Iggles Blog - Philadelphia Eagles Blog

It's One Thing When I Say It...

But this is from the man himself:

On having success throwing into coverage and taking chances down-field vs. the Rams: "My thing, this year, is the fact that I'm trying to give these guys an opportunity to make plays. I thought, earlier in my career, maybe at times I would have held the ball and tried to give them an opportunity to create separation when it didn't happen or whatever it may be. But now, it's getting the ball out of my hands and making them make plays for me. We have some great weapons on the outside. We have some guys that can make plays for you. You have to give them that opportunity. (TE) L.J. (Smith) did a great job last week, (WRs) DeSean (Jackson) did great, Jason Avant had a great game, and the list goes on. So, I've always said that, in order for guys to be effective in this offense, you've got to call plays for them and give them opportunities. That's what I was trying to do."

Emphasis most definitely added.

He continues:

On whether he has had a change in philosophy and when it occurred: "I'm not 21, 22, 23 years old anymore. There are no 14-second scrambles going on. Drop back, get the ball out of your hands and let those guys go to work."

On whether his knee injuries have had an impact on that philosophy: "The knee has nothing to do with it."

On letting a rookie like DeSean Jackson go up and make plays down-field: "You have to do that. You have to trust him. You show them that you have trust in them, which, obviously, leads to them trusting me. You have to reward guys as well. You go through a week of practice with guys putting in extra time and catching balls in practice and doing an excellent job off the field, you reward them. When they have that opportunity, when they do get open, you want to get them the ball and give them an opportunity to make more plays and pick up more yards. That's pretty much what it's come from."

This is vindication.

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I've been beating this "separation" argument into the ground for so long it's almost hard to remember that there was a time not that long ago when it was anything but the conventional wisdom. 

Heck, last November I felt the need to write a huge long deal examining the competing theories for why McNabb was struggling a bit and laying out this whole separation argument.  It's amazing how much currency this idea has picked up since then.

But here's the thing.  Think back to last Sunday.  How many times did Donovan squeeze a ball into a guy who wasn't super open?  A few, maybe? 

And how many times was that guy a wide receiver not named DeSean Jackson?  Off the top of my head, I can't think of any, although I could definitely be wrong. 

So do we have Donovan turning the separation theory on its head -- i.e., he now trusts all his guys to go make plays -- or is this actually a confirmation of the theory's "strong form" in that what we're seeing with Jackson is how McNabb always plays / has played with his most talented receivers, but not everyone else? 

It's going to be awhile before we know for sure. 

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Note on that link:  I was making a point about speed relative to defenders, but that line about Berrian & Hester v. Curtis & Brown might have been the single dumbest thing I've ever written.  And I've had some doozies.

Rich Burg, Welcome To The IgglesBlog

Today's Daily News Eagles preview section includes the by now obligatory story about how technology has irreversibly changed the fan/player dynamic.  (This despite the fact that I have never once heard a player admit that he actually ventures online to see what people are saying about him.  Liars :-)

Of course, if the story itself was obligatory, the parts slamming blogs were damn near mandatory:

Blogs can also be a launching pad for trouble. Unchecked facts are passed along as rumors, which are then commented on and passed along again. Given the anonymity that the Internet affords, some of the stuff that is said is far beyond the realm of what passes for civilized conversation. Worse, it excites an atmosphere of rage that previously did not have a convenient outlet other than a letter to the editor or a sports talk show, both of which were expected to adhere to certain standards. The problem is you can say anything on the Internet and there is a 50-50 chance that someone will believe it. The concept of unassailable fact has been absorbed by purveyors of unreality, which McNabb and some of his teammates have discovered to their chagrin.

Hey, beat writers.  Have you checked the comment section on your articles recently?  Compare those remarks to the comments you see on all the Eagles blogs.  We win in the "civilized conversation" competition.

Whatever, it's not all bad news for the pixel pushers:

Burg keeps an eye out for everything that is written and said about McNabb. In any given season, that can be a formidable undertaking. Every word that the Eagles quarterback utters is subject to scrutiny. Akers says, "Everything he says is examined: 'What did he mean by that?' 'Does he have a hidden agenda?' " Burg says he does not share everything he comes across with McNabb, only the occasional thing he thinks could be useful to him. Interestingly, he says that contrary to the impression that is out there, he has discovered that McNabb is far more popular than some people think.

