Fare Thee Well Tra Thomas

Well I guess I was wrong about Tra Thomas. The Jaguars webpage is reporting that he has signed to a three year deal. I am sure the Eagles were not interested in offering Tra three years, but the significance of that 3 year number won't really be clear until details of the contract become available. This leaves a gaping hole in the roster with few obvious options. It looks like we'll be most likely crossing our fingers that between a first round draft pick, Dunlap, Justice, Herremans, and Shawn Andrews, one of them can play left tackle. The only left tackles of note on the market now are Khalif Barnes, who has not fully lived up to his potential, and Orlando Pace who is on the trading block right now, but prob. won't get traded b/c no one will want to pay down his contract. If he gets cut, and we can get him on a "prove-it" deal, I'd take a flier on Pace for a year until some of the younger talent develops. We'll have to see what happens but this is now officially the Eagles biggest question mark. Figuring out this left tackle spot could potentially make as big a difference as being a 7-9 versus an 11-5 team. When Andy Reid came here, he looked at our offense and saw Tra Thomas as the only player he could be excited about. While Tra was, in my mind, often a bit overrated, he was solid as both a pass and run-blocker every year he was healthy, and great as a pass-blocker in a few of those years. I'm anxious as hell about what they do to replace him.