NFL: Eagles Need McNabb More Than He Needs Them
This has been a truly interesting season for Donovan McNabb and the Philadelphia Eagles thus far. There was a lot of attention given to the fact that they went out and signed Michael Vick in the offseason and how that would affect McNabb. Then he went out and got injured in the third quarter of the team’s season opener against the Panthers, a game that was not one of his finest performances either.
While McNabb was rehabbing his rib injury the reins of the offense were given to Kevin Kolb who merely set a record by throwing for 718 yards in his first two career starts. This set off speculation as to whether McNabb was going to lose his job to the younger Kolb who was throwing up mind-boggling numbers. Reid squashed that speculation by putting McNabb back in the lineup against the Buccaneers this past weekend.
McNabb responded with a spectacular effort completing 16 of 21 passes for 264 yards and three touchdowns. What became painfully obvious in that game is the Eagles need McNabb more than they realize, more so than McNabb needs them. The Eagles cannot make a deep playoff run without a healthy Donovan McNabb.
That is not a knock on how Kolb played in place of McNabb but one thing that stood out to me in watching McNabb throw the ball on Sunday. That is Kolb never would have completed those two touchdown passes to Jeremy Maclin. Kolb excels, and may even be better than McNabb, at throwing the short quick hit passes. He is extremely accurate when asked to hit receivers running slants over the middle or the quick outs to the sidelines. He can make those throws with the best of them. But, the one thing he does not excel at and needs a lot of work on is throwing the ball down the field.
If you do not think the ability to throw down field is that important in the modern NFL you are mistaken. Granted the days of taking seven step drops and bombing the ball 30 yards down fiedl every other pass play are over, but, you do still need to be able to do it. If you do not believe me just look at last night’s game with the Dolphins. How much more dangerous are the Dolphins going to be now that Chad Henne showed to the world that he can hit Ted Ginn in stride 40+ yards down the field? If Henne can do that on a consistent basis teams will not be able to stack the line the way they do now to stop the run.
McNabb, in fact, is so good at throwing the deep ball that Reid is willing to overlook it when McNabb chucks one of his patented worm burners on a short route. Donovan made two perfect throws to Maclin that resulted in long touchdowns. Kolb has never shown an ability to make that kind of throw and was able to rack up a lot of passing yards because DeSean Jackson is one of the 20 or 30 fastest guys in the league and when he gets in the open field nobody is going to catch him.
The major benefit to Kolb’s success for the Eagles is they know they have someone who is competent at handling their offense and it fuels the fire for McNabb. Even with guys like Jeff Garcia and A. J. Feeley on the roster he always knew his job was secure. Reid drafted McNabb and has always stood by him through thick and thin. Reid also drafted Kolb though and that has to have McNabb thinking a bit these days.
With Kolb playing as well as he did McNabb now knows that he needs to bring it every week. He will not be able to sleep walk through two or three rough games as he has in the past knowing Feeley was not a long term solution at quarterback for anyone. McNabb getting hurt may have been the best thing to happen to him and the Eagles this season.
