Wednesday, February 17, 2010

The question that will plague mankind...until September


The first of what I see as many thoughts related to the ongoing saga of the Eagles QB situation. What will the birds do with the 3 able QB's they currently have on the roster? Great question. I'm convinced that Mike Vick will be gone before the draft to either Buffalo or St. Louis for nothing more then a 3rd round pick. My money is on St. Louis seeing as though Chan Gailey is taking over in Buffalo and his success in the past has come with "real" quarterbacks like Troy Aikman and John Elway, unlike Mike Vick and his career 53% completion percentage.

That leaves the incumbent Donovan McNabb and the unproven Kevin Kolb. First, let it be known that I have been an adamant McNabb supporter over the years. He's a great a quarterback, just not an elite quarterback, its as simple as that. Donovan doesn't have the "it" factor that all the NFL greats possess, the characteristic that will push a great quarterback over the edge. For that fact alone, I think its time to turn over the reigns to the youngster (I can say that because he's only 3 years older then me). I like what I have seen out of Kolb to this point in his career, and no one can deny that he is progressing given his spot starts this past season. Similar to the situation in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers, Kolb is entering his fourth year in the Eagles' West Coast system after sitting and learning behind a premier quarterback who knows the offense front to back.

All Rodgers did in his first year was throw for 4,000 yds and 28 TD's. Now that might be an unfair comparison as this year showed Rodgers seems to be climbing into the class of elite QB's in the NFL, but the similarities are there. In Kolb's senior season at Houston, he threw for 3,800 yds and 30 TD's to just 4 interceptions. In 2004, Rodgers' senior season, he threw for 2,600 yds 28 TD's and 8 interceptions. Granted, Rodgers was up against Pac-10 competition while Kolb feasted on Conference USA opponents, but the criticism goes both ways. Rodgers was playing with a far superior offensive team talent-wise then Kolb was, yet he did not top the 300 yd passing mark in any single game his senior year.

I am not claiming Kolb as the next coming of Aaron Rodgers, but rather simply pointing out that if you give this kid a chance to succeed he just might surprise us all. This Eagles team needs some sort of shake up on its face while we have this core group of players together. The McNabb/Reid/Lurie connection is proving to be a consistent, yet underachieving relationship that is stuck in a groove modeled after our very own Philadelphia 76ers (see - teams stuck in mediocrity).

1 comment:

  1. First off, I like the blog.

    Also a supporter of McNabb and thankful for everything he brought to this franchise, I would also like to see the team turned over to Kolb. He has been studying the system for 3 years, can make quick decisions and more importantly, is more precise than McNabb. His style of play is suited for a true West Coast offense, rather than having a pass-happy offense without much accuracy. Not saying he is going to blow everyone out of the water, but he has shown positive results playing in the NFL, is regarded very highly by the coaching staff and around the league, and probably has also learned a lot from McNabb's downfalls. At the time he graduated from Houston, he was 4th all time in D1-A passing yardage, albeit in Conference USA, but still. The kid has talent and size, says all the right things showing commitment to the team, seems to have the intangibles of a winner that McNabb has not shown, and everyone in the organization loves him. Watching Brees and Manning continually drive down the field with poise convinced me that I would never see the day McNabb could come close to resembling that.

    Let Kolb grow with his young, outstanding offensive weapons, and the offense will be fine. Trading McNabb while his value is high can help fill holes in the defense that Dallas torched the last 2 weeks of the season, instead of giving him one more year before he walks away for nothing. If 10 years and 100 million couldn't win the Super Bowl, why would it happen this year?

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