The Eagles continued to make puzzling offseason moves today, trading both Sheldon Brown and Chris Gocong to the Cleveland Browns for linebacker Alex Hall, as well as a fourth and a fifth round pick in the upcoming NFL Draft. I really, really have nothing positive to say about this.
Honestly, this just screams salary dump by the Eagles in terms of Sheldon Brown. Brown had his contract issues before the season last year, then sucked it up and played one of the best seasons of is career. I stated back when Asante Samuel made the Pro Bowl and Brown didn't that Brown was the best corner that the Eagles had last year, and I'm going to stick by that. What Brown did to set himself apart from Samuel and the rest of the corners that the Eagles have is that he could tackle with the best of him. His physical play helped ease the pain a little bit from losing Brian Dawkins, and he was starting to emerge as one of the leaders on defense.
I really don't like moving Brown in this trade at all. With him and Samuel in the secondary, the Eagles had at least two good coverage players at the cornerback position. Now, they have Samuel, who likes to guess on routes and not tackle, and questions at both safety positions. Plus, who are the Eagles going to start at the other corner position? Right now, the only options are Ellis Hobbs, Joselio Hanson or Marlin Jackson, who the Eagles brought in to play safety. I've already heard some people talk about bringing Nnamdi Asomugha from the Raiders in exchange for Donovan McNabb, but that is just an idea in a trade that hasn't happened yet. There's no guarantee that trade will ever even happen, and right now, all the Eagles have is a very big hole where there used to be a great cornerback.
The kicker is that Sheldon is going to get paid, too. The only problem is that it's the Cleveland freaking Browns that are going to be the ones paying him. Cleveland needed a shutdown corner, and rather than take a risk on Joe Haden in the first round, now they have a proven corner that can tackle and had the best season of his career last year while playing with a hamstring injury. Tell me how getting rid of him helps the Eagles at all, aside from saving them the trouble of a holdout come training camp.
The Chris Gocong part of the deal, I'm ok with. It's obvious that his experiment is well past its intended success date, with Gocong never really reaching the levels that the Eagles expected him to. When he lost his starting job last season, the writing was on the wall that they were going to get rid of him, it was just a matter of whether or not they would get anything in return when they did. What they gt was Alex Hall, who started two games for the Browns in 2008, then spent most of last season on the bench or in on special teams plays. So, the Eagles basically exchanged backup linebackers with the Browns, and traded Sheldon Brown, their best corner, for a fourth and a fifth round pick.
Pardon me for asking, but what in the blue hell were these people smoking when they made this deal? Coming into this offseason, I listed everything that I thought the Eagles should do to make sure they could compete with the Dallas Cowboys going into next season. So far, all that they've done right is resign Leonard Weaver. Other than that, they've managed to let Brian Westbrook, Sheldon Brown and most of their defensive tackles go, and they're talking about trading Donovan McNabb...but only if they can get at least a high second round pick for him. The entire offseason has smelled of salary dumping and rebuilding, which is something I don't want to see the Eagles doing.
You can talk about a youth movement at the cornerback position, but quite honestly I don't like what's out there for options aside from Samuel right now. The Eagles struggled with depth at corner last season, and now, they're getting rid of their best corner. I know he wasn't going to be happy with the deal that he had left, and the Eagles weren't going to resign him with three years left on his contract, but something could have been done to keep him here. This team already has enough holes on defense, I don't think intentionally putting another one at the corner position makes much sense, but it's done now.
It has been one hell of a questionable offseason for the Eagles so far, and with the draft coming up, and a potential McNabb trade on the horizon, it's only going to raise more eyebrows. All I have to say is that the Eagles had better pull out the best draft ever, or else next season could be a very, very long year.
Oh, there is one guy that's getting a contract extension...Joe Banner. I wish I was making that up.
ESPN.com: Eagles trade Brown to Browns
Philly.com: Eagles extend Banner's contract
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