Okay, it's draft day, and I'm finally willing to accept there will be no free agency beforehand. As annoying as that might be, the Eagles are going to get better tonight in some way, shape or form. Aren't they?

Let's have a little fun with it and lay out your best-case scenario for Thursday night's first round, and your worst-case. I suppose if you were feeling frisky you could best-case/worst-case for Friday too, or the entire NFL draft. Your call.

My original best-case was to have them sign Nnamdi or Jonathan Joseph in free agency, then draft an RG at No. 23. That would have addressed our two biggest needs off the bat (and I think it's okay to draft for need when you have a super-bowl ready team and a prospect that can step in immediately) and left room to round out the roster (LBs, more OL and CB, and BPAs) in the rest of the draft.

Given that FA never came together, nor was a Kolb trade technically possible, my best-case scenario is now this: Eagles trade their 2012 first-rounder (knowing they can recoup one by trading Kolb, and it will likely be a higher pick if it's a non-playoff team that grabs him) for one tonight, giving them two picks, which they use to draft Peterson, Amukamara or (more realistically) Smith at corner, and use their No. 23 to trade back a few spots and pick up later picks, and grab whichever O-lineman they covet who falls (Carimi, Solder or whoever fits the Mudd mold).

I obsess over specific players a little less than most, so your best-case scenarios might well be more detailed than mine. That's cool, throw them out there.

While the Eagles trading back and not drafting anyone tonight might feel like a worst-case scenario, if they have a first-round grade on whichever player they draft in the second, and they still end up with players they believe are top talents, plus more picks, I'm fine with that. I think this is the year where it's time to profit from all that ammo they've stacked up over the years, but I won't nitpick. I'll be patient.

Worst-case for me is them burning  up that ammo to move up and draft another D-lineman. Look, I know the better the pass rush the better your secondary looks, but I think we've got the horses on the DL and with Washburn here to coach them, an improvement is to be expected. My personal feeling is this is one of those times where the Eagles ought to just do the obvious and grab a CB and someone who could challenge to start at RG, and then go after top free agents at those spots later just so we're not completely dependent on rookies.

What are your best and worst scenarios?

This being what most of us considered a transition season (to rightfully avoid the 'R' word), there was perhaps no game I considered to be more of a must-win than McNabb's first game at The Linc as a visitor. Mostly because of what I anticipated would be the incessant annoyingness of the rest of the nation considering it a one-game referendum on whether or not we should have traded McNabb.

But in the wake of defeat, this one doesn't burn like I thought it would. Six reasons why:

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[Note by JimmyK, 09/23/10 3:02 PM EDT ] - Here's a guest post by BGN member D3Keith, which is too sane not to put on the front page...

Here's a little refresher for all our fellow fans:

When the Cowboys and Eagles play, you have to pick a side. When the Eagles are deciding who to start at quarterback, you don't.

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I've waited patiently for a post by GreenInBaltimore saying it's on with the Ravens bloggers. And now I see Bye, Da -- er, JimmyK -- suggest a game vs. IgglesBlog.

I don't care if we play a bunch of disgruntled Habs fans using Canadian rules. (No punting on third down!) I'm just ready to get out there and play again, and this time not in 18-degree weather!

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Now that the day is finally upon us, it's hard not to be excited. Whether you view it as five picks on the first two days or seven of the top 121 (under normal circumstances, a team should get four players in the top 128 or so), the Eagles have a chance to bolster the foundation of the organization, particularly defensive, for years to come, and match the youthful offensive core we've assembled. The potential for the next several years is really limitless, and it all begins with what happens these next two days.

For all the names we've seen bandied about -- mostly secondary players at this point -- at the various points in the draft, the only thing we really know is that the Eagles will do something. To help kill time until we get underway, I was wondering if there's anything you've seen hardly mentioned or not mentioned at all that you think the Eagles could do. Doesn't matter if there's a 1% chance (just no more Roethlisberger ideas, please) ... I'm thinking along the lines of Maclin coming to us out of nowhere last year. Or the year we went Lito/Sheldon/Michael Lewis when we already had a strong secondary. I'm feeling something like that coming on, something nobody sees coming.

