Off-Seaon ‘09 - Quarterback Breakdown

This is the first in what I hope will be 9 part series of posts detailing each position and the Eagles needs at the position leading up to the official beginning of the off-season - free agency.

If the Eagles make another Super Bowl run in 2009, it'll be on #5's shoulders

2008 Review

For the first time since the 2004 season, Donovan McNabb actually made it through an entire season without missing a game due to injury, but his season was still a story of peaks and valleys.  No other quarterback seems to have such extremes between his highest highs and lowest lows as our very own #5.  McNabb started off the season with a 3 touchdown game against the Rams, but then threw just 3 more touchdowns over his next 3 games.

This was the story of McNabb’s season, and in a way, his entire career with the Eagles.  When he was on in 2008, he was one of the best in game.  When he was off though, he made Kevin Kolb look like a good idea.  The seven quarters of football he turned in against Cincinnati and Baltimore were by far, the worst consecutive quarters of football McNabb has ever played wearing an Eagles jersey.  He rebounded nicely though, albeit against some weak defenses outside of the Giants and finished the season with pretty good numbers.  His 3,916 yards were a career high, his 23 TDs were the most he’s thrown since 2004, and he completed over 60% of his passes for just the third time in his career.

Position Needs

There’s rampant speculation that McNabb wants out of Philly and that his current tour of talk radio appearances is being done in an effort to make that happen.  The bottom line though is that McNabb is under contract for two more years with the Eagles and doesn’t have a whole lot of power here.  There aren’t going to be too many teams beating down the Eagles doors for a 32 year old quarterback with a history of accuracy and on field regurgitation problems.  Joe Banner has already said McNabb will be back in 2009 and no matter how much McNabb wants one, a new contract is probably not all that likely.

Remind me why we spent a 2nd rounder on Kolb three years again

With McNabb back in 2009, the Eagles have no real pressing needs at quarterback, but the lingering issue of what they plan on doing with Kevin Kolb won’t be going away any time soon.  Kolb will likely want a chance to start somewhere in the near future since he is entering his third year.  Honestly, I hope that place is not Philadelphia.  From the day the Eagles wasted a draft pick selected Kolb in the second round I was skeptical and up until this point he hasn’t done much to prove me wrong.  I’ll admit he throws a nice ball in training camp, but even when he got some playing time against the hapless Browns this year he still threw an interception that got returned for Cleveland’s only touchdown of the game.  I could be dead wrong here and Kolb could end up being a good quarterback some day.  I just don’t see it happening in Philadelphia.

AJ Feely will provide depth at the quarterback position and despite his propensity to throw passes to Lofa Tatupu, I would feel more comfortable with Feely behind center if something were to happen to McNabb next season.

I’ll say it.  The Eagles have a need at the backup quarterback position.  I don’t expect it to be addressed anytime soon though.

2009 Preview

Like it or not, McNabb gives the Eagles the best chance to win in 2009.  Does anyone really think the Eagles should hand the reigns over to Kolb at this point?  There’s a core group of players in place that can challenge for a Super Bowl berth again in 2009, but the only quarterback that will get them there is McNabb.  The Eagles aren’t going to trade him and bring in someone like Matt Cassell or anything like that.  He’ll be back next season and continue to drive me crazy everytime he walks off the field smiling after throwing an interception or missing a wide open receiver.

There is a chance that McNabb delivers another big season for the Eagles in 2009 though.  With DeSean Jackson in his second year and a healthy Kevin Curtis, McNabb could post some big time numbers next season if the Eagles add a big wide receiver that will move the chains and get open in the red zone.  If all he has to work with is the same crew as in 2008, expect more of what we saw this year - a few big game and a bunch of medicore showings with a few real clunkers mixed in.

If McNabb goes down with an injury in 2009, get ready for the off-season and pray the Phillies have another post-season run in them because the title drought for the Eagles will continue.