ASHBURN, Va - Mike Shanahan met with the media Friday evening for the first time since the end of the draft to talk about training camp, as well as the team's offseason moves. One of the more hot button issues was of course the Donovan McNabb trade. Here's the transcript of the McNabb portions:
On the decision to trade McNabb: "We gave Donovan the option to talk to any football team he wanted to, to make sure he went to the football team that best suited him. We knew we were going in that direction after being with him throughout the year. We hope it turns out well for Donovan."
On when the decision was made: "I can't tell you exactly when it was, but when we did make the decision, I talked to Fletcher [Smith] and told him that we were going to go in a different direction. "
On what went wrong: "I'm not going to go through all the details, but there was a lot that went into that decision [to trade for him]. We had Jason Campbell and we did trade him away for a fourth round draft choice. We looked at Donovan and even though we gave up a second and a fourth, I thought if he did fit within our system and did the right things that he could be a top notch player for us. At the end of the day, it just didn't work out quite the way we wanted to. We would have had to make the commitment for three or four years, and I was not wanting to do that [after] the year that I spent [with him]. But that doesn't mean that Donovan still can't play at a high level. I think the world of him, and he really handled himself in a class manner. But in the best interest of this organization and evaluating everything I thought it was better to move on."
On how ugly the situation became towards the end with Donovan's agent: "I thought Donovan handled himself in a class matter. I'm not sure the agent did. I talked to him about that so that'll stay between us."
On if he regrets the trade: "You can regret a lot of things in football. But for the reasons that I just mentioned, that when we did make the decision we were hoping that he would fit our system. I told Donovan when he first came in here, I said ‘These are the reasons that I think Philly did not sign you and they were going go with Kolb, and this is what you are going to have to do to stay on our football team for a number of years, and if you do that I think you have a chance to go to the Pro Bowl and do the things you've been doing throughout your career.'"
On with the personality conflicts he had with McNabb: "There was never a personality conflict with Donovan McNabb. Donovan McNabb is a class guy. I have never seen one confrontation with Donovan with any coach in our building ever. [No situations where] anybody was ever raising their voice, anybody ever yelling at each other, nothing like that. You hear all these rumors, all this speculation, I can't say anything about that. All I'm saying is that at the end of the day, we made a decision not to re-sign Donovan. Now we go on, and I still think Donovan has a great future ahead of him. If he decides to do the little things he needs to do to get to the next level, then he'll be there. But I'm not going into detail with what those things are, and I'm sure Andy Reid wouldn't either . "