Tom Heckert worked for Reid for 9 years. He knows his former boss is anything but stupid. Nevertheless, he was more than a little surprised when he found out the Eagles had shipped their six-time Pro Bowl quarterback to the Redskins.
"I was [surprised] because I wouldn't have done it," said Heckert, the former Eagles general manager who left in January to become GM of the Cleveland Browns. "But I don't think they had much else [in the way of offers].
"Even if they had a choice - everybody talked about Oakland - I don't think Andy would have done that to Donovan if he didn't want to go there. He wouldn't screw the guy if he had something else. Plus, Andy's always been a big believer that, I don't care who you have, we're going to be better."
You may choose to call that arrogance. I prefer to call it confidence.
Nevertheless, the question remains: How wise was it of the Eagles to trade McNabb to a team in their own division? And will it come back to bite them in the butt Sunday and/or in the future?
"There were a lot of people who were critical of Andy for making the trade with Washington," said Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman, who will work Sunday's Eagles-Redskins game as the lead analyst for Fox. "The way I looked at it is the Eagles want to win as badly as anybody. Why would they trade a quarterback to a division rival if they felt he was going to keep them from beating that team? The answer is they wouldn't. They wouldn't do that.
"Clearly, Andy felt strongly enough about what he had that he was willing to make that trade and not feel that it would adversely impact the Philadelphia Eagles."
But is he right about that? The general consensus of most of the NFL coaches and analysts I spoke with for this column was that if there's an advantage to be had Sunday, it probably goes to McNabb because of his familiarity with the Eagles' defense.
