In the last few days I’ve heard Donovan McNabb blamed for everything that has gone wrong with the Eagles except for wearing those ugly light blue and yellow uniforms a few years ago.
I think it’s over the top but there’s a major issue that bothers me more than any of complaints I’ve heard about his play.
There are certain things McNabb does very well, like buying more for his receivers to get open and throwing the deep ball.
But there are other areas of his game that he’s struggled with throughout his entire career and for some reason which I can’t understand, I haven’t seen him focus on improving in those areas.
I also haven’t heard Andy Reid or anybody on the coaching staff come out and identify those areas and make a gameplan for him to work on them.
In truth McNabb is a veteran quarterback who should know that he should be focusing on these areas. He shouldn’t need anybody to identify these weaknesses.
He’s had accuracy problems in his game, since he came into the league. I haven’t seen enough improvement in that area. At times, McNabb’s footwork is atrocious and it causes his accuracy to suffer.
We have seen too many balls thrown into the ground. I like the fact that he is wild low rather than high because a ball into the ground won’t be intercepted but we should have been seeing fewer and fewer balls into the ground.
He should work on that footwork until he does it properly regardless of the situation.
Don’t get me wrong the guy works on his game during the off season but why is he working on agility, endurance and not accuracy when it clearly is one of his major problems.
The west coast offense is supposed to be a short passing offense but McNabb hasn’t perfected the short accurate throw which is very catchable. All he knows is the fastball.
Throwing the accurate touch pass on the goalline or on a screen is a requirement in this offense. You have to be able to take some of the steam off the ball on the short throws to make them more catchable.
You can’t throw darts at receivers who are very close to you and expect them to catch it.
The greatest indictment of McNabb is that he’s been in the league more than a decade and he hasn’t addressed this weaknesses to the extent that he should.
I don’t care about answers to questions in news conferences, I care about a quarterback who can make throw and the play, when he needs to do so.
