BLAKE FINDS YET ANOTHER NEW HOME
Make it six NFL teams for veteran quarterback Jeff Blake.
Blake, who has been with the Jets, the Bengals, the Saints, the Ravens, and the Cardinals, has agreed to a one-year deal with the Eagles.
"Think about it," Blake said Friday, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. "The Eagles have been to three NFC championship games three years in a row. I played for the Cincinnati Bengals, the New Orleans Saints and the Arizona Cardinals. I've only been involved in the playoffs one time.
"The Eagles have been a Super Bowl contender the last three years. You're talking about a team that has been one game away three years in a row, and I'm coming from Arizona."
As noted by the Inquirer, the expansion of the practice squad from five to eight players this year affords teams like the Eagles the luxury of using a veteran as the No. 3 quarterback, with the No. 4 guy available via the practice squad. Also, with Donovan McNabb signed into the next decade and Koy Detmer entrenched as the No. 2 guy, there's no need for the team to focus on getting a young guy ready to take over either of the top spots on the depth chart.
Then again, Blake says he's under the impression that he'll be competing with Detmer for the No. 2 job, according to the Philadelphia Daily News.
"I'm capable of being a backup and a good one," Blake said.
The contract is thought to be in the vicinity of the minimum value of $760,000, which means that the deal will cost only $450,000 in cap dollars and in real dollars.
Finally, we couldn't help but notice a bit of revisionist history regarding that one year in which Blake's team qualified for the postseason.
"I've only played on one team that made the playoffs -- the Saints in 2000 -- and I got hurt and couldn't play in the playoff game, Aaron Brooks played."
To the untrained eye, this statement creates the impression that Blake led the team to the playoffs, strained a groin the week before the playoff game, and that Aaron Brooks was pressed into service. Blake's suggestion that there was only one playoff game connotes that his backup blew it, and Blake's statement arguably implies that, if he'd been available, the team likely would have gone farther.
Unless the 2001 NFL Record & Fact Book was written in part by Jayson Blair, the truth is that Blake went down with a season-ending broken foot in the first quarter of the Saints' eleventh game. Aaron Brooks came in and came on over the final four-plus contests, leading the Saints to the first playoff win in the history of the franchise, against the defending Super Bowl champion Rams, before falling to the Vikings in the divisional round.
Of course, we can understand why Blake would slant the facts regarding his tenure in the Bayou. After all, when he was healthy in 2001, he lost the starting gig in a straight-up duel with Brooks. Since then, Brooks has been the No. 1 guy in New Orleans -- and Blake has bounced to a different squad every year.
Gee, I am so happy for him. What a wonderful man ..NOT!!!!!