# McNabb - Visiting the trade a year later **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 18, 2010, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcnabb-visiting-the-trade-a-year-later/564577 "2010-12-18T00:48:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcnabb-visiting-the-trade-a-year-later/564577/21 "2010-12-20T16:57:12Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > that idiot Vinny Cerrato Hey, it’s possible Vinny Cerrato isn’t an idiot – he could be a _Dallas fan_ working undercover. ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcnabb-visiting-the-trade-a-year-later/564577/22 "2010-12-20T18:27:36Z")
Interesting [stats](http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/4650/career): This year, McNabb has a 58.3% completion rate, averaging 259 Yds/Game, and a QB rating of 77.1 Over his career, he has a 58.9% completion rate, averaging 225 Yds/Game, and a QB rating of 85.7 The main difference is the TD/INT ratio of 14:15 this year, vs. a career average of about 19:10. My thoughts in the previous thread were > [@](#): > > Washington gets a QB with tremendous talent but incredibly poor consistency with respect to mechanics and winning big games… if Shanahan can make a SB winner out of McNabb, Reid will be exposed as the company-guy who drafts talent but can’t tap their potential; the guy who wins games but can’t win the big game… It looks like he still has poor consistency and mechanics, and has not led Washington to big game wins.. Shanahan didn’t make him a SB-winner, and Reid appeared to drop him when the time was right. A win for the Eagles, a bad move for Washington, but it looks like he will be out of there soon after the final whistle in week 17. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcnabb-visiting-the-trade-a-year-later/564577/23 "2010-12-20T19:43:30Z")
::SIGH:: Mcnabb couldn’t be a Super Bowl winner in his prime. Good and very good at prime career time was not enough. Was time to move on, and as a side effect this further highlighted Mcnabb’s weakness, and the weaknesses are a bit more magnified due to age. Reid knew Mcnabb down to the core. I was harsh and then some in my criticism. Some folks thought I was being spoiled for not accepting just winning, when I insisted in Philadelphia we want a Super Bowl victory. When it was clear it couldn’t be Mcnabb, demanding fans were glad to see him go. The Redskins are a train wreck. Mcnabb was part victim and part culprit this year. ---
**Author:** ![Hawkeyeop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/958977/32.png) [@Hawkeyeop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hawkeyeop)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcnabb-visiting-the-trade-a-year-later/564577/24 "2010-12-20T20:55:30Z")
It is amazing that a good team changes quarterbacks and still is good and a bad team changes qbs and remains bad is taken as proof that quarterbacks are the overwhelming determining factor as to whether a team can win a championship. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcnabb-visiting-the-trade-a-year-later/564577/25 "2010-12-20T21:03:13Z")
Well… how should we proceed then? We should do what – exactly – when we have a QB that seems to lack something? Should we disregard any issues or should we address/discuss them? Tom Brady and Michael Vick are doing some amazing things. With them, their teams might be “just” one little win better than without. If you follow sports… well, then need I go on? Yep… 12-4 with a great QB or 11-5 with an okay guy. Then, there are the playoffs. The 11-5 guy got you in, but you had to travel, and he was about 1 play less effective than the great QB come playoff time. That. Is. Huge. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcnabb-visiting-the-trade-a-year-later/564577/26 "2010-12-20T21:15:51Z")
> [@Jules\_Andre](#): > > There’s one last thing that may prove important. The Eagles traded McNabb for a second round pick in 2010 and _either a 3rd or 4th round pick in 2011_, depending on a couple factors. It’s a fourth unless one of these three happen: > 1.) McNabb makes the Pro Bowl. Impossible, at this point. > 2.) The Redskins win 9 games. Impossible, at this point. > 3.) McNabb plays 70% of the team’s snaps. > > So, McNabb is suddenly and shocking benched with three games left in the season, with little to no good explanation (from a coach who, in his explanations for benching McNabb before, very likely flat out lied). I can’t find any indication whether this is still in play or not, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Shanahan benched McNabb to protect that pick not because it had anything to do with his level of play this season. _COUGH COUGH COUGH_ I’m not sure that Shanahan really, really thought Interceptosaurus Rex gave him the best chance to win. Hope for his sake the 'Skins don’t piss away that third-round pick…ah, what am I saying. Of course they will. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcnabb-visiting-the-trade-a-year-later/564577/27 "2010-12-21T04:12:13Z")
