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


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38 minutes ago, Elky said:

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 his best year ever.

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/

Until 2004, the Eagles lack of talent was awful, but once McNabb got TO he didn't have that excuse anymore.

When your cast of weapons are: 

WR James Thrash
WR Todd "Aligator Arms" Pinkston
WR Freddie "Better than Randy Moss" Mitchell
TE Chad Lewis
RB Duce Staley

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Saying he was trash is hyperbolic, but I agree he isn't sniffing the Hall. I'll always believe the primary reason for Philly's success on the 2000's was Jim Johnson and the defense. Donovan McNabb was a good QB but too inconsistent and unreliable. If we were down by one score in the 4th, I always assumed we were going to lose.

Of Donovan's 9 playoff wins, only one was by one score and the defense never allowed 20 points. Aside from the 4th and 26 game, Donovan was never a good pressure/clutch QB.

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History won't be kind to him because of the video game numbers everyone is putting up now, but I'll remember him as one of the better QBs who could produce with very little around him, at least in his prime. For whatever reason, when he got more help it didn't scale much. I think he was underrated in his earlier years, and not that great but still a good starter in his later year until he fell apart.

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McNabb was dope until he stopped being a threat to run for 50+ yards and just became a pocket passer (thanks in part to injuries).  I think people would remember him more fondly if he wasn't such a doofus with his opinions. I don't think very many QB's could have taken those Eagles teams to the NFCCG with the booty surrounding cast he had most of the time he was here. By the time we got D Jax and Maclin, Donovan's athleticism and ability to improvise and extend plays was sapped. Our Jim Johnson defenses always seemed to have their worst game of the year in those NFCCG's too, but the game vs the Bucs was definitely on McNabb basically playing catch with Ronde Barber.

Edited by Jeezla
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20 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.

 

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. 

Every player is a system player, I genuinely hate this critique. Players and systems are inexorably intertwined, you can't separate the aspects of the game. There's no such thing as a systemless player not even the most prodigiously talented. 

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Hall of Very Good. He put up pretty damn good numbers with trash supporting casts. Back in 2001, McNabb was basically the entire offense since Duce Staley got injured and the Birds has no semblance of a running game.

 He never won the big game but five NFC Championship game appearances is nothing to scoff at. Donovan’s downfall was that he got lazy and out of shape near the end of his career. He was consistently getting injured and the fans started to sour on him. The miraculous 2008 run ending was basically the door slamming shut on the Andy/McNabb/JJ era.

A mobile McNabb with those suffocating, blitz-heavy defenses. Ahhh the glory days. Screw you Bucs and Panthers lol

 

 

 

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9 hours ago, Art_Vandalay said:

Saying he was trash is hyperbolic, but I agree he isn't sniffing the Hall. I'll always believe the primary reason for Philly's success on the 2000's was Jim Johnson and the defense. Donovan McNabb was a good QB but too inconsistent and unreliable. If we were down by one score in the 4th, I always assumed we were going to lose.

Of Donovan's 9 playoff wins, only one was by one score and the defense never allowed 20 points. Aside from the 4th and 26 game, Donovan was never a good pressure/clutch QB.

Some folks have trouble with the notion that there's a lot of white space between trash and HoF-caliber.

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13 hours ago, ET80 said:

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.

Daunte Culpepper was also drafted that year if I'm remembering correctly.

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11 hours ago, Elky said:

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.

You mean the Game where McNabb threw for 230yds 1TD 1Int, sacked 4 times and the Eagles RB's rushed for 53 yds?

Maybe if the Eagles Defense didn't get gashed/abused for 200 Rushing yards by future HOF'rs Felix Jones and Tashard Choice,   Romo's whopping 244 yds and 2TD doesn't score 34pts?

**What McNabb did with that talent was lead the Eagles to the 5th best Offense in the NFL that season and set several Eagles Offensive records in the process! It was our 23rd ranked Defense that was atrocious and in many ways still realing from the loss of Jim Johnson that season. Let's not get it twisted to fit an agenda. 

Edited by Nabbs4u
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42 minutes ago, Duluther said:

Good for him that the majority of his career was prior to that SB. He was far from trash.

Except it was literally the halfway mark.

99-04: 6 seasons

05-10: 6 seasons

Edited by Elky
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41 minutes ago, Nabbs4u said:

You mean the Game where McNabb threw for 230yds 1TD 1Int, sacked 4 times and the Eagles RB's rushed for 53 yds?

Maybe if the Eagles Defense didn't get gashed/abused for 200 Rushing yards by future HOF'rs Felix Jones and Tashard Choice,   Romo's whopping 244 yds and 2TD doesn't score 34pts?

**What McNabb did with that talent was lead the Eagles to the 5th best Offense in the NFL that season and set several Eagles Offensive records in the process! It was our 23rd ranked Defense that was atrocious and in many ways still realing from the loss of Jim Johnson that season. Let's not get it twisted to fit an agenda. 

Or how about the week prior where a win would have given them a home playoff game and they got shut out?

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