The Philadelphia Eagles are going to be good. Anyone with a basic understanding of pro football could tell you that. The problem is that the one group of people who shouldn’t be telling you that is the Philadelphia Eagles themselves, and oh man, those guys cannot stop telling you how great they’re going to be.

Newly-arrived back-up quarterback Vince Young was the first to provide the team with the soundbites and complexly-arrogant sentences sports writers like me need to reference late in the season when a team is losing to someone who didn’t say anything. Via Philadelphia Sports Daily:

“Dream Team … From Nnamdi [Asomugha] to [Dominique Rodgers-]Cromartie, to Jason [Babin] to myself … I know they are going to do some more things. … It’s just beautiful to see where we’re trying to go.”

If that wasn’t bad enough, defensive end Jason Babin jumped on Twitter and gave the Eagles the official kiss of death.

I mean, at least the Dream Team won. The Tweet prompted 100+ responses, almost exclusively negative, ranging from the understanding “@JasonBabin93 except eagles will take the championship?” to the ready-for-Onion-Sportsdome “@JasonBabin93 do you mean only looks great on paper & can only play 3 quarters?” All we need now is for Michael Vick to push a sweatband up across the top of his scalp and humblebrag about how the Eagles are going to win not five, not six, not seven championships.

I swear, how hard is it to build a huge boat and NOT tell everyone you know that it’s unsinkable?

You might be saying, “Who’s Nnamdi Asomugha?” When you said it, you just mumbled his name too, because you didn’t know how to pronounce it. That’s alright; we’re all human.

Getting back to the point, Asomugha is one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL right now. It’s not like he’s a hidden gem no one knows about though, because he’s been doing well since he was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in 2003. Darrelle Revis and his island gets way more attention, though. Asomugha’s been selected to every Pro Bowl from 2007 to now, and has helped out in the community around him (he was raised in Los Angeles), taking kids on trips to see colleges on the East Coast and giving them school supplies. The people in Oakland have grown fond of him, and he’s a fan favorite to many.

It was thought that Asomugha was locked up for a couple more years due to one of the most expensive contracts given to a defensive back. However, someone looked at the fine print and realized that Asomugha was free to go if he wanted. That person was probably thrown into the alligator pit Al Davis created near his house. It’s a tax write-off.
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Unless you read last year’s Pro Football Prospectus, you might want to sit down for this one: Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha just signed the most lucrative per annum deal in NFL history: three years, 45.3 million smackeroos.

The first two years pay him $28.5 million – all guaranteed. That’s how much he would have made if the Raiders used the franchise tag on him. The difference now is both years are guaranteed against injury.

The third year will pay him $16.8 million, or the average of the top five quarterback salaries whichever is higher, according to multiple national reports. The Raiders have a team option for that third year but must void it in early March 2011 or that season’s salary becomes fully guaranteed.

Extravagant cash for a defensive player? Consider that Asomugha would have earned the same money had the Raiders been forced to use the franchise tag to keep him. He’s a shutdown cornerback and possibly the best player in Oakland; he’s a proven guy that’s being retained at a competitive rate. But one has to wonder: How valuable can one Assmonger be to a 5-11 team?

[SF Chronicle]