Half Full?

Domowitch reviews whether the Eagles' window of opportunity is half open or closed. As Domo notes, "With each close-but-no-cigar finish, with each departure of yet another popular player, there would be an offseason rush to declare the window closed, only to have the Eagles rack up another double-digit-win season, another division title, another shot at the ever-elusive grand prize."

And yet, the conventional wisdom of the NFL's "window of opportunity" is inaccurate. Sure it is a convenient cliche, and may have applied to past championship teams like those built on the Aikman, Smith, Irvin model, but in today's NFL teams, especially perennial playoff contenders like the Eagles, don't rebuild as much as reload. With free agency and teams with cap space, quality teams can make significant upgrades on an annual basis. For instance, by cutting Kearse and Howard this offseason the Eagles will free up $3.6 million in cap room. And they are already sufficiently under the cap to go after a DE like Jared Allen or Julius Peppers. Considering Kearse's disappointing production this year, that would be a huge upgrade.

Nevertheless, the trickiest part of upgrades and reloading is the QB position. It's the one where making a transition is most difficult and challenging. It's also the most important position on the field. For as much grief McNabb is getting, he remains the best option for this team into 2008. If the Eagles really are going to make wholesale roster changes - either reloading or rebuilding - it will be after next season. The McNabb haters will have one more year to boo the best QB in franchise history.