“Not bad for a guy who possibly would have been traded or cut if the Eagles hadn’t pulled a stunning late-season reversal, ultimately coming within a game of a Super Bowl berth.

But the move continues to make no sense to us. Why not add another non-guaranteed year at $10 million or more? It would have given the Eagles the option to keep him beyond 2010, if the Eagles had so elected.

Instead, the Eagles face losing McNabb in 2011 for no compensation, unless they use the franchise tag to keep him. If the franchise tag even exists come 2011.

There’s also a belief that one of the motivations of the McNabb deal was to help the Eagles comply with the 2009 salary floor. Thanks to years of carrying over excess cap space, the Eagles have (at last look) more than $30 million in cap space.

Either way, we can’t think of a similar situation from past NFL offseasons. Players typically don’t get more money without having to give up, at a minimum, another season of service.”

The fact of the matter is he got money for nothing. It’s not only unprecedented…it’s flat out stupid. And I love McNabb!

As for up-front money, you’re not going to get a lot of that on just a one or two year extension, which is probably why he received the raise. The longer the deal, the bigger the bonuses.

As for why McNabb would want to add the new years, the up front money would be the reason. I’ve always been told “you don’t get something for nothing.” In this case, it appears McNabb did.

Also, I think it’s becoming a little misleading to say NFL contracts aren’t guaranteed when so much of negotiations are now based upon guaranteed money. That was precisely what was at stake in this new deal. It wouldn’t benefit Donovan at all to add one or two years that were just like the years he reworked.

I have to disagree, however, when it comes to extending Mcnabb. Since contracts are not guaranteed in the NFL, we could have essentially given him the same guaranteed bump that we just gave him but add a year or two to the deal at say $11 million. If come 2011 we decide he’s worth that $11 million, then we keep him on board. If not, we trade or dump him, which would have no consequence.

Second, you still have Kolb on the bench. What if you extend McNabb now, Kolb relieves him after an injury, and he sets the world on fire? Obviously you would want to keep the younger guy in that situation, but now you’re burdened with attempting to move a McNabb contract that another team might view as unfavorable coming off of some sort of serious injury.

Basically, this just allows the Eagles to keep their options open for one more year while also doing the right thing by McNabb.

It all depends. What happens next is based on what happens this season. If Donovan stays healthy and continues to play at a high level, yes they’ll certainly have to extend him sometime next year. You don’t run the risk of your franchise quarterback becoming a free agent.

I don’t really look at the money aspect of this new deal as much as the fact that they guaranteed both years. Yes, he got a raise, but $5 million is kind of a joke when you think about it. It’s a very minor salary bump for a quarterback. You just have to look at this as Donovan saying, “Gee guys, if I get hurt and you cut me, no one is going to sign me for $10 mil.” Now if he gets hurt and the team decides to move on, they have to trade him and not only will he still make that money, but he’ll probably be able to parlay that into another big contract.

And it benefits the Eagles in trade talks as well. If they were trying to pawn off an injured player who was replaced and could be cut at any moment, teams might try to wait for McNabb to hit the market. With the money guaranteed, it makes absolutely no sense to cut him, which forces interested teams to make competing offers.

BTW, GO GIANTS