Andy Reid never measured up without Donovan McNabb

When Donovan McNabb was with the Philadelphia Eagles, it almost seemed like a forgone conclusion for a while that the city of brotherly love would be involved in the NFC Championship game.

Whether or not that type of season is a success is up for debate, but what isn't debatable is that neither McNabb nor Andy Reid has ever found much football happiness without the other, as pointed out in this terrific column on Philly.com by Les Bowen.

Per Bowen:

Based on what's happened since the McNabb trade, can you argue the Eagles would be worse right now if they had never traded him? Well, no. They've missed the playoffs 2 years in a row and are 4-10 this season. They could have played Mike McMahon at quarterback and done that. But would they have won more with McNabb at QB these last 3 years? No to that, as well.

Since McNabb was traded to the Washington Redskins, things have never been even close to the same for either man. McNabb turned out to be a total bust in the nation's capital while Reid couldn't replace the Syracuse product, struggling along with Kevin Kolb and Michael Vick.

Now, McNabb is out of football and Reid is soon to be out of a job, leaving many Eagles fans to wonder what exactly went wrong during what can be known as the oh-so-close years.