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I listened to both D.C. Sports Talk stations in drive time today out of curiosity. I thought those of us who'd closely watched McNabb for 11 years would get a kick out of some of the things I heard callers & the hosts say:

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I honestly didn't want to do a fanpost for this, but I got the text from the Eagles and waited, like, 45 seconds and there was still no reaction here!

My guess is the Gocong move gets no love, although it's really just the Eagles covering their bases if they can't/don't draft an LB or someone is not as healthy as they hoped. Obviously nobody was interested in giving up a pick for him. And it doesn't mean he's the starter or won't be traded to the Browns later.

As for Hobbs, I really like bringing him back. He's a very good kick returner (as we saw in the Dallas game, right Moises?) and a depth corner. I wouldn't want to have to start that guy all year, but we could do way worse if someone has to fill in for a portion of a game or several games. With Brown, Samuel, Hobbs and Hanson, we don't NEED to come out of this draft with a cornerback, but if we did it would be good.

Because it was the weekend and its slowed down here but I still work, I ended up reading a lot of the McNabb garbage from elsewhere. And on ProFootballTalk.com I saw something that was actually fairly interesting. Surprised there wasn't more reaction to it, but maybe I missed it or maybe you guys have lives:

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the Eagles are receiving offers from teams that have not been identified publicly at the request of the teams making the offers.  This is happening for two reasons:  (1) some of the teams have incumbent starting quarterbacks who would be confused, to say the least, if they learned that McNabb could be joining the club; and (2) none of the teams want fans or the media to know that they are courting McNabb, in the event that they fail to land him.

This doesn't explain the fact that the Bills, Rams, and Raiders have been named as potential trade partners.  According to the source, however, the Eagles have disclosed to no one the names of the teams with whom they are or aren't talking.

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Recently tweeted by Adam Schefter:

Filed to ESPN: Philadelphia traded wide receiver Reggie Brown to Tampa Bay for the Buccaneers sixth-round pick in 2011.

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I'm not sure I even want to weigh in on this, just passing it on to BGN so you guys can slice and dice it. Personally, I think this is textbook Florio and Eskin, just trying to rile up the fanbase for the purpose of riling up the fanbase. So get your clicks on it here and not there, I guess.

They're reaching for something ... anything ... to run McNabb out of town, and while there are a few legitimate arguments to why you might prefer Kolb, most of the anti-McNabb is based on a history of not getting it done in the past that has very little bearing on his potential to get it done in the future, if surrounded by a healthy, confident, complete team. I'm not sure why, as a fanbase, we're so eager to make a major change to a team that's on the brink, especially when having two capable QBs on the roster is almost always preferable to having one.

Eskin's "evidence" is a bit of a reach, IMHO. But it's probably not a bad thing, and especially if those young guys got a lot of work in with Kolb and find him approachable and expect to be playing alongside him for years, I'd take it as a positive for the Birds.

As I've said before, Reid/Lurie/Banner have never given much indication that they plan to part with McNabb at any time other than after the 2010 season, but if the right package were offered, the Birds are famous for cutting the cord earlier rather than later, with very few misjudgements along the way. No one could say we haven't given McNabb several runs at it, but I think it'd be a shame not to try once more with this roster.

I guess I did want to weigh in. PFT after the jump:

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On behalf of all of us:

You guys were better this year. There is nothing for us to argue about.  Congrats. I really didn't even want to say 'Congrats,' but I'm padding this post to get to 75 words. This is another chapter in the rivalry, your turn to enjoy it. Again, you guys are better, and we're not ignoring your taunts because we fear you, there is just no point in responding. Dallas dominated Philly this year. You guys are better.

Sincerely,

Philadelphia Eagles fans.

So I'm a proud user of the Sunday Ticket package, which helps me never miss an Eagles game (not in the Philly broadcast area anymore). However, I work in an industry and role that keeps me close to the NFL, and this year I am assigned to follow a team that is not the Eagles. So assuming they play a lot at the same time, and not against each other, I will miss just about every non-prime-time Eagles game. Which is unacceptable to me.

I used to have a roommate who was a die-hard Seminoles fan, and he found a guy who would tape the games, burn a DVD and next-day it so he could rewatch it by Monday night or Tuesday.

Anyone know of anything like that for the Eagles, or anything that would accomplish the same thing ... or do I just have to man up, quit whining and get TiVo AND The Ticket?