Someone Else's Video Rewind

Bob Brookover has required reading for anyone who wants to comment on McNabb's performance this past week against the Giants.  I'm not going to quote any of it.  Read the whole thing.

Then feel free to come back here and bitch in the comments about how you still think he's wrong.  Specifics, please.

Comments

[BFH]

He's not wrong. He even forgot a particularly boneheaded play by Reggie Brown, where McNabb hit him for 9 yards and Brown chose to go out of bounds rather than attempt to get an extra yard for a first down. Two plays later, the Eagles punted.

[BrianS]

The only thing I wish Brookover would have addressed was whether the WRs were getting open or not.

He may have been re-watching a tape of the game, and not coaches film (do beat reporters watch coaches' film?), so not have been in any better position than the rest of us to say.

(I need to work more, and read about the Eagles less today).

[Me]

I think it's pretty clear -- even without watching the coaches tape -- that the receivers were more open than the results would indicate. After watching two weeks of A.J. Feeley running this offense, there are clearly opportunities that McNabb isn't taking.

There's no question McNabb isn't playing at the level we're used to seeing. The problem is that people have become so accustomed to great quarterback play that this merely average current version of McNabb seems much worse than it is.

[Dan]

You ought to be held on retainer by the McNabb clan, for all your defending of McNabb.

All right, let's bring him back.

Let's bring Reid back too.

Let's bring them all back.

And we'll see next year.

But if next year is as atrocious as this year, if the offense is as anemic as it has been this year, ................ what then?

Will we still get these passionate defenses of McNabb.

Next year will be worse than this year.

[BrianS]

I've gone back and forth about whether it's time for the Eagles to move on without McNabb. But, what's the harm in giving him a chance after a (hopefully) healthy offseason -- his first in awhile -- and another year removed from his injury. He'll be able to practice, rather than rehab. I think the X-factor is can he get his confidence back? I think he's always been a guy who waited for a guy to get "wide open" before throwing the ball, but he seems extra hesitant this year.

Get him the type of WR he's comfortable working with. (I don't know exactly who that is -- Are Larry Fitz. or Chad Johson those types of guys, and are they really available? Is bringing Stallworth back -- but also keeping "White Lightning" -- realistic?) I'm sure Kevin Kolb could use a little more help at WR, too, so nothing's lost by upgrading WR. I think G-Lew is the odd man out. He's serviceable in a limited role, but while Brown's disappointed me this year, I still think he's a good WR, and I'd like to give Avant and probably Baskett another year.

Then, next year, it's pretty much put up or shut up time for Donny Mac, and maybe he's on a pretty short leash. That could depend on how Kolb looks in camp/preseason.

What's the risk of starting out the season with McNabb? If the Eagles offense stinks again, then starting the Kevin Kolb era isn't going to get them to the playoffs in '08. McNabb playing well just might, though.

There's a lot we don't know here. We don't know if McNabb will ever be the same. We don't know if the coaches think he'll ever be the same. We don't know if his teammates still believe in him (to their credit, they generally say the right things about him). We really don't know how well Kevin Kolb is doing, aside from a few good preseason games.

I hate the team to be struggling again next year, but if it is, I don't think there's harm in waiting to start the Kolb era midseason.

[BFH]

Dan -- many fans like you act like removing McNabb from the equation is all that needs to happen for this team to take flight. It's stupidity in the highest form.

Do you know how many franchises in the NFL have been stuck in perpetual mediocrity because they can't find a decent QB? The answer is "a lot of them."

Do you want to be the Bills? Who haven't made the playoffs this decade despite several good defensive years.

Do you want to be the Niners, who drafted a QB #1 but aren't even sure he's better than Trent Dilfer?

Really, how different are the Eagles from the Niners? Both teams have average defenses, a very good running back. But the Eagles are actually competitive because they get adequate QB play. The Niners get nothing from the position and are completely and utterly unwatchable. And there is little hope next season, with no QB. Don't forget that.

Throwing McNabb away when the other option is complete uncertainty is a dumb thing to do. Really, really dumb.

And even if Kolb, or anyone else, did come in and play -- all of the rest of the idiots in Philadelphia would be bitching about him soon enough. He missed a throw here, a costly interception... bring on the next guy!

This team has had 6 losses that easily could have been victories. Despite the "sky is falling" mentality that comes out of the papers, this team is not bad. Reid isn't being a total jackass when he says they are a "hair off".

[Soups]

BFD, did two different people write that last post? One started it and someone else finished it?

You say that the team needs more than a QB to be any better than the 49rs... and then end your post by saying we're just a "hair off" from being 11-2.

In other words, you're not making ANY sense.

In fact, Dan was exactly right, all the Eagles do need is a QB who can get the job done -- imagine Feeley without the INTs. A QB who can distribute the ball accurately and allow his receivers to make plays -- but without the leakage of turnovers that Feeley had.

That is all this Eagles team needs to be 11-2. (A big, play-making receiver certainly wouldn't hurt either.)

Are you ultimately a fan of the Eagles or a fan of McNabb?

[BFH]

Dan is not right, and neither are you.

The point of my last post was that I don't want to see this organization spend the next 10 years in the "quarterback hell" that many franchises (I cited the Bills and Niners) have found themselves in.

This is the first season since his rookie year that McNabb has been relatively healthy and the Eagles have underperformed. And you immediately want to dump him.

And from what you write, it appears you think quality NFL quarterbacks are available on every street corner.

It's groupthink. It's idiocy.

"You say that the team needs more than a QB to be any better than the 49rs..."

Where the hell did I say that?

[edited by igglesblogger -- watch the direct insults]

[Dan]

I'm not saying that McNabb ALONE, in isolation, is the problem.

He's the forefront of the offense if you will.

He represents a distortion for the entire organization.

By removing him, by banishing the soap opera like quality that attends him, and has attended him for several years now, by getting rid of all of that, the Eagles will be able to BEGIN the reclamation project.

When the Eagles dump McNabb, there's no hope that they're going to improve immediately. It's not like they have Jeff Garcia to step in, make the right decisions, and accurately deliver the football. No. Nothing like that.

Reid got rid of the guy they should have kept.

So when we dump McNabb, the Eagles won't have a prayer of improving.

It's only the beginning of the treatment, which in this case of cancerous growth, calls for radical radioactive treatments.

I propose completely blowing up this football team.

I would trade Westbrook.

I would trade EVERY single player I could get a draft pick for. Every single one of them.

Lito, if he could get a draft pick, he'd be gone.

Dawkins, him too.

Every member of that team as presently constituted would be consigned to the 4 winds. And the statement would be made to the new team that would be abuilding, that banishment is the cost of defeat.

And at the very least, Reid would be stripped of his control over personnel decisions. I would prefer to get rid of him entirely, along with the staff. And start all over again.

Parcells says "you are what you are."

This team is a corpse. Bury it.

Bring in new bodies, alive, desirous of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, desirous of relegating the McNabb years to obscurity.

It's something of a straw man when many say that those of us who desire to see Donovan ran out of town on a rail think the Eagles will immediately improve.

We know more than most, that the problem is McNabb, yet the whole team is also infected with the dry rot of defeat.

Dry rot destroys.

So throw this team on the fires.

Throw the jerseys, the hats, the memorabilia. Throw it all on the fires and consign it to the past.

And begin anew.

[BFH]

Well, that is sufficiently insane to not even warrant a response.