Eagles players recruiting Moose?

From philly.com

Eye on Muhammad


THERE WAS A WHOLE lot going on behind the scenes last week in Honolulu while players from the NFC and AFC prepared (?) for last night's Pro Bowl.

Beaches needed to be visited, golf courses had to be played and family fun certainly was conquered.

Oh, yeah. And a little bit of recruiting.

Some of the Pro Bowlers are free agents and are being courted by other players.

The Eagles have 10 players in Hawaii representing the NFC, and they've taken a liking to Carolina receiver Muhsin Muhammad.

Several of the Birds have made it a point to talk to Muhammad, no doubt letting him know what another quality wide reciever might be able to do for the team. They even goaded Muhammad to pose in a team picture with the 10 Eagles.

"It's definitely a time to see your old friends and make new ones," said Muhammad, who could be released if he can't rework his contract with the Panthers before he's due to receive a $10 million roster bonus next season. Muhammad has said he wants to stay in Carolina.

Last year at the Pro Bowl, Donovan McNabb's befriending of Terrell Owens played a big part in landing the star receiver.

Believe it or not, comment from Freddie Mitchell concering Muhammad's wooing couldn't be found.

Thank God.

 

The Eagles are going to hit the wall in a couple of years if they keep doing stuff like this. They threw big money at Owens and Kearse last year. If they throw big money at Moose this year they are going to get in cap trouble.

 

They’ve been inflating their cap space with borderline bogus incentives.

 

Signing a free agent wide out who is going to be 32 next season to a big money contract after he is released by his current team is the wrong way to do it in the salary cap era. Paying big money to keep him is also the wrong approach.

I would be happy starting Smith and Colbert next season and then drafting a guy for depth and bringing in a low priced veteran free agent.

 

Freddie Mitchell will be available.


coming soon to an arena league near you

 

How would you like to be the DB that let Mitchell beat you on fourth and 26?

 

What's worse, they were in zone. Exactly how you let a guy run 26 yards and around without someone picking him up mindboggling.

 

yeah, it really sucked when they went out and bought TO too, that didn't help them a bit.

 

GIBBS VIOLATING TAMPERING RULES? - from PFT

Among other things, those eleven years that Redskins coach Joe Gibbs spent away from the game of football apparently caused him to forget one of the cardinal rules of life in the NFL.

You never, ever talk publicly about a guy who's under contract with another team.

Still, on a Tuesday radio show, Gibbs fielded questions about at least two guys who are not yet free agents and, amazingly, Gibbs answered them.

Gibbs was asked about Panthers receiver Muhsin Muhammad. Muhammad is owed a $10 million roster bonus less than two weeks from now. The Panthers can pay it and keep him, or they can work out a new deal that (for example) converts the roster bonus into a signing bonus, or they can cut him.

Regardless of the team's ultimate decision, Muhammad currently remains property of the Panthers.

But in response to questions about Muhammad, Gibbs said, "The problem is he's 31, and basically what his agent said is: 'Show me the money.'"

Apart from the obvious fact that Gibbs commented on Muhammad when Gibbs clearly shouldn't have done so, Gibbs' reference to Muhammad's agent raises an obvious question.

Have the Redskins already been talking to him?

It wouldn't be the first time that the Redskins were accused of negotiating with a player who was still under contract with another team. In 2003, Sports Illustrated's Peter King reported that the Redskins had made safety Lawyer Milloy a contract offer before Milloy was cut by the Patriots. (To little surprise, Milloy later denied telling King that he'd gotten a prior offer from the Redskins.)

Gibbs also addressed on Tuesday Steelers receiver Plaxico Burress, when explaining that, with Muhammad and Burress, "what you're talking about is big bucks."

Again, how does Gibbs know that Burress wants big bucks, especially when (as we recently reported) the Steelers have yet to receive an opening demand from Burress's agent?

Bottom line -- Gibbs should get his knuckles rapped for even talking about Muhammad and Burress. Beyond that, the NFL needs to take a look at whether the 'Skins have been in communication with either Muhammad or Burress, or their agents.

With that said, we're hardly naive. At next week's scouting combine, agents won't be talking to teams only about the draft prospects they represent. There will be -- as there always are -- plenty of discussions about teams' interest in impending free agents, even though such conversations are against the rules.

Still, there's something to be said for the exercise of discretion. In Gibbs' case, his willingness to talk openly about guys who are still under contract elsewhere shows either that: (a) he's stupid; or (b) the Redskins have so little regard for the tampering rules that even basic, fundamental concepts such as never, ever talking about another team's player are ignored.

Either way, it's a problem that the NFL should not overlook

 

It may have helped them this year but in the long term it was a bad move IMHO.