Are we witness to a rebuild?

By Tim McManus

The news has been fast and furious, and your head is probably spinning much like mine is (how could it not after being blindsided by the Dawkins news, right?).

But let's take a step back and evaluate what's going on around us.

We headed into free agency under the impression that at least one of the tackles and certainly Brian Dawkins would be retained; that Donovan McNabb had a good shot at getting an extension; and that, aided by McNabb's strong stance, the Eagles would finally cave and bring in some playmakers.

Headlines read: Expect Thomas/Dawkins to be signed soon, and Eagles front-runners for Boldin.

To this point, everything that we've been told is dead wrong.

Jon Runyan is as good as gone, and according to Derrick Gunn's report, Tra Thomas might soon be a Jaguar. Buckhalter gone. The big one - Brian Dawkins gone. T.J. Houshmandzadeh is heading West. Anquan Boldin remains in Arizona. McNabb and the Eagles appear to be as far as ever from seeing eye to eye, and according to Michael Smith, No. 5 may be ready to pull the trigger on a trade demand.

Nearly every piece to the puzzle so far fits in the category of rebuild mode, no?

Younger along the offensive line. Younger in the secondary. Disposal of the man representative of the old guard in B-Dawk.

It's been at a frenetic pace since the clock struck midnight on free-agent Friday. Slow it down, and all this activity looks a lot like a youth movement.