I had to check to see if I had said anything remotely stupid in the old thread. I was pretty optimistic and I thought the O-line would be better… well, they did draft Williams and they played better. Granted we only have the Dallas game to look at… but once the first quarter was done Grossman looked pretty damn good. He did turn into Rex Grossman at the end of the game, but the ball was spread around to seven different receivers. They didn’t run the ball at all hardly, despite having a beast in Torain. I’ve watched every game this season - and really, outside of the Houston game when McNabb threw for almost 500 yards, he hasn’t looked good. Now there are tons of problems in DC - but McNabb played terribly and for the longest time, I was convinced that the Shanahans were the problem. But Grossman’s performance suggests that maybe there is something to their comments about his preparation, familiarity with the playbook. If Grossman plays as well as he did yesterday next week then I will be very skeptical of how McNabb approached this season. ---
**Author:** ![Jules\_Andre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jules_andre/32/9334_2.png) [@Jules\_Andre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jules_Andre)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcnabb-visiting-the-trade-a-year-later/564577/28 "2010-12-21T08:21:29Z")
There’s also that thing about the Cowboys having the 28th ranked pass defense too. They make people look better than they are. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcnabb-visiting-the-trade-a-year-later/564577/29 "2010-12-21T13:33:30Z")
Without looking, I can say I stand by what I said then: McNabb is not a Hall of Fame Quarterback, but he was Very Good, and is still Pretty Good. He was not awful this year. It was time for him to go in Philly as they are surrounded, but he was a poor fit for the Redskins, who are in need of wholesale rebuilding from the ground up. The only part that is shocking/sad to me was the extension last month. It’s shocking if the Skins are so inept that they sign a guy to an extension, and then give up on him a month later. That’s raw incompetence. Of course, it’s likely that Skins’ plan is to sign him so they can trade him for a pick. If that’s the case, I’m shocked that McNabb was so clueless as to not sense that he was not dwelling in the favor of Kyle Shanahan. It’s possible, however, that McNabb knew full well that his time was short, and was willing to pass up free agency and accept being traded in return for a few million. That would be sad. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcnabb-visiting-the-trade-a-year-later/564577/30 "2010-12-22T17:01:03Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I was a critic of this trade, but ditching McNabb for _Rex fucking Grossman??_ Have the Shanahans lost their fucking _minds??_ ISTM that the Shanahans lost their fucking _options_. AIUI, Grossman is the #2 QB and does have NFL starting experience. Who would you have gone with, the #3 QB with even less experience? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcnabb-visiting-the-trade-a-year-later/564577/31 "2010-12-23T15:21:40Z")
My take now isn’t that different from what it was at the time of the trade. I’ve always thought McNabb was a very good but not great NFL quarterback. I still do. I thought he was the best quarterback the Eagles had, but I knew he was starting to get old. Andy Reid is a very good, very smart coach, so I understood why he thought it was time to look to the future. I still do. Trading McNabb might have been a good move even if Kevin Kolb had been healthy and starting all season. It looks like a BRILLIANT move now, solely because Michael Vick turned out to be much better than expected. That said, I don’t think McNabb is completely washed up. I think he could definitely be a productive starter for another 2+ years. He just had the misfortune to play for a coach who has turned into a raging egomaniac (maybe he always was one and I just didn’t know) who has mishandled EVERY big decision this year. Mike Shanahan has been so determined to prove his manhood and his power that he has turned every decision into an unnecessary battle. If he didn’t like Albert Haynsworth, Shanahan should have just said, “You’re not worth the trouble, Albert, I’m cutting you,” and everyone would have understood. Instead, he’s been playing mind games with Albert all season. If Shanahan had told McNabb early in the season, “I’m really sorry, Donovan, you’ve been a great player, but you’re just not the right fit for my offense,” people would have understood. Instead, Shanahan has jerked around McNabb unforgivably. I used to admire Shanahan as a coach, but this year, he seems like Eric Cartman, always snarling “Respect my authori-TAH!” The Eagles were probably right to trade McNabb, but I still think he can come back and have a few more good years. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcnabb-visiting-the-trade-a-year-later/564577/32 "2010-12-23T15:25:58Z")
Agreed on Shanahan. McNabb should have a bunch of offers next year (provided he’s not held hostage in Washington) to play the “Kurt Warner in NY” role babysitting a first round rookie QB. San Fran and Arizona would be top contenders for his services, IMO. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcnabb-visiting-the-trade-a-year-later/564577.md?page=1)