I'm sure it's oversimplifying things, but as I told the M & M Show last night, having a mobile quarterback as Vick's backup can only help… even if he is a flake.

10:09 P.M., Thursday: Clark Judge of CBS reports Vince Young to the Eagles. Wow.

6:16 P.M., Thursday: Adam Shefter, who is just in his glory right now, reports that Vince Young is eyeing the Eagles: [ESPN.com]

Young already was eyeing the Philadelphia Eagles as a potential destination, a source told ESPN's NFL Insider Adam Schefter. Some around the league believe the Eagles are considered the "favorite" to land Young, who would back up Michael Vick.

 

We need a backup. Vince Young is talented. Crazy, but talented.

3:12 P.M, Thursday: Ruben Amaro and Scott Proefrock have gathered outside the NovaCare Complex and are hurling roses at Joe Banner's window. Paul Holmgren brought a Play-Doh pizza.

3:04 P.M., Thursday: Howie Roseman seen running to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport carrying Rod Graves' jock strap, a bag of cash, and wearing a Heath Ledger smile. Oh, and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. He has him, too.

Apparently, the Lerner family, owners of the Nationals, are making the business decisions for the Cardinals.

3:02 P.M., Thursday: Kevin Kolb was given a $63 million contract today. DeSean Jackson is paid less than $600,000 per year. This is our world.

2:48 P.M., Thursday: BREAKING The Kevin Kolb deal is done. Adam Caplan reports he has been traded to the Cardinals in exchange for Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a second round pick. The Cardinals gave Kolb a five-year extension for over $63 million, [update $21 million guaranteed] (?).

Well done, Eagles. Well done.

This is a good move. Obviously, DRC is a stud, but they also pulled a second round pick out of this. No idea what the Cards are thinking extending Kolb for five years. There are so many question marks behind him. $21 million guaranteed is ludicrous. Of course, the Eagles don't have a backup QB now…

As RukkaBukka points out, I would imagine that somewhere between Dry Island and a land filled with magical ponies (and Cliff Lee), the Cardinals house some unknown game tape of Kolb performing at a high level. Who's making their decisions? $63 million?

2:36 P.M., Thursday: Kevin Acee, Chargers beat writer, says the Eagles are one of the final three teams in the running for Darren Sproles, the greatest kick returner in the history of Madden (for real, you couldn't stop him). 

2:35 P.M., Thursday: Do you know where your children are?

2:32 P.M.. Thursday: Pro Football Talk has a source who says the Eagles and Michael Vick are beginning contract extension discussions. See, Florio, this is how you cite a story, even though it's a whole lot of words with very little news.

1:34 P.M., Thursday: The Arizona Cardinals continue their crusade to become the Southwest Eagles. Kent Somers reports they are interested in signing unrestricted free agent Stewart Bradley. That, of course, is in additon to their stiffy over a quarterback who has played in 20 of his team's 64 regular season games since being drafted. Are we just ignoring that?

1:22 P.M., Thursday: Zzz….

11:26 A.M., Thursday: Adam Caplan expects our long national nightmare to finally be over: Kevin Kolb will be traded today, he says. Awesome, the sweepstakes for a career-backup who has shown nothing more that marginal upside in real, live NFL action will finally be over. So… who plays in Week 3 when Vick breaks his leg scrambling for the fifth time in seven plays?

11:06 A.M, Thursday: DeSean Jackson is officially a holdout. This we know. However, as reader Joe accurately points out, D-Jac will be fined $30,000 per day absent from camp. Given that he only makes roughly $600,000 a year, that's actually real money. Of course, if holding out does help him get a new deal (which it likely will), it's a moot point. Though it's certainly worth nothing.

Glad to see football is back and we're not left talking about money and greed and all. that. jazz.

9:13 A.M, Thursday: Life!

This will be Babin's fourth team, having previously played with Houston, Seattle, Kansas City, and Tennessee. He was in Eagle in 2009. He is a 2010 Pro Bowler and was ranked 85th on NFL Network's list of Top 100 players.

Reports are that it is a five-year, $28 million deal with Babin. Philly Sports Daily has more.

8:43 A.M., Thursday: It's official, Jonathan Tamari reports D-Jac is absent from camp.

7:59 A.M., Thursday: Albert Haynesworth was traded to New Englad… soooo he's off the table. And now, Jay Glazer reports that Reggie Bush may be traded to the Dolphins. Another one bites the dust. Andy Reid, we imagine has still not realized the offseason began.

5:22 P.M, Wednesday: Andy Reid held a press conference at 5. Here's what he said ………….

4:48 P.M., Wednesday: Michael Vick is cock teasing every beat reporter in sight:

The Rich Hoffman doesn't care. Pic via (@APgelston).

2:58 P.M, Wednesday: Andy Reid is awake!

Photo via (@Tim_McManus)

His press conference will air live at 5:00 on the Eagles' website. Here, too, if we can embed the video.

2:41 P.M., Wednesday: Mike Florio takes a shot at… me:

SECOND UPDATE:  The guy who runs CrossingBroad.com claims to have discovered it, and apparently wants credit.  So here it is.  All we know is that we got over 50 e-mails about it, and we’re in no position in the middle of the free-agency frenzy to figure out who spotted it first.  Or to care.

 

Oh fuck him.

