Good News & Bad News on McNabb, by Eagles Fans for Redskins Fans

By Todd L. Frank  |   Wednesday, May 05, 2010  |  Comments( 3 )

Washington Redskins
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After doing a column on the good news and bad news about Jason Campbell (by Redskins fans, for Raiders fans), I figured I’d turn the tables and get the skinny on Donovan McNabb (by Eagles fans for Redskins fans).

Thanks to everyone at the 700level.com and Philaphans.com message boards for participating. Here’s their good news and bad news about McNabb:

“Good news: you finally have a QB who can get you to the big game again. Bad news: he can't seem to win the big game.”
-bigballer

“Good news is he doesn't throw interceptions; bad news is he gets sacked a lot while holding the ball. Good news he throws an excellent deep ball; Bad news he throws a horrible short ball.”
-speedyg

“Good news: if he is hot, he will carve up any defense. Bad news: he can go from hot to cold in a matter of minutes.”
-iceman42

“Good news: McNabb has a great arm, has tons of experience, and will not be in trouble with the law or have character problems off the field. He throws the deep ball very well and throws balls that can cut through December winds. He has a lot more playoff experience obviously than Campbell did. He's been fairly healthy the last few years. Perhaps he will have more of a running game in Washington than he did in Philadelphia. Change of scenery might help him.

Bad news: with age, his agility has decreased, and he doesn't have the escape-ability he once had. Due to this, he is forced to rely on accuracy, which is not really a strongpoint in the short and intermediate game. He is terrible in the two minute drill and having urgency at the end of games. While not injured lately, he does have an injury history. Not sure if the Skins offensive line will protect him well as he tends to hold onto the ball too long. This could leave him exposed more. Seemed complacent in Philadelphia and didn't hate losing enough, and tended to rarely if ever take the blame for a bad performance.”
-KevinKolb4SB

“Good news: he is a nice guy and likes to have fun and tell jokes. Bad news: he isn't a funny guy. He thinks he is Chris Rock but he is not funny at all. People say he is funny. That's a lie. Get ready for a bunch of goofy interviews.”
-L-Money

“Good news: you finally have a good quarterback. Bad news: you're about to get teased into thinking that you might have a chance to win. Sadly, you will realize that what you actually have is someone who has to be brilliant at times to make up for the amount of mediocre or downright awful plays that he makes. Oh, and he gets hurt, too.”
-Phorever a Phan

“Good news: DMac will make amazing plays that defy logic and lead the fan base to believe he is the second coming of God. Bad news: often those amazing plays only occurred because he didn't feel comfortable throwing the original patter that was only 80% open. Good news: he's a good guy that is a credit to the game and is someone kids can look up to as a person as well as an athlete. Bad news: he can be emotionally fragile and seems to still be maturing as an individual which manifests itself as a weakness when he tries to be the leader of the team. Good news: he won't throw picks that end drives. Bad news: he will err on the side of caution even when situational context tells you he needs to be more of a risk taker. All in all I was a big Donny supporter but we just thought it was time to change horses and give him, and us, a fresh start. Good luck to you and him, you will get a good, but ultimately unfulfilling ride.”
-Swarm06

“Good news: has been successful without many top WRs and thrived as a running QB. He’s led teams without many offensive weapons to the playoffs with his scrambling ability and elusiveness. Bad news: bad red-zone QB, can't throw the fade route, not good on 4th and inches, has played 16 games twice since 2003, inaccuracy leads to many 3 and outs.”
-dac4m

“Almost all of the negative thoughts I have towards 5 can be traced back to Andy Reid. Inaccuracy: if his left knee locks, the ball is going anywhere but the Receiver's hands. If I can see that on my TV all the way here in Sweden, you'd think someone on the staff could have seen it & corrected it. 3 & outs: For a team that was always at the top of the stats for points scored, they also topped the list on "3 & outs." The fans always complained about the inevitable incompletion on 3rd & 2, but the real problem was not being able to run for those 2 yards. In the long run, I feel that 5 masked a lot of Reid’s problems as a coach, not the other way around.”
-fågelpojke

“If he was more consistent I'm sure folks would have been more accepting of his guitar hero antics, but he wasn't, choked (and vomited) in the big games and could then be seen on the sidelines with that big smile. I'm pretty sure that was really the thing that got on more people's nerves than anything, that he would have that big joking smile during a loss. You'd never see Favre or Manning do that.”
-LyteInc

“The thing everyone is obviously missing here is the level of curse laid upon the Eagles, and us. McNabb will win a championship in DC, and he's going to stand there with the Lombardi and turn around and moon us all. Just watch.”
-Eaglebreath

“I think if you take out the extreme fringes of both sides of the 5 debate you'll get something that looks like this: very good QB who (at one time, perhaps again) can make the kind of plays that very few guys in this league can make. Because of this trait, he was able to keep this franchise in contention for the better part of a decade. As far as his mechanics and skills go, that's pretty much the same thing that you'll read elsewhere. He can heave a ball 70 yards downfield, but it's in the short game where his flaws are more prevalent. He throws low and hard. In a precision scheme, this becomes very much a magnified flaw. When he has confidence in his line and his feet are set, he's better able to make these throws, but this brings up the second flaw...he holds on to the ball WAAAY too long. I think that's one of the things about his career INT stats which is somewhat jilted. He's always been a guy whose hated tossing picks, but that's not as good of a thing as you might think. He hates taking chances. He'll take the sack or make an incredibly bad check down throw instead.
Final analysis time: McNabb was/is a very good QB who was brought into a situation in which his personality and abilities were right enough to make this team very competitive, but flawed enough to undermine the team's ultimate efforts. Some of it is the organization's inability to build a system around the talents of the player, rather expecting the player to perform under a specific system. This part was Andy Reid's fault. The part which was on McNabb is that he was never able to get past the part of himself which continually faulted the environment around him, rather than putting his efforts into working on the aspects of his game which needed to be addressed in order to succeed in this system.”
-Hooky
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