What do we make of Donovan McNabb's career in 2019?

[Apparition]

6 pro bowls, 5 trips to the NFC title game, 1 trip to the Super Bowl, 98-62-1 as a starter (92-49-1 with the Eagles)

And yet he's become an afterthought when the first two decades of the 21st century in the NFL are discussed. 

[Leoric]

System quarterback. I will eat flak for it but without Reid I think he would have had a very average career. When hurt, Reid put AJ Feeley, Kevin Kolb, Mike Mchahon and Jeff Garcia in with minimal drop off.

 

Then again maybe I’m still salty that T.O. Wasn’t the one that got tired in the Super Bowl and couldn’t jog to the line of scrimmage and snap the ball. 

[Forge]

Just now, Boltstrikes said:

System quarterback. I will eat flak for it but without Reid I think he would have had a very average career. When hurt, Reid put AJ Feeley, Kevin Kolb, Mike Mchahon and Jeff Garcia in with minimal drop off.

 

Then again maybe I’m still salty that T.O. Wasn’t the one that got tired in the Super Bowl and couldn’t jog to the line of scrimmage and snap the ball. 

I don't think that this is an unreasonable take. I think he was probably a solid, above average and sometimes good quarterback who was helped quite a bit by Reid. That's not meant to damn him or anything, I feel like there are quite a few quarterbacks out there who were enhanced by their coaches. Takes a lot to go right. Not just about the talent. 

[Jakuvious]

59 minutes ago, Boltstrikes said:

System quarterback. I will eat flak for it but without Reid I think he would have had a very average career. When hurt, Reid put AJ Feeley, Kevin Kolb, Mike Mchahon and Jeff Garcia in with minimal drop off.

 

Then again maybe I’m still salty that T.O. Wasn’t the one that got tired in the Super Bowl and couldn’t jog to the line of scrimmage and snap the ball. 

I don't know that I'd call him a system quarterback. That to me implies he would only succeed in a certain system. Where I think it's more of a situation where he was just heavily elevated by his coaching staff. Not Reid's system specifically, just Reid's caliber of coaching (and Johnson's, if we want to include how much the D enabled that W/L record.)

Honestly, I think McNabb is held in appropriate regard for the time. I don't think he's any more ignored or disrespected than the guys he was typically on the level of year to year in the early 2000s, like Matt Hasselbeck, Marc Bulger, Trent Green, etc. He was in that 2000s tier of you can win with him, but not entirely because of him. That tier just isn't going to be talked about a whole lot. Especially if they didn't wind up winning one.

[Elky]

Overrated trash.

[Leoric]

16 minutes ago, Jakuvious said:

I don't know that I'd call him a system quarterback. That to me implies he would only succeed in a certain system. Where I think it's more of a situation where he was just heavily elevated by his coaching staff. Not Reid's system specifically, just Reid's caliber of coaching (and Johnson's, if we want to include how much the D enabled that W/L record.)

Honestly, I think McNabb is held in appropriate regard for the time. I don't think he's any more ignored or disrespected than the guys he was typically on the level of year to year in the early 2000s, like Matt Hasselbeck, Marc Bulger, Trent Green, etc. He was in that 2000s tier of you can win with him, but not entirely because of him. That tier just isn't going to be talked about a whole lot. Especially if they didn't wind up winning one.

The biggest comparison I remember at the time was people saying McNabb and Culpepper were better the Next McNair. Fantasy football was in its big boom stage and they were both rated over a QB who as you pointed out was the kind of QB you’d win because of, not with. McNabb has stats and accolades over McNair but there is zero chance anyone can convince me he was a larger deciding factor in his team’s success. I’m not saying McNabb would have been trash or out of the league elsewhere, just wow did he benefit from Reid and the Eagles take away defense. I truly wish he’d have played elsewhere earlier in his career cause while I’d love to point at his Washington time to reinforce my view; we all know he had zero athleticism left at that point. 

[Thomas5737]

He is still around, we should ask him.

[Uncle Buck]

2 hours ago, Elky said:

Overrated trash.

