Today is the NFL trade deadline. Before the 4PM cutoff, there will be a few teams who make deals to improve for this season and make a playoff run. Others will be doing trades to get more assets as part of a rebuild. Many believe that Howie Roseman will be making a deal or two to improve this year's roster to have a chance at back-to-back Super Bowl titles. While today will be an exciting day to see who the Eagles might bring in, a new piece of interesting information was released yesterday that will have Eagles fans thinking "what if..."
Back in 2008 when Tom Heckert had control of the roster, he had a deal in place to acquire future Hall-of-Famer Tony Gonzalez.
Chiefs General Manager Carl Peterson had a previous relationship with the Eagles, he was the team's Tight Ends coach in 1976 and 1977. If he didn't change his mind last minute about the compensation for Gonzalez, there's a good chance he would have put in a good word about his former team and let him pick to be traded to the Eagles.
It's unclear if Peterson wanted to trade Gonzalez before the 2008 season started or right at the trade deadline, but for sake of argument if we include Gonzalez's 2008 stats, he put up 505 receptions, 5,245 receiving yards and 45 touchdowns from 2008 until he retired in 2013.
If Donovan McNabb had Tony Gonzalez in 2008, the Eagles definitely put up a better record than 9-6-1. If they would have had a record of 12-4 or better, they would have had a better record than the New York Giants to secure home-field advantage, which could have helped versus the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC Championship Game. Even if they didn't get home-field advantage, having Tony Gonzalez likely means the Eagles face the Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII.
The Eagles got their much-needed Super Bowl title last season, but now with this new information out about how close the Eagles were to bringing in Tony Gonzalez, it's interesting to think how much longer the McNabb and Reid era would have dominated.
