"FOLLOW THE logic here:

First, if the Eagles decide to keep Donovan McNabb as their quarterback instead of promoting Kevin Kolb, it is because they believe McNabb would give them their best chance of winning the Super Bowl in the 2010 season.

Second, this necessarily presumes that the Eagles believe they have a legitimate shot at winning this season, that it isn't a long shot or a pipe dream but a real and true possibility. It cannot be about catching lightning, as they almost did in 2008, winning a wild card that they had no business winning and then making a run to the NFC Championship Game. It has to be more than that.

Third, if all of that is the case, then don't the Eagles have to take some bold and significant and expensive and short-term chances in free agency, starting today?

To keep McNabb on the one hand, and to sit back and restock an inadequate defense with draft choices on the other hand, just doesn't add up. To keep McNabb, especially without a contract extension, means to focus everything on now. It makes no sense otherwise.

If McNabb is here, it means taking a run at free-agent defensive end Julius Peppers, even if the Eagles know they would be overpaying for a guy who disappears sometimes for entire games.

If they are going to give McNabb a 12th shot at winning the Super Bowl, it means the Eagles will have to be willing to sacrifice draft-choice compensation in order to try to make a deal with a restricted free agent they really like.

A lot of this goes against the Eagles' past thinking. But the NFL world is different without a salary cap and the life cycle of the franchise is different if the intention is to allow McNabb to come back and play out the last year of his existing contract without an extension.

Every day features a new report, either unsourced or lightly sourced, about the McNabb situation. The truth is that nobody really knows yet. All we have is Andy Reid's rather careful, spare statement that McNabb is his guy, followed by club president Joe Banner and general manager Howie Roseman saying, essentially, "Well, you heard what Andy said," and then changing the subject as quickly as humanly possible.

There are people who believe, given the current vibe that the Eagles have created, that McNabb is staying in Philadelphia. Of course, the counterargument to that is this: If the Eagles really do want to trade him, the most important thing for them to have accomplished during this period is to have created the impression that they are not anxious to do it, thereby extracting the best possible offers. And, well, mission accomplished."