Fair Shot For McNabb In Philly?

[Displaced]

id like to see a balanced offense more than anything and not an offense where donovan is forced to throw 40-50 times. like i said time and time again, you don't put your players in bad positions. you take advantage of their skills., not what you think he should be doing. he's basically been a sitting duck for defenses to tee off on. our line is great, but 40-50 passes per game put donovan is a position of getting hit and getting hit often. i don't care who the QB is. he's gonna get hurt. im not ready to believe in this whole injury prone scenario and im not ready to throw the towel in on one of the best players on the team. i am ready however to throw the towle in on the play callers, whoever the farg they are.

This is exactly what I was talking about when I started this thread.  No other team in the league has asked their Qb to do nearly as much with nearly as little as the Eagles have asked of McNabb.  Just about every time McNabb has been hurt it nhas been because the protection has broken down while his recievers were not getting open.   

I remember a few years back people hanging off Kerry Collins' jock (nobody here of course just using him by way of example since I live in NY) all a twitter about how well he was playing after his debacle in Carolina nobody mentioned the fact that he was put in a position to be sucessfull by the fact that the Giants were a run heavy offense that had a passing game that was based on getting the ball  out quickly or throwing it away.  Once teams put just a little heat on Collins what happened?  Dude set the record for fumbles in a season.  He never got hurt though so I guess that made hi worth of al the praise he got. 

[MadMarchHare]

Her title sucks, but her point is right on.  SalPal was much more eloquent on ESPN.com.  To paraphrase, McNabb is in a "show-me" year.  If he doesn't get them where the coaches want, he's gone by end of '08 at the latest.  If he gets injured again, he's done then and there.

They drafted Kolb to take over.  It's up to McNabb when that happens.  

Sal's article

Rewind to spring 2003. The Philadelphia Eagles were in the process of cleaning house. The team and several popular 30-something players were parting ways, and it was not going over real well in the locker room.

"You try to sit back and learn from it, because you never know," said one veteran leader. "In a couple of years, it could be you."

The veteran who said that? Quarterback Donovan McNabb.

So, when McNabb said on Tuesday he was "shocked" to learn that the Eagles drafted his possible replacement with their first pick, he should've known it was coming. Under Andy Reid, this is the way Philly rolls.

Nobody knows that better than McNabb. And any objective analysis of this Eagles team -- left on the doorstep of a championship for nearly his entire tenure in Philadelphia -- would conclude that McNabb could easily be the next victim.

He will turn 31 in November. By the end of November the past two seasons, McNabb was unavailable due to injury -- a sports hernia in 2005 and a torn-up knee in 2006. And the Philadelphia landscape is littered with productive players who reached 30 and were shown the door -- Bobby Taylor, Troy Vincent, Duce Staley, Brian Mitchell, Hugh Douglas and Jeff Garcia.

Nevertheless, by drafting quarterback Kevin Kolb of Houston with their first pick in last month's draft, the Eagles sent the town and the team into a tailspin tailor-made for talk radio. Privately, many players are wondering whether this makes McNabb a lame duck -- not in 2008, or some undefined future, but right now.

"It's Super Bowl or bust for Donovan this year," said a veteran defensive player. "And everybody knows it."

And right now, McNabb is a long way from taking this team back to the Super Bowl -- because he still can't get on the field. On Saturday, the Eagles will begin the first of three minicamp practices, which include the full squad, and McNabb will be a spectator. It will be the first time since McNabb's rookie year, in 1999, that the Eagles will start preparations for a new season without No. 5 taking the first team snaps.

Ironically, this weekend, Philadelphia will get a sneak preview of the future. And that snapshot could turn into a long, simmering drama this summer. McNabb professed he will be back for training camp on July 27. But for a quarterback at his age, returning from knee injury is no guarantee. (See: Daunte Culpepper.)

