Will the Eagles Regret a Draft-Day Trade With the Cowboys?

Posted May 5th 2007 1:55PM by Ryan Wilson
Filed under: Cowboys, NFC East

Some Cowboys fans wanted the team to take a wide receiver in Round 1, but as the Dallas Morning News's Todd Archer writes, you can never have too many linebackers in Wade Phillips' 3-4 scheme, so that's why Anthony Spencer was the No. 1 pick. Archer notes that the team had 21 players with a first-round grade and speculates on who else, after Spencer, might've been on the list:

I believe the group included cornerback Aaron Ross, receivers Dwayne Bowe and Robert Meachem and safety Brandon Meriweather. Having moved down to No. 36 thanks to the trade with Cleveland, the Cowboys quickly had to get back into the first round with Ross (No. 20), Bowe (No. 23) and Meriweather (No. 24) gobbled up.

But here's the thing: Dallas knew Spencer and Meachem wouldn't be available early in the second round, so the Eagles did them a solid by letting them trade back into the first round. A favor, Archer points out, Philly might end up regretting ... especially after the first time Spencer sacks Donovan McNabb.

But maybe that was Andy Reid's plan all along -- and I'm only half-kidding -- to insure against another McNabb injury. With Jeff Garcia now in Tampa, the Eagles no longer have their closer. Sure, Kevin Kolb is a seemingly weird pick, but it makes a lot of sense when you think about McNabb's inability to stay healthy and the fact that he's 30 years old.

Of course, Cowboys fans don't care about any of this; they're just excited to have an extra 2008 first-round pick, another potential DeMarcus Ware in Anthony Spencer, and two chances a year to unleash Spencer on the team that allowed Dallas to draft him in the first place.