Buried in the Jason Cole item from Yahoo! Sports reporting that quarterback Donovan McNabb would retire if traded to the Raiders is an intriguing nugget regarding his successor, Kevin Kolb.
Per Cole, Kolb made it known that he’d refuse to do a contract extension unless he became the starter in 2010.
Since Kolb is entering the fourth year of his deal, it means that there’s a chance the Eagles would have had to use the franchise tag to keep Kolb around for 2011. In 2010, the quarterback franchise number was $16.4 million.
So the Eagles moved McNabb in light of the reality that, if they didn’t get something for one of the two quarterbacks and then extend the contract of the other, they’d possibly be paying one more than $16 million in 2011 -- and watching the other walk away for nothing in return.