Birds new coach says the QB job is Shove's to lose, despite the GM's desire to start Francis
By "Paul Lydell"

Pre-Season 2106 (Lehigh) - Within hours of Jesse Sydney's hiring a few months back, the local press began hounding the front office officials concerning the Eagles starting QB for the upcoming 2106 regular season.

'Shove has proven his ability as a leader,' says LB Chad Casillas, Eagles team captain for the last six seasons. 'I like playing in the post-season and Shove gets us there.'

Shove was the 14th overall pick in the 2099 draft and the first QB selected. His record has shown some progress considering he led the Eagles to three straight playoff appearances after a rough 4-10 during his first season as their offensive field general.

Shove's record as a starter (R,1,2 on bench behind QB Bill Mays):

2102 3yr 64.4/QBrtg : 4-10
2103 4yr 67.8/QBrtg : 8-5-1 (1st rd loss to GB)
2104 5yr 80.7/QBrtg : 9-5 (NFC championship loss to CAR)
2105 6yr 84.2/QBrtg : 7-7 (1st rd loss to NYG)

But it's obvious the front office feels different when they drafted a QB in the 2nd round of the 2105 College Draft. Rice Francis was the 4th QB selected overall, the 14th pick of the 2nd round. Francis was impressive in training camp, showing impressive arm strength.

GM Andrew Lewis is reportedly leaning heavily on the new coaching staff to give Francis every opportunity to land the starting job. But the Eagles coaching staff says that Francis isn't ready for pro-level competition.

Lewis has made the QB decision even harder with the trades he made while the Trade Deadline loomed late last night.

Lewis shrewdly acquired two of the league's best wide receivers in Rodger Teige and Reggie Candy (both caught 90 balls last season, finishing 8th and 9th respectively in league WR rankings). With the K-Gun scheme requiring 3 top-notch WRs in an evenly distributed attack, Candy and Teige will be great compliments to WR Faud Dexter (led league in receptions last season w/ 127 catches 1,446yds 7TDs).

Teige comes from the New England Patriots, where he led the league in catches in 2104 (110 catches 1,126yds 10TDs) and was 2nd in the league in 2103 (104 catches 1,019yds 10TDs).

Candy comes from the Houston Texans, where he led his team in catches in 2104 (84 catches 874yds 9TDs) and in 2103 (91 catches 835yds 6TDs).

With three speedy WRs criss-crossing downfield you can bet the Eagles offense is going to look like something Philly hasn't seen since the days of Art Tang and Miles Pollara. The Eagles have been running the HEAVY offensive scheme for 18 seasons - that featured a bruising rushing attack with sporadic short passes to keep the defenses guessing.

Despite the pressure from the front office, our unnamed sources say that Coach Sydney will be naming veteran Reed Shove as the starting QB - even though the franchise and it's fans know the future of the Philadelphia Eagles rest with Rice Francis.

'Before we acquired Teige and Candy we were a 4-10 ballclub,' says the inside source, 'but now we have the capability of playing playoff-style ball. And Lewis got us DT John Cushman. Giving the reigns to a young inexperienced QB is fine for a team that isn't that good - but we're good - and with Shove we will make the playoffs for the fourth straight season .... who knows how far we'll get.'

With the implementation of the Kansas City Chiefs' K-Gun style of offense, you can be sure no matter who will eventually be running the Eagles offense in 2106, expect to see aerial fireworks.

Cushman already announced that this season will be his last ... so this will be the Eagles year to make a run. Next year their defense will have too many holes ... so perhaps Francis will get his shot then.

That is ... unless he puts on an amazing effort in next week's training camp. It's happened before in USAFL history.

Players have seemingly come out of nowhere to win jobs on a team.

We'll have our answer by this time next week.