Superior, yes, but I’ve never seen him as a featured back-type. A solid runner, but absolutely no big-play ability. As it stands, though, I think he’s perfect for his cuurrent role as a backup who gets to start twice a year.
Here’s a question: what will become of Cadillac Williams? I’m a Bucs fan, and I love the guy, but I don’t see him remaining on the roster for more than a year 
We’ll trade ya for one barely used former Texas RB.
You can keep him. Our Auburn boy is an even worse injury risk but at least he runs hard…
As was mentioned earlier, Westbrook, just over the last couple years, became more than just a change of pace/third down RB.
McNabb is in a completion friendly scheme…excepting of course that your WRs absolutely need to be able to make separation in a timing based system. Philly has had exactly one WR who could consistently create separation in McNabb’s career. Funny that he posted an exceptional, career-high, completion percentage the one year he got to play with a WR who actually had talent. And what’s the bar for completion percentage anyway?
McNabb is a huge injury risk, and his career completion percentage isn’t stellar, but this is still an elite QB with one of the NFL’s all time best TD-INT ratios. Why doesn’t he get any credit? Why do people still consider him a “mobile QB?” Nothing in football confuses me more than people’s opinions of McNabb.
Fans really want Kevin Kolb? Has he proven anything? What about AJ Feeley (who blew the Patriots game)? Why go back to an unproven QB making rookie mistakes? I don’t get it, this isn’t rocket surgery. You want a QB who limits his mistakes and can make plays. So you don’t want McNabb (who is good at both), but you DO want Kolb, who by everyone’s estimation was a reach in the second round of the draft, and played at a mid-major with one of those “passer-friendly-schemes” we all hear about that doesn’t help when adjusting to the Pros. Great.
The Lions released Fernando Bryant. Our best cornerback, who was really looking pretty solid and was above average against the run is gone. For nothing.
If we’re gearing up to sign Asante Samuel, I may jab my eyes out with a plastic fork.
Can’t we just draft two or three cornerbacks and have kept Bryant? I hate life.
Uh oh. I’m starting to get a bit of a man-crush on Joe Flacco. He’s performing great at the combine and has climbed up into that middle-second round range right where the Bears could grab him. Some people are speculating that the Bears might trade up to get Ryan if he slides into that 5 or 6 range, I’d prefer to get Flacco in the 2nd but odds are too good that another team will take him first. April 26th will be a stressful day.
Perfect world we get Ryan Clady at #14 and Joe Flacco at #44. Seems like a pipe dream though since both the Ravens and Panthers have basically the same needs we do and they draft ahead of us.
I’ve always thought completion percentage was an extremely overrated stat and I tend not even to think about it when evaluating QBs. Yards per attempt is a much much more valuable indicator and yet doesn’t get a fraction of the publicity and discussion that completion percentage does.
I would guess that completion percentage only loosely correlates to a quarterback’s accuracy - the scheme they’re working in, play calling, and receivers are a huge factor. You could take a 58% completion percentage to a 63% percentage by throwing two more flare passes to the RB per game.
McNabb is a bit odd. I feel that he’s underrated because when he’s on, he’s one of the best. But that hasn’t happened much since 2006.
I don’t know the situation in Philly, but I’d guess that dumping McNabb is going to send them to last place in their division. You can’t count on some 3rd or 4th round quality QB prospect to step in and replace a guy who’s really really good sometimes.
That said, I wouldn’t trade high picks or want that contract either. Maybe a 2nd round pick if I were Minnesota… or possibly Chicago or Baltimore, depending on their cap situations.
We just signed Grossman for $3 Million (plus $2M in incentives) for 2008. Orton is in talks to get a one-year extension to his current deal which would lock him up until 2009 and the dollar figures are expected to be in the same ballpark as Grossman’s deal. That means the Bears are likely to be on the hook for at least $5 million, and as much as $8 million, at the QB position in 2008. Bringing in McNabb’s $10 million would take the Bears investment to QBs up to $15+ million, about 14% of their cap. That would make it very unlikely that they’d be able to resign Berrian or Briggs and would make adding another WR impossible. Combined with giving up draft picks it’s simply not going to happen unless McNabb agrees to a big pay cut.
So who’s been following the Combine and getting itchy for the draft?
They’re already there. The Giants, Cowboys and Redskins all made the playoffs last year.
I’m inexplicably jacked for both free agency and the draft. Free agency starts on Friday, yes?
You’d think I’d just be basking in the glow and not thinking about anything other than that shiny new trophy the G-Men just brought home. While there is definitely a lot of that going on, I’m really exceited about seeing who they bring in despite having very few areas of need, lacking the fire-sale roster exodus that so often kills Superbowl winners.
And the post I just made brought me way more pleasure than it should have.
Yes, yes it does. Going to be a very interesting first week of March I wager.
I’m starting to get The Itch. I now want a buttload of cornerbacks, starting with Kansas’ Aquib Talib.
I now have a slight football lust for Josh Johnson.
Yep. And actually, first round picks are overrated, given the salary structure.
I’d rather try for a one and two twos, and settle for a one, a two, and a three.
That’s only true if you actually use them and sign the player. The Eagles are absolutely better off getting the #1s even if they trade them both ala the Patriots.
