Clock Ticking on McNabb in Philly

The city of brotherly love has never been especially kind to Donovan McNabb. He was greeted by a chorus of boos when his NFL career began at the draft in 1999. Those boos seemed to follow him throughout his 11 years as an Eagle, despite his many successes.

In the last few days all the reports have surfaced that McNabb's time in Philadelphia may be coming to an end. The Eagles hierarchy believes Kevin Kolb is the future. He was their 1st pick of the 2007 draft, and it appears his era as Eagles starting quarterback is upon us. Kolb has started two, count em, two NFL games in his career. He turned the ball over 3 times against New Orleans in defeat, and had an efficient day in a victory over the hapless Chiefs one week later. He has shown flashes, but then again so have a lot of NFL backups. This is the job resume that makes McNabb expendable?

Donovan McNabb has been one of the 5-10 best players of the past decade. He has led his team to 5 championship games, 7 playoff appearances, and 9 playoff victories. Obviously the glaring deficiency of his career has been that he has not won a Super Bowl. From Ron Jaworski, to Randall Cunningham, to Donovan McNabb, Eagles fans have been haunted by the fact that they have not won a Super Bowl. The problem is that Eagle Nation seems to always place unwarranted blame on McNabb.

As good as Brian Westbrook was, he was never a true threat in the running game. Andy Reid has always leaned heavily on the passing game, putting the entire onus of his offense on his quarterback. Not only did McNabb have plenty of success as the focal point of the offense, he has the lowest interception ratio of any quarterback in NFL history (1 interception per every 47 pass attempts.) Over his career he has averaged less then 10 interceptions per season. His record as a starting quarterback is 93-50-1 with 9 playoff game victories. All of this success in the passing game has come with a murders row of wide receivers. James Thrash, Todd Pinkston, Reggie Brown, and Freddie Mitchell were the type of receivers McNabb worked with for the majority of his career. The one year he did have a big time wide receiver in Terrell Owens, he threw 31 touchdown passes with only 8 interceptions and led the Eagles to the Super Bowl, where they lost 24-21 to the dynasty that was the New England Patriots. Just as he is about to have his second big time wide receiver in Desean Jackson, the Eagles are ready to ship him off.

Eagles fans will argue that McNabb is in the last year of his deal and its just "time to move on." Lets look at this. Eagles fans want to win a Super Bowl yet they want to get rid of their Pro Bowl calibre quarterback? It just doesn't add up. The NFC is wide open. In the last 10 years the only team to make a return trip to the Super Bowl from the NFC has been the New York Giants (2000 and 2007.) The Eagles went 11-5 in 2009 so logically with McNabb at quarterback the team will be right in the thick of things next year. With Kevin Kolb? Not so much.

When the Eagles finally do trade McNabb there will be cheers in Dallas, New York, and Washington. Kolb will come in and suffer through the struggles of most young quarterbacks and Eagles fans will realize they had it good with McNabb. From perennial Super Bowl contenders to 6-10. Enjoy the downgrade Philadelphia.