"There is a perception of out there that only 50 percent of the fans like him," says Burg. "But since I have ventured into the blogosphere, I have learned that the percentage is much, much higher than you would think . . . Even some people in the inner circle wondered if there were a lot of people who did not like him. The fact of the matter is, that is only a handful of people. And no one is universally loved."

This is absolutely true.  There's a new Eagles/Philly sports blog every day, but of the guys who've been doing this for awhile, I can't think of any who would be characterized as having a negative editorial slant towards McNabb.  Which makes sense given that they're all smart dudes and McNabb is kind of awesome and all.

Finally, Rich, since you've been stopping by, I've got a proposal for you.  If you're ever looking to really, really annoy the local beat writers -- like literally have them smashing coffee cups into their typewriters -- please feel free to break any exclusive McNabb news or interviews through the IgglesBlog.  You want a direct conduit to the fans, let's make it happen.

Think it over.  I'll be right here when you're ready.

McNabb the Hoopster

This story is worth checking out even if you only go for the picture of McNabb in his high school basketball uniform.  There isn't a direct link, you have to scroll down a bit for the link to "McNabb's hoop story."

(Turn your speakers off before you click the link, they have embedded video that auto-loads.)

He Looks Awfully Concerned

This is definitely the face of a man worried about an injury.

Source:  Jessica Griffin, Philadelphia Daily News.

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From that same article, John Smallwood makes an excellent point about Stewart Bradley:

Sports are ironically funny.

Had Bradley been a first-round pick and started just one game as a rookie, he probably would go into training camp with even more questions about him.

But because his rookie season was one of constant growth that resulted in those final three games, Bradley is being viewed as a potential steal for the Eagles.

Benevolent Conspiracy Theory?

You don't think the Eagles would milk a little Donovan McNabb shoulder tenderness for a few weeks as a way to get Kevin Kolb a lot more first-team reps without having everyone think there's some kind of quarterback controversy, do you?

It was impossible not to notice these things yesterday: Kevin Kolb was once again getting the majority of snaps with the first-team offense...

Kolb ran the first-team offense because starting quarterback Donovan McNabb continues to nurse a sore right shoulder. It is a subject McNabb tried to avoid with the same determination with which he typically sidesteps defensive ends.

As we all know, not everything is always so straightforward with NFL organizations:

Yesterday, suddenly, Dan Klecko's wariness with reporters on Friday made perfect sense.

When workouts resumed at NovaCare, Klecko was no longer a fullback, having been moved to defensive tackle, where he has spent much of his 5-year NFL career. Klecko, an occasional fullback for the Patriots and the Colts, traded in his No. 48 jersey for No. 68, after the Birds traded for Colts fullback Luke Lawton, who became No. 45.

"I wasn't mad about [Lawton's acquisition] Friday," Klecko said. "I didn't know how much I could say, so I just tried to get out of here."

A Possible Injury Connection?

Not looking to be totally irresponsible with this item, but hey, I'm a blogger and I need to hit my wildass speculation quota for the week.

Consider this:

McNabb said he hired a new trainer in Arizona, where he lives in the offseason, and has incorporated more baseball-like activities into his workout routine to emphasize balance and getting the most out of his lower-body strength.

"I felt early on [last season] I used a lot of upper-body strength instead of using my legs," he said. "And not to say that I didn't have confidence in the legs, but now knowing how the whole body feels is like coming off the [pitcher's] mound.

"The guy that I train with [Brett Fisher] works with pitchers like Randy Johnson and Kerry Wood and a lot of other guys, as well. He's [Johnson] still throwing 90-something mph at 40-something years old. So, clearly something is working."

And this:

"He's looking good," wide receiver Kevin Curtis said after practice Wednesday. "But I think he has a little bit of a sore shoulder."

McNabb had a very un-McNabb like practice Tuesday. More often than not his throws were off-target.

Apparently it's not rust.

At the mandatory minicamp the Eagles shut McNabb down basically for the last two practices.