Actually, he went further than that in prognosticating his return. In fact, it turned out to be one of the more interesting developments of McNabb's local press tour. He pronounced that he will be ready to go by the time the Eagles play their second preseason game on Aug. 17 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. While fans may be happy to hear McNabb has created his own timetable for a return, Reid may not be thrilled the quarterback usurped the head coach's power to make that decision for the team.

It's important to point out here the manner in which McNabb spoke out Tuesday. It was not done at the Eagles' NovaCare Complex in Philadelphia -- the site of every other McNabb press event since the venue opened five years ago. No, McNabb spoke at a skating rink in South Jersey. It was handled not by the Eagles public relations department but by a fired former member of that staff whom McNabb has hired to help with media relations for his foundation and charity work. The four local media outlets invited to the event did not include the Eagles' official TV station, the local ABC affiliate.

Indeed, it seems that by going public the way he did, McNabb was trying to exert a little bit more control over his destiny. And perhaps show a little defiance.

But let's go back to his decision to announce that he would be ready to play by mid-August. Why would McNabb push it? Why would he rush back and possibly jeopardize his long-term health? (Again, see Culpepper.)

It always comes back to the money. In 2007, the Eagles will pay McNabb $5.5 million in salary. The following year, that number increases to $6.3 million. The Eagles hold an option for 2009, when McNabb is due $9.2 million. In 2010, he is owed a $10 million salary.

Let's assume that McNabb is the starter in 2007. That means this is an evaluation year. If McNabb plays well, stays healthy and takes the Eagles deep into the playoffs or back to the Super Bowl, he's most likely back in 2008. If not, the Eagles have no history of paying 32-year-old, injury-prone players who can't get it done for that kind of money. And if they were to consider trading McNabb, next offseason is the time to do it -- before his contract becomes too big and he becomes too old for a potential trade partner.

Add to this equation the contract that the Eagles will have to pay Kolb. By saying that Kolb is "a franchise quarterback," which is what team general manager Tom Heckert said on draft weekend, the Eagles will have to pay him accordingly -- or close to it. And, under team president Joe Banner, who manages the team's salary cap, the Eagles haven't been the type of team that pays two players starter's money -- if only one of them is starting.

That's why McNabb may be anxious to get on the field. He knows he has much to prove. But that's also why he shouldn't rush it. A setback could make it harder to get back.

"I've been running, I've been throwing and I've been cutting," McNabb said. "But it's not like the injury never happened. It's still there. I'm still getting stronger, but I'm not 100 percent, and that's the way I want to come back."

Lost in all this is something that finally dawned on Reid and his brain trust this offseason: This team can function fine without Donovan McNabb. That's the dirty little secret revealed by Jeff Garcia's magic act in the final two months of 2006.

Let's compare McNabb and Garcia. McNabb won five games and had a passer rating of 95.5. Garcia won five games with a rating of 95.8. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that's the only time in NFL history that a team had two different quarterbacks each win five or more games and have a rating higher than 90 in the same season.

The reason? Brian Westbrook. In the second half of the season, the Eagles running back -- following tackle Jon Runyan and guard Shawn Andrews on the right side of the line -- was the linchpin of the offense once Reid turned the play-calling duties over to offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg. In the nine games prior to McNabb's injury, Westbrook had more than 20 carries in a game just once. After McNabb got injured, Westbrook passed the 20-carry mark three times in six games.

Westbrook gave the Eagles offense an identity. Reid -- loath to run the ball in his tenure as head coach -- brought back Westbrook's running mate, Correll Buckhalter, for the 2007 season. And he drafted a power running back, Tony Hunt, out of Penn State, signaling that the central focus of his offense is undergoing a not-so-subtle shift.

What does that mean? Well, by allowing Garcia to take his magic act to Tampa Bay, the Eagles were forced to make contingency plans for the future:

• Beef up the running game. Check.
• Secure not one, but two suitable veteran backup quarterbacks in A.J. Feeley and Kelly Holcomb. Check.
• Draft McNabb's eventual replacement. Check.

Under Reid, this is the how Philly rolls.

