McNabb is best served by dropping back

By Anthony Bialy  |   Monday, April 09, 2007  |  Comments( 2 )

Philadelphia Eagles
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Eagles fans eagerly and nervously await the return of a quarterback who, depending on the observer, is either one of the best at his position or as overvalued as he is middling. He's also either this century's Steve Young or a bigger Michael Vick, not to mention someone who's too eager to run as well as being too eager not to run so he can prove he's an effective traditional passer. Donovan McNabb's place in football history varies based on who's watching him play.

Of course, some people don't like Guinness or roller derby, either, but that doesn't mean we have to respect their silly opinions and irrational negativity any more than we should tolerate the McNabb bashing. The odd thing about McNabb is how much criticism is focused not on how he plays but rather how he's supposedly supposed to play: Some think he should forget dropping back and instead live Reggie Bush's dream, namely by playing running back while wearing a single-digit number.

The truth is there's a reason McNabb doesn't rush as much as he used to: He doesn't need to. Why run around when you have an arm like he does? He has hiked up his passer rating, which used to hover slightly below average, to 85.2, and while no statistic can wholly represent any quarterback, especially a multidimensional one, the number is a reflection of his maturity throwing the ball.

And running around haphazardly is of secondary importance to McNabb: The more important athletic aspect of his game is evasiveness. In college, he played in a system that still featured the option, back in that bygone pre-iPod and broadband era of the '90s when the occasional old-school relic still used phrases like "forward pass" in reference to university ball.

At the same time he was incorporated into the rushing attack, he was also able to both whip the ball downfield in a perfect arc and throw against his body. The latter was best illustrated by a play where McNabb rolled to his right and hit the open tight end who had sneakily crossed the field to the weak side, requiring not only superior arm strength and accuracy but also slippery quickness in the face of a lengthy pass rush.

Elusive is a broad term, of course: Peyton Manning could be considered elusive, but no one would consider Manning in McNabb's athletic category, especially anyone who saw the Super Bowl XLI MVP shirtless on "Saturday Night Live." But it's less important how a quarterback escapes from pass rushers and more important that he can do it, period. It's fair to say McNabb is less a rushing quarterback and more a passer who can run.

The former Syracuse star's uniqueness is why Eagle fans cautiously track his recovery after the freakishly innocuous incident that tore up his knee.

Unfortunately, this is his third major injury; whether it's reckless disregard for one's safety like a former Philadelphia star, the Flyers' Peter Forsberg, obliviousness to harmful situations like former Buffalo Bills dud Rob Johnson, or just a string of rotten luck -- which I would say is McNabb's situation -- a player who ends up hobbled often is, cruelly, problematic to a team pinning its hopes on him being healthy.

Still, even at his age and with a series of bad injuries, McNabb was playing at his potential in 2006 before he got hurt, and a successful recovery means he can get back in the business of passing well and silencing critics.
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