Afterward Andy Reid denied McNabb's arm or shoulder were sore or injured, explaining that the quarterback was removed from practice because he'd reached the "pitch count" the Eagles had set for him.

McNabb, however, was seen rubbing the arm and houlder as if it was hurt. He appeared to do the same thing Wednesday only with the shoulder.

A Tale of Two Seasons?

One of the things every Eagles fan knows is that Donovan McNabb struggled mightily in the first half of last season, but rebounded nicely in the second half after he had some time to better recover from the catastrophic knee injury of 2006 (not to be confused with the catastrophic sports hernia of 2005 or the semi-catastrophic broken ankle of 2002). 

Just check out the per-game stats (Miami removed because of the injury):

Pretty black and white, right? 

Nah.  Never that easy. 

Here's the problem:

McNabb actually played a great game in week nine against the Washington Redskins.  It's the inclusion of those results that so dramatically skews the first half / second half results.  Here's that chart from above if you count weeks 1-9 and then 13-16:

Certainly some improvement, right?  But not the massive performance increase everyone keeps talking about.

And I would argue that this way of breaking down the season makes far more sense.  If you want to split it after week eight and use the "injury comeback" explanation, you have to explain how McNabb magically healed so much between Dallas and Washington that he was able to drop four TDs and a 138.5 passer rating on a decent pass defense.

I'm open to suggestions, but that's not going to be an easy story to tell.

Now I guarantee at least some people right now are saying to themselves: "Yeah, but if you took out the Detroit game, that wouldn't look so good."  And that's certainly true.  But why is it only the Detroit game that doesn't count?  Shouldn't we be just as ready to strip out the season-ender against Buffalo?  After all, it was a meaningless game between two non-playoff teams.  Most guys were planning their vacations by that point.

Here's another thing to consider.  Check out a graph that matches McNabb's passer rating (red line, left axis) with the rank of the pass defense he was facing (blue bars, right axis):

He should have looked good those last two weeks -- he was facing two of the worst pass defenses in the league.

Now I'm not trying to argue that McNabb didn't get better as the season progressed.  He absolutely did.  But he wasn't all that bad in the first half of the year either.

I think people feel like McNabb made a big jump in the second half for three reasons: 

1. He ran more.
2. No one sacked him 12 times.
3. The Eagles won four of the five games he started and finished.

But those last two reasons have as much to do with the rest of the team as they do with him.  After all, if Kevin Curtis hadn't busted his butt downfield to recover McNabb's fumble in the first quarter against the Saints, we might not be talking about "just" an 8-8 team.

In the end, team wins and losses dramatically skew our perceptions of individual performances.  Heck, all anyone wants to talk about these days is the emergence of Eli Manning, like last year was the season he finally put everything together.  Well, the guy's season-long passer rating was 73.9.

Or more than 12 points worse than McNabb's "crummy" first eight weeks.

How Did I Miss This?

Yes, this is a commercial.  And yes, it's much cooler if you mentally substitute "2008" for "2007."

With that said, this actually kind of got me in the mood for football season.  (Yeah, I'm a little sick.  So are you, most likely, since you're reading this blog in April).

There's also a higher-quality version here.  Much thanks to reader Coray S. for sending this link along. 

Not A Second Round Pick

While I'm not willing to make any kind of firm prediction -- because soap operas are well-known for their twists and turns -- I don't think Donovan McNabb is going anywhere this offseason.  The reason is simple:  the Eagles organization (unlike many fans, broadcasters and writers) understands that quarterbacks with his skills don't just grow on trees. 

I will guarantee, however, that if Donovan McNabb gets traded, it won't be for this supposed market price:

Reports recently circulated that an unnamed team learned before the 2007 trade deadline that Philly wanted a whopping three first-round picks for the No. 2 overall pick in the 1999 draft.

Though that very well might have been a deliberate effort by Philly to get more than the second-round pick that the market might otherwise dictate...

Not to pick on PFT twice in one week, but this is maybe the fifth time I've heard someone suggest McNabb could be had for a #2.

That's mind-bogglingly stupid.

Pretend for just a moment that you were a poor unfortunate sap who happened to be a Chicago Bears fan.  If you learned that your team could have McNabb for the next few years for the PIDDLING price of just a second-round pick, how quickly would you jump on that deal?  Faster than Rex Grossman could throw his next interception, I bet.

