Eagles put on a draft clinic and thoughts on Favre-Vikings chatter

Playing against Minnesota twice a year during much of his career, Brett Favre is familiar with the team, as well as its mascot, Ragnar. Getty Images

First, a Brett Favre prelude. A semi-brief Favre prelude. I don't know what he's going to do. But I, like some of you, am suspicious. There's no good reason to ask for his release from the Jets unless it's to leave open the option to play again. I am told he may be feeling the urge to play again.

When he retired from the Packers 14 months ago, Favre said, "It's over. I've given everything I can possibly give to this organization, to the game of football, and I don't think I've got anything left to give.'' When he retired from the Jets two months ago, he told me, "I foresee myself getting the impulse to play, but ... I could never bring myself to do it. I know I won't do it.''

But with Favre, words are less important than emotions. We know what happened last year. This year? I don't know if he'll try to sign with Minnesota -- and I don't know if the Vikings would welcome him with open arms after dealing for Sage Rosenfels and moving ahead with plans for 2009. Does Brad Childress want to hitch his wagon to a quarterback who will turn 40 in Week 4 of the 2009 season, a quarterback who played poorly in the last five weeks of last season, looking completely shot at the end?

If Favre decides to play, can he go forward with a bad right arm Jets doctors were convinced needed surgery at the end of last season? And can Favre get into the kind of condition he did in 2007, when he had a live-in Athletes Performance Institute trainer at his home in Sumrall, Miss., for half the offseason?

Childress said the other day the Vikings haven't discussed the possibility of signing Favre as a free agent. "It doesn't mean we won't,'' he said. Favre said at this time he's not considering playing again. What does that sound like to you? Sounds like there's quite a bit of smoke there.

I know you're sick of this story. We all are. But my gut feeling is Favre never completely got this Vikings fixation out of his system. Now we wait for the smoke signals from chimneys in Eden Prairie, Minn., and southern Mississippi, to see if Favre wants to play again, and to see if the Vikings want him. If he returns, the dream game of this season won't be Pats-Colts. It'll be Vikings-Packers. Twice.

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I didn't want to let the draft go away completely without telling you what I feel is the most underrated and unknown story of draft weekend. I didn't notice it until I started piecing together all the trades from Day 2 of the draft, starting with the Giants' deal with Philadelphia that allowed New York to pick wide receiver Ramses Barden with a choice in the middle of the third round. But the upshot of that trade, and four others within five hours, left the Eagles as the power players in the 2010 draft.

What would you think if I told you the Philadelphia Eagles got third-, fifth-, sixth- and seventh-round draft choices, plus half a starting cornerback for nothing in this year's draft?

That's right. For free. There is no smoke, mirrors or cheating involved. Only thought and effort.

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For moving down six spots in the third round -- eventually taking a player they were considering for that 85th pick anyway -- the Eagles got filthy rich. I am shocked more teams don't run their draft the way the Eagles do. It's almost irresponsible that teams don't do it the Philadelphia way.

"Actually, I'm happy more teams don't,'' said Tom Heckert, the Eagles general manager. "If more teams did, we wouldn't be able to do what we do.''

This may come out the wrong way, so bear with me. But if I were a football fan looking for a team to root for, I'd pick the Eagles, and what they did on draft weekend is a big reason. The Eagles think. They don't do things the way they've always been done because that's the way they've always been done. For all the frustrations they've given their fans because they haven't won a championship in the 10-year Andy Reid Era, they've done what, as a fan, I'd like my team to do: They give their fans a chance every July at camp time to think they're going to make the playoffs and have a chance to contend for the Super Bowl. Isn't that what you want, as a fan? A chance, every year? What team every year in this decade has given you that chance? Philadelphia. New England. Indianapolis. Pittsburgh. The Giants, maybe.

But what the Eagles did on the second day of the draft -- still unnoticed eight days later; no one's said a word about it -- is one of the greatest feats of trading down and getting value for the future that I've ever seen. And I mean ever. They took the 85th pick and eventually turned it into four draft choices between the third and seventh rounds, plus half of the compensation paid to New England to acquire Ellis Hobbs, a Super Bowl XLII starting corner.