[Diomedes]

I read these threads and I just don't have anything to say.  So I'll just say, I hope McNabb does well, and it would be alright with me if he just shut up about everything else.

Phreak said earlier in this thread something along the lines of "he didn't HAVE to speak to the media about this, but stupid people forced him to..."  Well, which is it?

I think it's pretty clear that the guy doesn't understand how media works, plain and simple.  He ought to stay the hell out of the spot light, and if he can possibly find it in himself, use the stuff that gets his panties in a bunch as a motivator on the field, rather than as a reason to be a bitch.

All of which has been said over and over.  farging offseason.

[ice grillin you]

when youre the qb of the philadelphia eagles or in any other football crazed city and the team drafts a qb with their first pick youre going to be expected to say something...to think otherwise or to say that mcnabb shoudnt have to talk on this issue (and many others) is so ridiculous it boggles the mind...and if youre gonna be the first person in that position to not talk then you better accept the consequences

[MadMarchHare]

The dude is a great QB, he has a tendency to struggle in big games.  A fact which I largely lay at the feet of playcalling of Richie K II, more than the QB.

But the guy is a farging poofta off the field.  His schtick is getting real old.  Ooh, they booed me.  Shut the farg up and produce a Lombardi, and the Fishtowners will be singing your praises 10 deep at the parade.

I've said it before.  I don't care two shteins about a single person on this team, coach, player or other.  All I want is a SB win.  So I can go berserk and celebrate like an icehole, like my boss (a Red Sox fan).

[PhillyPhreak54]

Once again I ask, what schtick is this you haters talk about?

He brings up the booing when asked. You chuckleheads act as if he prefaces each statement with "Well, you know those terrible fans booed me..."

Get a clue.

[MadMarchHare]

Look, as I said, he's a quality person, gives a lot of time and money to charity, runs the football team well.  As I said above, Reid's been the problem, not McNabb.

That being said, McNabb is 30, going on 31.  He makes $9MM in 09 and $10MM in '10.  Unless he has ridiculous numbers the next two years he's gone.  He's been treated pretty badly by the media here since day 1, through no fault of his own.  But there is no doubt it's affected him Phreak, and he's mentally wearing down.  He's tired of the abuse, as any of us would be.  Having his mom and dad spill shtein through the media and internet doesn't help, and probably proves he's sick of it.

If he wants to shut up the iceholes in Philly, win a trophy.  That's what it'll take.  If he just wants out, that shouldn't be too difficult either.  I wouldn't blame him.  But taking this shtein personally ain't helping him or the team.  Or my chances to celebrate like a drunken idiot if the Birds win the big one.

[PhillyPhreak54]

But see, that's just it. He never said that he was taking anything personally. He rarely says anything. And even by his keeping his mouth shut draws the ire of some. All he does is win ballgames. Yes he hasn't won the SB and he needs to do that, but he still has been responsible (and Reid, as reluctant as you might be to credit him) for turning this franchise around.

31 years old in "quarterback years" is relatively young still. As long as his arm works, he'll be a good QB. He's got a very strong arm and he makes good decisions for the most part with the football as his historically low TD-INT ratio shows.

So we have a rarity, a good solid QB who says he is happy here and does not want to go anywhere, but yet is shunned by football fans and media because he talks, or doesn't talk. If he talks, he's ripped. If he doesn't talk, he's ripped.

How do we know he's tired of the abuse? He hasn't said that and I do not think he uses his parents as messengers. I believe they talk on their own. And like DOnovan said in his CSN interview who tells their parents to shut up and not talk? They react to things said about him in a protective manner. I'd like to hear them shut up too, but he shouldn't be held responsible for what they say.

I believe he has the right mentality to be the QB in this city because most of the time he doesn't respond to the criticism. It's tha fans and the media who create most of the junk that goes on with him anyhow.

He says he wants to stay here. And he said the selection of Kolb (he said before the draft that them getting a QB wouldn't bother him) isn't a big deal because this is his starting job. But yet when he says he was shocked they took one so high he's perceived as being pissed off or angry.