First, please allow me this slight hijack: why is Boise State’s field blue?
Back to your regularly scheduled program: there is a lot of good video at nfl.com - top prospects at different positions, scouting reports, interviews, combine results, etc. If anyone has good links for Combine info, please post them.
I’d like to focus on RB for now, because I’m an Illini and think the world of Rashard Mendenhall. McFadden ran a 4.3something, but Rashard clocked a 4.4something and can run with a hell of a lot more power. Why shouldn’t he be the first RB taken? Go here, and go to the end until you hit “Top 5 running backs”.
Finally, my Bears are lopping off some deadwood, but they have to fill the holes with something. Can they?
I don’t think the Ravens need a QB. I am perfectly happy with Kyle Boller. He’s not a Brady/Farve/Manning superstar; he can’t carry a team on his own, but I’ve been watching him very, very closely since 2005, and when the players around him have put forth even reasonably competent effort, he has produced solid results. Yes, he was up and down last year, but so was McNair and so was Smith, and if you were watching (I was), they were up and down with the team as a whole. I remember one game in particular where Boller looked awful, but watching the line play Ogden(it was right as he came back from injury) was standing an a 2 point stance letting the DE blast by him all day. No QB, I don’t care if his name is Unitas, is capable of doing anything when the defensive line is in the pocket before the QB. I have high hopes that Cam Cameron can resurrect Boller’s career like he did for Drew Brees. I see the Ravens as having the most pressing need at DE(unless Pryce is healthy), CB, OL and WR, and LB and S depth would be nice. Unfortunately they are in very restrictive cap situation this year, so we’ll have to see what they are actually able to do.
Meh. I’m in a good mood from that blowjob your mom just gave me.
Here’s the problem: quarterbacks are judged by team success. That probably isn’t totally fair, but it is the way it is and it’s not going to change.
Let’s assume that McNabb comes back this year and plays well. Not Peyton or Brady well, but a 90.0 rating and the Eagles win 10 or 11 games before losing in the second round of the playoffs. Will this be a successful season for the Eagles? No. At this point, for this nucleus of players that McNabb leads, success is a championship and nothing else. Anything less and it’s going to be “Once again, Reid and McNabb choke.”
The team is in a funk and needs something to be a breath of fresh air. I wouldn’t have minded a coaching change, but since it appears that isn’t going to happen, the only thing left is the QB. Based on interviews last year, it seems like #5 is kind of wishing for a change of scenery himself.
So long as he’s still there, the issue of whether he should go will keep being a distracting issue; and unless he wins a championship, it’ll never be more than two bad games from coming back no matter how well he plays. Again; maybe it’s not fair or right, but it’s the reality of the way things are in Philly at this point.
Feely was never anything but a backup, and people calling for him are/were idiots. Kolb is an entirely different story, and you are wrong to underestimate him. He was not by “everyone’s estimation” a reach; lots of draft boards had him as the 3rd QB. I am not concerned by his conference (6 of the 10 highest rated QBs in the NFL last year came from non-BCS schools) nor by the fact that he ran a spread-type offense in college (Drew Brees, Phillip Rivers, Steve McNair, Vince Young, David Garrard).
More importantly to me, Football Outsiders have applied objective criteria to QB prospects for the last few seasons, with a good track record of predicting success; they had him as better than Quinn and way better than Russell.
Given a very good QB prospect, given that McNabb seems ready to go, given that his ongoing health issues make him unreliable, given that the team needs a breath of fresh air, given that this is not a creaking old veteran team, but one that actually is set up pretty well to contend for the next few years, and given that I said such a move should happen IF they got good value in trade … yes, I’m ready to give the new guy a shot.
No, I’d argue they’re ONLY better off if they trade them.
If you’re going to stipulate that one of the first-rounders is turned around and dealt, fine. But they are not currency, and they are not totally fungible; you might get stuck with those picks, and having (say) four first-rounders in two seasons takes up an enormous chunk of your cap, especially if you’re “lucky” enough to have those picks wind up in the top ten.
As much as I tried to admit I would be satisfied with that, I can’t. You’re right, it wouldn’t be enough. But then again, it was tempting, considering that the rest of the division made the playoffs, and the Eagles didn’t. I’m not convinced that the Eagles are worse than the other teams in the division. The Eagles split the series with both the Cowboys and Redskins, and should have won the second Giants game. It’s going to be a hard fought season, and so I should be satisfied with the playoffs, but I wouldn’t be.
Here’s my question. We know what we get with McNabb, we don’t with Kolb. Is 10 games of McNabb and a chance at going to the playoffs and competing, better than going through 16 games of an unproven rookie who will make rookie mistakes and cost the team games? Part of the problem with trading McNabb is that you don’t know what you’re getting back for a long, long time. Chances are, any picks traded for will be busts anyway, and at that point you’ve already pulled the trigger on McNabb and you can’t go back. It’s a “bird in the hand” situation. I’m stuck, I don’t know. On one hand, I like McNabb and I think he’s one of the best in the league, but he IS older, he IS unreliable, he doesn’t have the pieces he needs to be really successful, and the team is in arguably the toughest division in football. If the team isn’t winning anything anyway, why not develop the kid? Good thing I’m not making the decisions. I wouldn’t be able to in this case.