During and after the season, the following NFL football teams changed head coaches: Carolina Panthers, Oakland Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, Minnesota Vikings, Cleveland Browns, Tennessee Titans, and Denver Broncos. That’s seven teams that fired their head coach and hired another one, which is almost a quarter of the league.
In the NFL as in other areas of life, perception is reality. Head coaches throughout the NFL have noticed that coaches who don’t get productive seasons by their quarterbacks, get fired. In previous eras, owners were willing to struggle for a few years and in order to wait for a head coach to get his system in place.
Now when NFL owners see a Tampa Bay team turn around overnight with young coach Raheem Morris and young quarterback Josh Freeman, they also want immediate success. When owners around the league see the immediate success of rookie quarterback Sam Bradford, they have become more impatient therefore head coaches don’t have the luxury of waiting.
That’s why I believe Kolb’s stock will continue to rise to the point where another NFL team will be willing to give up at least a first-round draft pick and maybe more to acquire him.
There’s a lot of talk about Kolb, today on Super Bowl Sunday. You’ve heard about the report by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who let us know that Arizona’s Pro Bowl wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald has encouraged the Cardinals to acquire the services of Kolb from the Eagles. Fitzgerald’s contract will be up after next season, so the Cardinals are probably taking his comments very seriously.
Now you have the NFL Network’s Albert Breer writing about his belief that the Seattle Seahawks may make another run at Kolb. Breer talked about how the Seahawks went after Kolb last year, but he thinks they could go after him again.
“One way for the Seahawks to address their quarterbacking question could be to make another run at Kevin Kolb. And trust this: If Kolb is out there, there will be plenty of suitors for his services, and the Eagles will be able to extract a pretty hefty haul. Remember, the Browns and Seahawks made inquiries last offseason about Kolb but were rebuffed as it became clear the Eagles preference was to deal Donovan McNabb. Cleveland, of course, has insight because of GM Tom Heckert’s Philadelphia roots, while Seattle was another West Coast offense team that figured Kolb’s transition could be a smooth one. The Browns’ interest might be gone because of the emergence of Colt McCoy, but other pursuers that weren’t around, like the Cardinals, 49ers and Vikings, could be in the running this time. Makes sense, right, that a 26-year-old quarterback with an Andy Reid pedigree would be in demand? Of course it does. So expect the price to be pretty steep.”
You know that Andy Reid, Howie Roseman, Joe Banner, and the rest of the Eagles brass are reading these stories and smiling. They’re also making note of the report by Schefter. The Birds front office is thinking about upping the ante of what they will want for the services of Kevin Kolb. They may have been thinking about a first-round pick previously, but now they’re thinking about a first-round pick and a player or additional pick.
We as Eagles fans remember all Kolb’s troubles, which he has had quite a few. Look at it from a team with weapons needing a quarterback. It’s not hard for the team to sell the fans on a guy that was named offensive player of the week 2 times last year that sat behind Vick. Teams like the Cardinals and 49ers will run to set up the pass and not put the whole game on the qb’s shoulders. kolb is a guy that can start in week 1 and make a run for the playoffs. This is especially true with the lack of stud college qb’s in the draft.
When I read articles like this, about the apparent high interest in Kolb, I think of the numerous posters here who deride Kolb, his abilities, his arm strength, his toughness, and I wonder, do these posters have more football acumen than NFL general managers, players like Fitzgerald, who apparently see a lot of potential in Kolb, or do the posters here have some other agenda that motivates them to write the things they do, calling him a “bum”, “baby arm”, willing to trade him “for a bus ride”.
Add in the reality that if a team misses on a QB in the top 10 it will set their franchise back 5 years and therefore their jobs. I would think that a team like Arizona might consider Kolb’s $1.6 million salary next year a safeguard against him being a finanial disaster should he prove to be a bust. Kolb is the smart safe choice!
Precisely jakedog
Great point DixieFan,
The Cardinals trading their 1st Rd pick for Kolb and his low risk Salary wise is a very smart choice for the cheap owners of the Cardinals..
They can let the Eagle have that 1st Round selection (#5 Overall) and let the Eagles assume the risk of paying that selected player a guaranteed
$10-$20 Million before that player ever takes a snap in the NFL..