I maintain that when he leaves the ones who love to put him on blast now will be crying the loudest for a good QB; but they won't realize that they had one and he was run out of town

[Father Demon]

Christ, I hate this time of year.  Nothing better for the press to do than create drama, so idiots can debate every little point that has no meaning anyway.

IGY -- McNabb, nor any other player, owes you or any other fan anything in terms of news conferences or press releases.  Nothing is expected when a player in your position is drafted.  The player is not obligated to comment, and frankly, I like it that way.  Why?  Because quotes like "I think everyone that wasn't in the war room was shocked with the pick" turns into "McNabb shocked Kolb was selected" to create a controversy where none exists.

Their job is to play play football.  It isn't to let you know what they think. It isn't to use the press to explain themselves. 

To think otherwise boggles my mind.

[BigEd76]

Mike Sielski:

Eagles too paranoid over McNabb speaking


Donovan McNabb conducted his first local media sit-down in 175 days on Tuesday ... in a New Jersey ice hockey rink.

McNabb's publicist invited representatives from only four news organizations — two newspapers, a television station and a radio station — to interview him, which left me among a seething, outraged horde of media members. Mind you, we were not seething and outraged because we were excluded from the quasi-one-on-one sessions with the Eagles quarterback, but because we were forced to endure several minutes of Howard Eskin's radio show just to find out what McNabb said.
.
.
This is the sports world in which we exist now, and this is a much bigger issue for the Eagles — for Jeffrey Lurie and Joe Banner and Andy Reid and their attempts to monitor and control every word that one of their players utters — than it is for Donovan McNabb.

The jarring part of the end of McNabb's silence was not that he spoke publicly in Philadelphia for the first time since a Nov. 15 press conference at the NovaCare Complex, four days before he tore his right ACL. It was that the setting for his Tuesday chats was the Skate Zone, approximately 15 1/2 miles from the nearest facility affiliated with his employers. That's a healthy geographical distance, and it hints at a more intangible one between McNabb and the Eagles' higher-ups.

Remember: Just before this year's Super Bowl, the Eagles canceled a scheduled McNabb news conference. And according to newspaper reports, though the Eagles asked McNabb last week if he wanted to hold a press conference, they're now angry that he arranged these interviews on his own.

So, yes, this is different, McNabb's defiance of the Eagles' information blackout to talk about the drafting of Kevin Kolb and his reaction to it, but it's different only because we're dealing with the Eagles here. With one rather large exception (hint: he was given to catching touchdowns, insulting teammates, flapping his arms and ripping off the bottom halves of prepared statements), the Eagles have been remarkably effective at speaking with one voice from their locker room — and, really, from all chambers of their organization. They've done so in two ways: by limiting the media's access to the players and coaches and executives, and by acquiring athletes who are intelligent and eloquent enough to say the right things most of the time.

"In this image-conscious league that we're in — and the Eagles are as image-conscious as anybody — when players get in front of a camera and they can put a sentence together, that's important, too," Fox Sports analyst Brian Baldinger said the other day.

McNabb has embodied that philosophy, which is why the Eagles' attempts to keep him quiet, their apparent disdain for his willingness to say what he wants, come off as paranoia. Save one misguided reference to "black-on-black crime," what has he said that might have compelled Lurie, Banner or Reid to reach for the Excedrin?

Besides, this is a battle every major sports franchise is bound to lose. It's the rare superstar now who doesn't have his own Web site, and those who don't can arrange televised or video-streamed interviews with ESPN, the NFL Network, MLB.com or another outlet that's sure to be accepting of their agendas. ... The truth is, McNabb's desire to talk is more in sync with the reality of today's sports culture than the Eagles' desire to hush him is.

Think about it: These days, would it really be all that surprising to learn a fourth-string running back had a publicist?

No more so than a $120 million quarterback speaking his mind while sitting on a Zamboni.

