Are The Eagles About To Go Nuts?

Looking for some feedback here to help manage my expectations.  Does it seem to other people like we might be heading into the most active offseason we've ever seen under Andy Reid?  I'm really starting to get a 2004 vibe here, which is exciting, but also directly contravenes the first rule of being a Philadelphia fan:

Rule #1:  Never get your hopes up.

Let me explain the reasons why I think we could be for a whirlwind of activity:

1)  The Eagles have massive amounts of cap room.  You've seen the numbers, but even that understates the case.  Add another $8 million (at least) for bogus 2008 incentives.  All in all, we could be looking at an excess of $40 million in cap space.

2)  The Eagles have to use that cap room this year.  Due to the expiration of the League's labor deal, "Haucking" money forward is, for now, dead:

"There is no year-end netting of incentives in 2009.  Not-likely-to-be-earned incentives are charged to team salary immediately when earned, and likely-to-be-earned incentives are deducted when they are no longer possible to earn."

Use it or lose it.

3)  The Eagles have the cash.  In the current economy, there's some question as to how much money a lot of teams are going to be able to throw around this offseason.  Sure, you can hand out the big, phony-money deals, but do you have $15 million in cold hard cash sitting around to spend immediately on a big-ticket guy?  My guess is the Eagles do.

4)  The Eagles have too many draft picks.  Even before any compensatory selections are announced (and, seriously, why has no one yet figured out what's coming there for the Eagles this year?), the Eagles have 10 selections in this year's draft, including extra picks in the 1st, 5th and 6th rounds.

The Eagles do not have 10 open positions on this roster.  Particularly when you figure guys like Ikeguonu, Smith, Dunlap and one or both of the Mikes are going to be fighting for spots as well. 

The virtue of having all those picks is you can select some guys who have issues to see who pans out.  The downside is that at some point you may just be wasting picks, particularly with a roster that already has so much depth. 

What's likely to have more impact on the results of the 2009 season -- trading down from the lower of the two first-round picks to select one of the second-tier tight ends, or sending some package of picks to the Browns for the problematic, but proven, Kellen Winslow?  Not a hard choice from where I'm sitting. 

Going even further with the Browns -- that's a team with a totally new regime in place and only four draft picks with which to start rebuilding.  I hear Braylon Edwards is looking for a fresh start ...

5)  The Eagles are close.  And they know it.  One more guy could have been enough to put this team into the Super Bowl.

(Aside: Is it inconsistent to say that the loss was primarily on the defense while arguing that one more guy on offense could have made the difference?  No, not in the specific case where the Eagles had the lead late and could have ended it with a clock-killing drive if they only had that one "big target" receiver or road-grading tackle who could have accounted for a couple more first downs.  Nor is it inconsistent in the larger, probabilistic sense.  If the Eagles had played that NFCC game 10 times, I firmly believe they would have won "N" of them, where N>5.  Adding one more guy might get you to N+1, something the number-crunching Banner certainly understands.)

6)  The window is wide open ... for now.  The Eagles are young, improving and talented.  But this is still a quarterback-driven league.  The best chance to win a Super Bowl -- without having to do it in spite of the quarterback -- is the next two years.  Beyond that it's all guesswork.

7)  Good players are likely to be available.  Not just in free agency, either.  We're all certainly keeping an eye on Carolina (and how would you like your first-round pick back, guys?), but with so many new coaches in the league, there are going to be a number of teams looking to perhaps move players because they don't seem like a good fit for a new scheme or they need a fresh start or they're in the wrong part of their career versus what the team now needs. 

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I could probably blow this list out to 10 items, just to make it look a little more web-o-genic, but I think the point is clear.  The Eagles have the resources and are in the right part of the organizational lifecycle to make a lot of noise this offseason.  I don't see them not taking advantage of that.