You see, when you're the first place on the internet to post a very fringe story and send a link over to a larger, national site at, say, 12:50, and then they post the story – sans credit to anyone – at 1:13, you would appreciate a little head nod. Or a link.

2:12 P.M., Wednesday: Derrick Gunn (Gunn on One!) reports a Kolb deal is close.

Shefter too:

Also, can we assume that Shefter is not unlike Gordon Gekkoo in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps once he conned his family and got back in the game? Just livin' the life, he is.

12:57 P.M., Wednesday: DRC jersey available on Eagles' website. See post below.

12:05 P.M, Wednesday: Tim McManus reports that DeSean Jackson will NOT be in training camp today, and is unlikely for Thursday.

I can't blame DeSean for holding out here. It's the way deals get done in the NFL. He is grossly underpaid and the team's best player. Someone should wake Andy Reid up.

Philly Sports Daily has the story.

11:51 A.M., Wednesday: Can anyone explain what the Jesus is going on? It's mid-day Wednesday and, as our friend Kevin put it, Kevin Kolb is still an Eagle and Nnamdi Asomugha is still a free agent. And Andy Reid still has cheese wiz dripping down his chin on Joe Banner's couch. Hello, McFly!

The Seahawks signed Tavaris Jackson (?), so any leverage the Eagles had in trading Kolb to Arizona is gone. Will someone please tell Andy Reid the season started? Like, the lockout, it's over. Wake up!

8:32 A.M., Wednesday: Grilled Reuben Frank, the blowhard stenographer who once felt the need to comment on a reader's very positive Facebook posting of a CB article, saying "that's hardly brilliant," reports the Eagles have yet to make a decision on their free agents (conflicts with a report from last night). I won't link to it because it's hardly a brilliant report. That's all you need to know, really.

8:30 A.M, Wednesday: There are a number of reports that Donovan McNabb was dealt to the Vikings. He was not… yet, according to Adam Shefter.

8:26 A.M., Wednesday: Plaxico Burress may meet with the Giants on Wednesday.

The hell? I'm now convinced Andy Reid is asleep in the office of Joe Banner, who, in turn, is concerned that coach may have sleep apnea. This first 24 hours is a little messy. No?

11:25 P.M., Tuesday: Ike Taylor signed a four-year deal with the Steelers… so he's out.

5:40 P.M., Tuesday: According to a report on Philly.com, the Eagles do not plan to re-sign any of their own free agents (Stew Bradley, Sav Rocca, Quintin Mikell and Dmitri Patterson) and are preparing to make a larger move. Paul Holmgren is impressed.

3:13 P.M., Tuesday: Here's the Eagles' training camp schedule… brought to you by Sports Authority! Yes, they're absolutely selling ad space on their Twitter account.

3:08 P.M., Tuesday: Adam Caplan reports that players on teams starting training camp on Wednesday (Eagles) have an extra day to show up. So D-Jac not showing up might not mean he's holding out. Semantics!

2:41 P.M., Tuesday: According to Geoff Mosher, DeSean Jackson will probably NOT show up at Lehigh tomorrow.

I imagine the Eagles are circling the wagons like a poorly-funded presidential campaing. What do we do? Comment? Ignore? 

Andy Reid: Lunch.

There are other updates and video of Vick talking about D-Jac's potential hold out, after the bump.

 

2:25 P.M., Tuesday: Eagles are doing some serious tire-kicking on Vince Young.

12:14 P.M, Tuesday: We're not more than 150 minutes into the unofficial start of the season and the Eagles are already selling ad space on Twitter:

Revenue!

11:55 A.M., Tuesday: Michael Vick says DeSean Jackson could, may, might hold out.

Hold up (Regulator voice).

Say what?

Here's the quote via Jonathan Tamari:

"I just don’t know, just being realistic about the situation. It's all in what Desean wants. We're trying to figure out what’s going to happen. Hopefully he'll be there tomorrow. Desean just has some thing to think about and some decisions to make that only himself can make"

 

Well this would certainly be news and explain all the Plaxico Burress talk. D-Jac is only making $565,000 this year. However, he did Tweet yesterday that he was ready for some football. Ya digg?

Tim McManus has a little bit more.

10:47 A.M., Tuesday: The Eagles have announced the signings of rookies: WR Perry Baker, WR DeAndre Brown, RB Graig Cooper, P Chas Henry, QB Jerrod Johnson, DT Ced Thornton, WR Terrance Turner, TE Martell Webb, and LB Brandon Peguese.

10:23 AM, Tuesday: Beat writers are more excited than a pubescent puppy in a room full of NBA player. Legs. Legs everywhere.

Les Bowen and Tim McManus take the early lead for most obsessed Tweets.

Les:

Media lockout still in effect at NovaCare. Enough armed guards to march south and invade Delco, w/orders not to let anyone inside til 10.

TV trucks camped out on Pattison Ave. Because they can't come inside til 10. "We don't have to let you in yet, nyahh nyahh naa naa naaahh!"

Note to #Eagles: End of lockout is a joyous occasion. Photos of returning players, stories are GOOD publicity, not a nuisance. We aren't here to steal Joe's secrets. We come in peace.

Players pulling in. Far as I can tell from Twitter, we're only media contingent being told to wait outside.

Mr Lurie, tear down that wall!

 

T-Mac: the gates unlocked