This is basically a book. It's gonna be two posts; most of my thoughts about the team right now are gonna be in the second one after I finish the recap. I've gotta get some stuff out. Deal with it.

It all starts on February 2nd, 2011. Juan Castillo, once hired as on offensive assistant, then as tight ends coach, then finally offensive line where he has been since 1998, the year before Andy came to town, was named the man who could save the defense from the mediocrity of Sean McDermott's tenure.

via cmsimg.courierpostonline.com

Wait, what?

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Then I promise I won't mention Kolb anymore if he gets traded once the league year starts.

I haven't been around too much lately, so people haven't had to deal with my often-contrarian BS, but I wanted to touch on this one more time before Kolb inevitably gets dealt. 

I think Kolb should be kept on the Eagles this year.  At the very least, he should be kept up until the trade deadline.  I understand the basic arguments against it: "Get something for him now or let him walk as a FA and get nothing next year."  and "This team is built to win now, and Vick is a winner; Kolb is unproven."  And I get that most of the arguments in favor of keeping him are oversimplified and not well argued.  Particularly that Vick spends less time injured than he is often reputed to.

With that in mind...

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I  have been reading a lot of these offseason wish-list posts the last few days, mostly because there have been a lot of them.   A lot of them include some really cringe-worthy stuff, some of them make a lot of sense.  I guess I wanted to give it a shot, too, and I haven't  seen one that made a legitimate, thought-out case for why we should trade Vick, so here goes. 

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Play your games everybody.  Today, or tomorrow.

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The other thread got a little crazy, with some debates about some stuff that isn't really relevant to setting up a Madden league.  So, in this one, if you're interested in setting up an Xbox 360 Madden league, with a similar format to JimmyK's, reply here with your team and XBL handle.  If you're interested in talking about how much better the PS3 is, reply somewhere else.  

To sum up what I gathered from JimmyK's:

Online franchise.

We'll take 2 (or 3 if there are 12 people interested) AFC divisions, so no one can take the Eagles.

We'll have a fantasy draft.

I'm thinking we'll start next week sometime, since someone mentioned in the other thread that they were getting it later this week.  I got it yesterday.  Since I'm setting it up, I'll name the first division/team, and the next person to post can take a team from that division, or another AFC division, and that'll be the second one.  

I'm going AFC South/Texans, and my XBL is bigmeanie08.

Have at it.

AFC South

bigmeanie08: Texans, bigmeanie08

eaglesbabyy: Titans, facemasterdelux JOINED

ChazD: Colts, Ping H3adshot, JOINED

DJax10: Jaguars, D Jaxx 10 JOINED  

AFC North

actionjackson10: Ravens, DJ Impeckable JOINED

gaudam: Steelers, RC Madden JOINED

Scott K.: Browns, YurcakField JOINED

snowhill82: Bengals, snowhill82 JOINED

AFC West

#12: Chargers, PewBacca JOINED

PierrEagles: Raiders, conshyscholz JOINED

Zoso7374: Broncos, ZOSO7374 JOINED

BluLion: Chiefs, Bagheera123 JOINED

AFC East

cool: Jets, umbrella258 JOINED

andyreidswaistline: Patriots, PhreakOfNature JOINED

JayFire137: Dolphins, JayFire137 JOINED

get jackson a better nickname:  Bills, samu el jax un JOINED

UPDATE:  JAGS/BRONCOS, and RAVENS/JETS.... you guys need to play your games by around 11 tonight, or you're getting simmed.  Also, to my week 2 opponent (I haven't looked who you are yet), I won't be able to play our game until Friday or Saturday this week.  

So, I've noticed that Hank gets an awful lot of hate from this blog (and others, but it seems like even more here).  And I just wanted to ask, sincerely, why?  I don't understand how everyone dislikes him so passionately.  I'm not saying he's a superstar or anything, but I do think he's a really, really good WR4 and cash money on special teams.  I'll explain why I like him in 4 points.

via media.lehighvalleylive.com

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Alright, so I'm writing this knowing I don't really have a snowball's chance against that really moving first story that got posted, but I think it's an experience that deserves retelling.  For the record, I'm not planning on dipping into anything particularly emotional, just trying to recount some pretty funny stories about a really excellent day.

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Today, I'm making my first fanpost; it falls firmly in the category of "totally irrelevant, but arguably worth mentioning since it's the offseason and news is sloooooooow."

The Overall Team ratings for Madden 11 are out, and it looks like our boys got the short end.  Second lowest-rated team in the NFC East:  http://www.gamespot.com/news/6264588.html

Notes:

-The Cowboys and the Giants are both better than Philly, in the eyes of the Madden creators, at 87 and 81, respectively.

-The Eagles had the second biggest drop, from an overall 86 to an overall 80, obviously due to the loss of Reggie Brown and Sean Jones, while the Redskins rose from a 70 to a 76, presumably on the strength of their draft.  I guess they must think Trent Williams is gonna be really good.

-The Saints are still the best team, even though they actually dropped a few points from last year to a 92.

-The Cardinals had the biggest drop, of 8 points, from 87 to 79.

All that said, overall Madden team ratings don't even matter in Madden, much less any other context.  Maybe it'll be good bulletin board material for the Birds.