I realize those #2 picks are valuable (after all, it's not every day you can get a Matt McCoy, Quintin Caver or Todd Pinkston...), but c'mon.  It's Donnie Freaking McNabb.  Even if you think he's nothing more than the 12th-best QB in the league these days, that's still a ridiculous price.  You'd be furious if the Bears passed that up.

And if you think it's an injury issue, remember that Javon Walker was much closer to his ACL reconstruction surgery when the Broncos traded a second-rounder for him -- with only one year left on his deal.

If the Eagles trade McNabb this year, it's going to be because some other team offered a franchise-changing deal.  We're talking multiple draft picks, with at least one being high up in the first round.  There will be no fire sale as long as Reid and Banner are in charge.

This Pam Oliver Thing

Everything McNabb says or does that is the least bit controversial (pointing his arms to the sky?) turns into a big deal, but I have a bad feeling this whole Pam Oliver thing is primed to go to the next level, for a number of reasons:

• Oliver's defense is very convincing.  I read it and I bought it. 
• The Eagles' playoff hopes have now been officially dashed, which is going to make everyone awfully grumpy and free up lots of media space for Yet Another McNabb Controversy.
• Pam Oliver is both female and African American.  Even (especially?) McNabb's own parents aren't going to like the visual of their son basically calling Oliver a liar.
• This latest controversy changes the whole McNabb "stand-up guy" storyline.  It's hard to hold the moral high ground when you're the stabber, not the stabbee. 
• Everyone knows McNabb isn't happy with what's happened in Philly in the past 13 months.  Whether or not he said exactly what Oliver claims he said, McNabb clearly let fly to some extent regarding his feelings about Philadelphia.  A lot of people -- who have to this point defended McNabb -- are going to feel like, "Hey, if you don't like it here, screw you and enjoy your time with whatever hellhole franchise will give us a couple of draft picks."

The next question will be how McNabb responds.  I think Gabe is probably right that we're looking at a clean-up post on Don's ridiculous blog.  But I don't see how that's enough.  If he backtracks at all, that's just going to invite high-stakes questioning the next time McNabb appears before a media horde looking to close up ranks around an unfairly-maligned colleague.  And if he stands by his story, it's going to look like he doesn't have the guts to do so in a venue he doesn't completely control.  Not to mention it doesn't solve the issue he has with Oliver.

No, if McNabb really wants to fix this, he needs to do three things:

1. Call Oliver and apologize to her directly for what he said "in the heat of the moment after a big win against the Cowboys."  Mostly so that he can say that he's done this, but also because it's the right thing to do.
2. Explain at his next press sit-down what, in fact, he did say.  The cat's pretty much out of the bag on the whole ripping-the-organization thing, so McNabb probably needs to admit that he did express some frustration with how the season has progressed, but make it quite clear that what he's "most concerned about is how we as a team and me individually didn't get the job done this year."  He could even throw in an: "I'm a competitor and it burns me up that we didn't have a successful season and that's what I'm really most frustrated about."  It doesn't really matter what he says, though, because the most important point will be...   
3. Blaming the media.  Embrace the fans, dance around the organization issue and make it very clear that it's the negativity in the local media -- especially those sports radio people the print reporters like to look down upon anyway -- that he was really lashing out about.  Try the old, "There are 53 guys in this locker room who are busting their butts out there every week trying to get a win and all we ever hear about is how much we suck.  THAT's what I was trying to say last week."

And then the obvious Q&A:

Ink-Stained Wretch:  "But Donovan, Oliver claims you very clearly said that you felt the organization was distancing itself from you.  Can you explain what you meant?"

Quarterback happy he has his mobility back to dance around these questions:  "Look, I've known Pam for many years.  She's a fine reporter and I want to make it very clear I'm not suggesting she fabricated any statements or made anything up.  But the truth is you're talking about a quick, off-the-cuff conversation before the game when all I was really trying to do was get ready to face the Cowboys.  I'm sure I didn't say things as precisely as I should have.  What I meant was [and then segue into #2 or #3 above depending upon need]."

It still won't be enough for everyone.  But the longer this festers, the worse I think it's going to be.