[Wingspan]

OMGMCNABBWANTSTOBETHEFLYERSGOALIE!

[ice grillin you]

IGY -- McNabb, nor any other player, owes you or any other fan anything in terms of news conferences or press releases.  Nothing is expected when a player in your position is drafted.  The player is not obligated to comment, and frankly, I like it that way.  Why?  Because quotes like "I think everyone that wasn't in the war room was shocked with the pick" turns into "McNabb shocked Kolb was selected" to create a controversy where none exists.

you just dont get it and never will

its not about owing anyone anything its about the relationship between celebrities and the media/public...i stated mcnabb didnt have to say anything about the cobb pick...but if he chose not to....and keep in mind he ultimately and wisely did choose to speak because thats what you do in his position....but had he chose not to it would be his right but he would also have to face the media and fan speculation that came with it

the philadelphia eagles picked the heir apparent to their long time starting quarterback with their first pick in the draft...to think thats not a huge story in the city and with it comes the expectation of the parties involved to speak on it is just ignorant

cobb spoke on it
heckert spoke on it
reid spoke on it
but mcnabb shouldnt?

whats ironic here is that mcnabb himself was "SHOCKED" over the pick....so what do you think all the fans of the team and mcnabb were?...yet the guy shouldnt address it in any way

[Father Demon]

It's been said a million times.  I'd rather he deal with these things in the locker room, and not in the press.  Every time he talks, the press goes crazy and people like you talk about how you know what's in his head and what he's thinking and feeling.  We get it Kreskin, you know what makes a black man tick.

What's funny is you always clamor for him to talk it out in the press, then when he does you say how he's a yes man, how he is the company man, or in this latest case how he rehearsed for two weeks in front of a mirror to get it right.

If he stops talking completely, and only addresses issues in the locker room where it SHOULD be and is EXPECTED to be talked about, that's all he needs to do.  That's his job.

Facing media and fan speculation is a freaking cop out.  Who cares what dumb-asses like us, or people that get paid to speculate, have to think or say?  We don't run the team, we don't pay his bills, and we don't control a single thing that goes with pro football.  Deal with fan speculation?? OMGTHEHORRORS.

If I don't get being a drama queen over McNabb and his public expectations, then I'll not get it all the entire time he is here.

[Wingspan]

whether hes pissy or not...and im pretty sure he is...he needs to come out and make a statement...

or he can give one interview to the outlet of his choice and end all this asap...he wont do that tho because hes afraid of what hes gonna say...which will be something akin to what his father said or even worse

its not about owing anyone anything its about the relationship between celebrities and the media/public...i stated mcnabb didnt have to say anything about the cobb pick...but if he chose not to....

You could at least put completely contradicting statements in different threads.

[ice grillin you]

I'd rather he deal with these things in the locker room, and not in the press.

theres nothing to deal with here....he should have addressed the pick in a general sense not about being upset about it...had he come right out after it happened and did so none of this other stuff would have blown up

What's funny is you always clamor for him to talk it out in the press, then when he does you say how he's a yes man, how he is the company man, or in this latest case how he rehearsed for two weeks in front of a mirror to get it right.

having a personality that shines when talking to the press and being a yes man are two different issues entirely...and i applauded him for not being a yes man in this case

If he stops talking completely, and only addresses issues in the locker room where it SHOULD be and is EXPECTED to be talked about, that's all he needs to do.

again the pick of cobb isnt a locker room issue...a teams first round pick should be addressed publicly with the media/fans...that by the coach and gm....the fact that it was at the position of the long time face of the franchise is why mcnabb should have spoken on it....he didnt and it blew up to be way larger than it should have


Who cares what dumb-asses like us, or people that get paid to speculate, have to think or say?

are you for real??...if you dont think many teams and players care what goes on in the press and fansbase then youre more clueless than i thought...in fact mcnabb ended up talking BECAUSE the fans and media were questioning him...he said so in all his interviews...mcnabb is still salty over the draft in 99 but no one cares what "we" say...lolol..ok