Joe Banner

These are the moves that defined the Eagles' offseason. We're attempting to rank them by importance: 1  The trade for DeMeco Ryans: If you said the signing of Demetress Bell to replace left tackle Jason Peters was really the most important move of the offseason, you might be right in a strict football sense, but if you're talking about intangibles, about calming the smoldering outrage of the fan base, Ryans has to be No. 1. For so long, the...

Andy Reid gathered the guys into a tight circle last week, gave them a good talking-to about what lies ahead, then turned them loose for the next five weeks. He hated to do it, but the league and the players union made him. "The players now go into pre-Phase 1 period," Reid said, and if it is possible to sound enthusiastic saying those words, he pulled it off. Everyone at the NovaCare Complex is upbeat and enthusiastic about the 2012 NFL season these days. The organization appears convinced that whatever led to a 4-8 start last season has been fixed by free-agent signings, a solid draft class, extended contracts for key players, and a thorough coach 'em up during the minicamp and OTA season that ended Thursday.

As stories go, the one about Michael Vick's pique over his place on some ranking of NFL players wasn't exactly stop-the-presses stuff. It was more interesting as punctuation on what has been the most fantastic Eagles offseason in memory. And we mean fantastic in its first-dictionary-definition sense: "Imaginative or fanciful; remote from reality. " Beginning with owner Jeffrey Lurie's accepting-the-unacceptable, irrational rationale for sticking with Andy Reid and right through the overly praised in-house spending spree, it's as if the entire organization decided to pretend 2011 never happened at all. Maybe, with Dallas back on TV, this cultural reference isn't outdated anymore: Back in the old days, the writers got out of a bad plotline by having a character wake up and realize the whole season had been a bad dream.

IT'S BEEN an eventful offseason for the Eagles — one of the most ever during the Andy Reid era. Through trades, free-agent signings and the draft, they addressed several needs. Contract extensions to wide receiver DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy solved their most pressing in-house concerns. The rookie minicamp and offseason training activities went smoothly and, on Thursday, the Birds completed their final mandatory minicamp practice before training camp opens at Lehigh University in July.

For years, Joe Banner's unyielding negotiating style defined the Eagles' front office. But even before Banner resigned as team president Thursday, general manager Howie Roseman had brought a softer, more personal touch to making deals, according to players and agents. "He is a relationship guy," said agent Jerrold Colton, who represents former Eagles kicker David Akers. "That matters to him a lot. " Roseman, who had already taken over the Eagles' salary-cap management and contract talks, often speaks about finding ways to make deals work so that all sides feel satisfied.

In the past, there have been accusations that the Eagles have been so insanely jealous of the goodwill and publicity the Phillies get from the fans that the football team intentionally creates news to take the baseball team off the front pages. But it's a good thing for the Phillies that the Eagles on Thursday decided to push Joe Banner out the door, because the Phils, right now, look like a junior varsity team. They can't hit with any impunity. They kick the ball around.

In the NFL, success doesn't transfer easily. Joe Banner, the longtime Eagles president who stepped down this week, said he hopes to put together an investment group that can buy a struggling franchise, with partners who will allow him to run the team and attempt to turn it around, much as he helped do in Philadelphia. There is a long list of NFL coaches and executives, though, who have struggled to duplicate their initial success at a new location. Carmen Policy, a salary-cap wizard who helped power the 49ers to a championship, moved to Cleveland after being forced out of San Francisco.

THE PRESS CONFERENCE was over and Joe Banner was bouncing between a series of one-on-one television interviews and a stint on the team website when he stopped to talk. The Eagles' president is leaving the club after 18 years. He says it is to seek one last professional challenge, either an NFL franchise turnaround, or putting together a group to buy a team, or some such adventure. Some people believe him. Some don't. The search for hints of a lost power struggle, or a conspiracy aflame, has begun in earnest.

For better or worse, the characteristic that defined Joe Banner during his 18 years running the Eagles was his singular loyalty to the organization. Even now, making his exit, Banner's main concern is casting the move, and the Eagles, in a positive light. For better: Banner was the one member of the Eagles' inner circle who heard and responded to what was going on outside the NovaCare Complex bubble. The others were oblivious or insulated - Jeff Lurie by his enormous inherited wealth and Andy Reid by his absolute certainty that his way is the best way. For worse: Banner could come across as sarcastic or insulting in his efforts to defend Lurie and Reid and the rest of the organization.

IF THE NEWS of Joe Banner stepping down as Eagles team president had broken a year ago, I would be on the floor receiving CPR right now, unable to type this. For a long time I thought of Joe as Jeffrey Lurie's surrogate, his summer-camp buddy from childhood whose business and sports savvy made it possible for Lurie to own and operate a pro team. Lurie hasn't been a constantly vocal presence during the decade I've covered the team. Usually, when he did speak, it seemed to me Jeffrey's perceptions were filtered through Joe, that in essence, Joe was Jeffrey, on a day-to-day basis.