According to Boston.com, the retired Patriots linebacker thinks Eagles coach Andy Reid felt comfortable making the intradivisional deal. In fact, he likens the trade to Bill Belichick dealing Drew Bledsoe to the Buffalo Bills nearly eight years ago.
"Once Drew Bledsoe went to the Bills, I already knew how we were going to play him," Bruschi said on ESPN's SportsCenter. "Andy Reid talked about being comfortable with this. We were comfortable with this trade because we knew Drew inside and out. We knew his strengths, but we also knew his weaknesses, what he didn't like, where he didn't like pressure, what type of throws that were tough for him to make. Who knows Donovan McNabb better than Andy Reid? Especially when it comes to weaknesses. I think Andy Reid feels comfortable playing against him twice a year."
Bledsoe was an icon in New England before his trade to Buffalo. McNabb, meanwhile, has been the face of the Eagles organization for 11 seasons. Both quarterbacks were franchise players in their respective cities who became the centerpieces of controversial trades.
Despite the parallels, Bruschi feels the Bledsoe and McNabb trades occurred under different circumstances.
"There was a little bit of a different situation there, because we had a quarterback that had already helped us win the Super Bowl in Tom Brady," Bruschi said. "You have Kevin Kolb there, somewhat unproven. And there are some question marks about Kevin Kolb: Can he be the same quarterback Donovan McNabb was?"
The Bledsoe trade proved to be a win-win deal for New England. Not only did the Patriots use Buffalo's first-round pick it received in the deal to draft Ty Warren, but the team won two Super Bowls in the three years after Bledsoe's departure.
Bruschi understands that the Patriots and Eagles had different motivations for making their intradivisional trades, and the results could be very different. But despite two different trade scenarios, Eagles fans can only hope the McNabb deal works out as well for their team as the Bledsoe trade did for New England.