I’ve watched every pass in this mans career… I’m not gunna say he’s a bum, I’m not gunna say he’s crap but mark my words… This guy is nothing special.
He struggles to read d’s.
He has a weak arm.
He is streaky.
He is a system qb who could do well on a team that runs screens, slants and short crossing routes. The team that grabs him better run A LOT.
He brings nothing special to the table.
I hope we pull off a major trade and pull the wool over the leagues eyes.
What are these rumors flying around eagles blog sites about Gruden joining the Eagles, becoming official Tuesday? G you know anything about this?
Lol…. Not true at all. What would he be?
Kolb is a decent QB schooled well under Reid. He needs to go to the “right” team to be successful. If not, he is better off sitting behind Vick.
The article on espn just says Fitzgerald was asked and he said Kolb, then Bulger….in fact, there is no direct quote at all. It could very well be Fitzgerald just rattled off a couple of names and Kolb’s was first…but this assumption that it was a ringing endorsement is kinda funny. If Fitzgerald was adamant about Kolb, that would have been made quite clear. I think its cute though that once again, something is being assumed as far as context and turned into something it probably isn’t.
again….Kolb is just a guy.
He’s not the type of player that can carry a team or lift carry players to victory in a comback situation.. he’s just not built like that. He throws too many interceptions and gets very sporadic once hit.
If he have a solid running game with top offensive linemen, and weapons at the receiver position, he can win a servicable part yet that can be said for most quarterbacks. Kolb is nothing special but the Eagles are in a good position here based on Kolb’s low salary due for this coming season along with his age compared to what’s out there.
This plays into other teams overvalue in a tight market, so I’ll take it.
If Kolb succeed or fails…..who cares?
The percentages are against him unless he’s starting for the steelers or another run happy organization.
He never was a fit here, so if we can get a top pick this Eagles Brass will come up smelling like roses.
Same logic Songs that I use about D-JAx..
He’s a west Coast guy, he won’t last physically in the NFL in 2-3 more years,
Why not trade him him now to maximiz the Eagles returns..
There are lots of good WR’s in Free-Agency that would love to play with Vick like a S Rice, V Jackson, M Floyd. etc,etc.. Why not move D-Jax also and get a couple of picks along with trading Kolb to get more picks and rebuilt this Defense and O/Line…
Exactly songs- said the same thing 5 posts ago.
Paman- NO!! Kolb is a backup djax is a starter and you are a panthers fan.
Not a Panthers fan (even with McDermott in town)
I am an Eagle fan and Kolb can be a Starter for about 1/2 Dozen teams in the NFL somewhere.. .
I still cannot understand why there is a segment of fans that continue to hate kolb so much…..he is the 2nd string qb on this team….if he can bring value to the team via a trade, why continue to throw so much hate his way?
I believe that Reid made a mistake about not having an open competition for the QB position…maybe that is what has so many hating him…but was that HIS fault? The guy has been a team player his whole time here….did he whine and bitch when he lost his job…no…he supported Vick and continued to be involved with the team as much as you can on the sidelines….so why keep busting on him?
Let the guy get out of town…let the eagles get a good draft pick and we move forward with the better QB.
Greenfan. No hate, just being real. Kolb had a chance here and did nothing. I wish him well wherever he goes. I just dont see it happening. If you read my posts from before the season started you will find that i supported him. I had hope that he would get it done. I had not seen anything from him that led me to believe it was time to trade …..(you know who) but i was willing to take the team at its word. It did not work. He is not special. Its time to get something for him.
agreed greenfan.
2 things
Coach AR probably didn’t open up a real QB Competition last SUmmer since
VIck at that point still really didn’t show much, that he had his legs back and or that he was ready enough mentally to master the play book in which he probed to everyone in October that he did.. If you recall, Vick looked very shakey in PRe-Season games too (as did Kolb) I just think Coach Ar and the Eagles as a whole caught lightning in a bottle with VIvk and no one expected him to play at the level that he did..
#2) Kold has had 6-7 Starts ove r2 Seasons, so no, he really hasn’t gotten a
real look or a long enough shot to determine wither way if he’s a legitimate NFL #1 Starting QB..(most Qb’s really need that consisten work with the #1 players/starters and probably a full season of starts to really getting a good reading on a QB.. He may be a good one and he may not be .. Jury is still out, there are flashes he could be good, but their are limitations too..