I certainly wouldn't characterize him as a trash player.  He was a very good QB.  Not a Hall of Famer by any means, but still very good.  A team could do a lot worse than drafting him if they needed a QB of the future.

[Blackstar12]

2 hours ago, Elky said:

Overrated trash.

That's a little harsh where would you rank him in todays league?

[ET80]

13 hours ago, Uncle Buck said:

I certainly wouldn't characterize him as a trash player.  He was a very good QB.  Not a Hall of Famer by any means, but still very good.  A team could do a lot worse than drafting him if they needed a QB of the future.

This is my take. He was a good QB in a very good situation - he was tone deaf to the media when speaking and probably not the hardest worker in the film room, but he was still a serviceable QB for a while, with a few seasons of above average play.

Of the three QBs taken at the top of his draft, he was far and away the best of the group; Tim Couch had significant injuries that derailed him and Akili Smith was just a head scratcher from the get go, but McNabb was able to live up to his billing.

[Elky]

6 hours ago, Uncle Buck said:

I certainly wouldn't characterize him as a trash player.  He was a very good QB.  Not a Hall of Famer by any means, but still very good.  A team could do a lot worse than drafting him if they needed a QB of the future.

Maybe up until his Super Bowl appearance, but McNabb was a subpar starter afterwards.

 

Quote

Of the three QBs taken at the top of his draft, he was far and away the best of the group; Tim Couch had significant injuries that derailed him and Akili Smith was just a head scratcher from the get go, but McNair was able to live up to his billing.

Irrelevent. That doesn't hide the fact that McNabb still sucked for most of his career.

[Soko]

He was a good QB. Doesn’t sniff the HOF, but a very good QB.

[Nabbs4u]

Name me another QB from his Era besides Tom Brady, that did more with less? Put up equal or better numbers then him?

It's no coincidence that the only year he had a Legit #1 WR (TO), We made the SB. When your best Reciever is your RB's  (Westbrook/Shady), there is a problem. When your trotting out there crap like Lewis, Pinkston, Thrash, Brown, Mr. hands of stone LJ Smith and the GOAT of All WR's Freddy "Thank My Hands" Mitchell. It's a GD miracle he put up the stats he did and was able go move the ball at all.

You mention Andy's system but ignore the fact that those other QB weren't asked to do what McNabb did when inserted as backups. Go out there and chuck it up 70% of the time despite having legit RB like Staley, Westbrook  and McCoy. 

Andy's Superman Complex with McNabb (go make wine out of water because you can) was his downfall. Their complete failure and inability as a FO to give him a legit WR core for almost a decade is an absolute travesty!

Tell me McNabbs career and that of the Early 2000's Eagles wouldn't be drastically different if ANY of these WR's in the 2001 Draft after Freddy Mitchell was picked at #25,  was taken instead? Godforbid two of them?

#30 Reggie Wayne

#36 Chad Johnson

#74 Steve Smith

.

.

.hell

#204 TJ Housyamomma would of been the best WR he ever had besides TO / and DeSean a decade later. 

 

There aren't many Elite QB's in the history of the game, that didn't have legit help at WR. That's the difference between McNabb and his peers TBH. 

Hall of Very Good but not Fame!

[Elky]

In 2009 McNabb had DeSean Jackson, pre-injury Jeremy Maclin, Brent Celek, LeSean McCoy and an elite offensive line. What does he do with all that talent? Lay an egg in the playoffs against Dallas. Reid then shipped his out of shape *** to Washington and coached Michael Vick to a career year.

Here's a post from an Eagles fan on Walter Football about McNabb. Parts of it haven't aged well, but his criticisms of McNabb are spot on:

https://forum.walterfootball.com/

[Danger]

12 hours ago, Boltstrikes said:

System quarterback. I will eat flak for it but without Reid I think he would have had a very average career. When hurt, Reid put AJ Feeley, Kevin Kolb, Mike Mchahon and Jeff Garcia in with minimal drop off.

I agree.

Sincerely,

an Eagles fan.