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Go-to guy Eagles QB McNabb remains offense's top option
BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- To hear tell it, Donovan McNabb's game last season was a glorified version of 11-on-1. He didn't snap the ball to himself on the playgrounds of the NFL -- counting off Mississippi's in his head -- but he might as well have, so dependent were the Philadelphia Eagles of keeping the football in his talented hands. If the invention of the Eagles' all-McNabb attack was a spectacular success born out of necessity -- and it was, thanks to running back Duce Staley's season-ending foot injury on Oct. 1 -- Philadelphia isn't narrow-minded enough to be pursuing the patent rights on the one-man offense. There is a time and a place for everything in the NFL, and Philadelphia in 2001 is primed for a little diversity. The goal is simple. In a town that reveres all things 76-related, no one wants to see the Eagles promising young quarterback have to account for nearly that percentage of the team's offense again this season. A little less McNabb, the thinking goes, and Philadelphia might go a long, long way. "Oh, that number's going to go down," said Eagles rookie wide receiver Freddie Mitchell of McNabb's 2000 season, in which the second-year QB produced 3,994 yards of offense, or 75 percent of Philadelphia's total. "With James Thrash, Todd Pinkston and me, that number is going to go down tremendously. "We're going to help him. And you can't forget we've got Duce Staley back, too. We're going to click, but that's Donovan for you. I mean, Donovan can step onto the Bad News Bears and produce a winner."
Late in Wednesday's team drills at Lehigh University, McNabb gave a taste of what Eagles fans are poised to see this season: From mid-field, McNabb dropped back and hit new receiver Thrash perfectly in stride 40 yards down the right sideline for a score. A few snaps later, it was Pinkston who got the ball, on a crisp 25-yard crossing route near the 20. Mitchell and Staley got their turns too, as did Pro Bowl tight end Chad Lewis. McNabb never left the pocket. So far, sharing the load is the mantra in Eagles camp, and folks are lining up to promise that McNabb this season won't have as much to balance on that broad pair of shoulder pads he wears. "That's what it was, 75 percent of the offense?" said Thrash, a free-agent signee from Washington. "That's pretty impressive. That's a lot of pressure on him. But that's what we're here for. That's what the new receivers, the play-makers, are here for. "We're going to go out there and make plays and take the load off him. And Duce Staley is back and healthy and he's going to take some load on his back. We've just got to take some of the pressure off Donovan and try to make this thing work." Things worked just fine last season, thanks to McNabb. In his first season as a full-time starter, McNabb finished second in the MVP balloting and became both the youngest Eagles quarterback to win a playoff game, and play in the Pro Bowl. He threw for 3,365 yards, rushed for 629 -- the fourth best total among quarterbacks in NFL history -- and led Philadelphia to six road wins, its most since 1991. But by rebuilding their receiving corps, the Eagles wisely still took steps to ensure that they work a little more democratically in the city of brotherly love. Released off last year's 11-5 playoff team where veteran starting wide receivers Charles Johnson and Torrance Small, whose limited skills tended to highlight the need for McNabb to do more. For the second consecutive season, a wide receiver was drafted high. Last year’s second rounder, Pinkston, is slated to start opposite Thrash. This year, talkative first-round playmaker Mitchell, of UCLA, will be elevated to third receiver any day now. Combined with the emerging Lewis (69 receptions for 735 yards last year), and the return of Staley, who rushed for more than 2,300 yards in 1998-99, the Eagles believe they have the balance that will result in bigger numbers all the way around. But are the Philadelphia receivers better, or just different? Combined, the top three have just 75 career catches in the NFL. And will it all be enough to ward off a repeat of McNabb’s solo act? The shorthand on the Eagles already has been established around the NFL: Stop McNabb and you stop Philly. "I remember going into the game plan [against Philadelphia last year] and just hearing the defense talk about they have to contain No. 5 back there," Thrash said. "He was the guy." Bring up the Eagles lack of balance from last year and nice-guy head coach Andy Reid stops just short of getting flustered. Reid doesn't want to talk stats. He wants to talk wins. And No. 5 back there, he helped produce more of those than in any season in Philadelphia since 1992.
"I don't mess with that [75 percent of the offense] stuff," Reid said. "Obviously, you want to spread it around and become more balanced. And that would tie in with the wide receiver changes. If we become better there and become better with Duce healthy at running back, then it all takes care of itself. "You're going to do whatever it takes to win. However, the percentages come out, they come out. But I guess if you looked at that percentage, you'd say you'd like to spread it around a little more." If there is a danger in Philadelphia's approach it's two-fold. The Eagles can neither throw the brakes on McNabb's game in the name of offensive balance, or become too accustomed to letting McNabb do it, because they know he can. "I hope [opposing defenses] have that mentality, because if they have that mentality again, they'll finally realize that the receivers we have can make plays," McNabb said. "If they keep eight or nine guys in the box and make us throw, we're very excited about that, because now we get the rest of the guys involved." Last year, McNabb wound up with almost half of his Staley-less team's rushing yardage: He had 629, everyone else had a combined 737. Logic says that if his total is that high again this season, something will have gone very wrong in the Eagles' offensive approach. But Reid is careful not to box in himself or his quarterback. "I never got the feeling like he was trying to do too much," Reid said. "If it's not there, and you have to go, you go. I'm never going to tell him to stop running. I'm not going to tell him 'You run too much,' because he has a great feel for the offense. He's very patient with it and he lets things happen." Sorry, Andy. But in Philadelphia, McNabb makes things happen. With any luck, the Eagles won't be a one-man extravaganza again in 2001. Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.
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