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by: Jeremy Green
posted: Friday, September 21, 2007 | Print Entry
filed under: Philadelphia Eagles, Donovan McNabb, Reggie Brown, Kevin Curtis
I had the pleasure or misfortune, however you want to put it, of watching Donovan McNabb and the Eagles play live this past Monday night and it looked to me like his lack of accuracy was due to poor mechanics and sloppy footwork. While I was watching the game, I had just assumed the reason for this was because he was still a little rusty after coming back from his knee injury. However, after breaking down the film this week, I came to some different conclusions.
Donovan McNabb
Quarterback
Philadelphia Eagles
Profile
2007 SEASON STATISTICS
Att Comp Yds TD Int Rat
79 43 406 1 1 68.7
First of all, McNabb's overall mechanics seem to be fine. His footwork is good, he is stepping into the ball nicely, planting well and his velocity is excellent. Plus, he is also hanging in the pocket and not trying to scramble every time the play breaks down. Those are things I thought he was doing wrong at first glance, live at the game. The good news is that his foot mechanics seem fine when I watched him on tape.
The bad news is that his accuracy through two weeks is unacceptable. McNabb is missing wide-open receivers and many of his passes are off because they are too high or as we say in scouting language his ball is "sailing" on him. Coaches will tell you that when a quarterback is throwing a lot of passes that "sail" it's because he is releasing the ball to early and in McNabb's case it makes a lot of sense. Physically, he can make all the throws, but mentally, you get the feeling that he is still worried about getting hit and it has affected his release point.
A quarterback has a built in alarm clock in his head determining when to get rid of the ball and in McNabb's case the alarm is going off too early.
However, it is not all his fault. He has a group of receivers, mainly Reggie Brown and Kevin Curtis, who are really struggling to get off the line of scrimmage and separate. Because of their poor play, McNabb is forced to hold on to the ball an extra second or two and that's when he gets hot and worries about his knee. He will probably never be a big threat running the ball like he used to be, but he needs to develop better pocket-presence because as long as he has this current group of receivers, he is going to need time to move around and let his guys get open.
McNabb has also been very inconsistent in the red zone, especially when defenses come after him, which may also be tied to the fact that he is psychologically feeling the pressure. As a result, McNabb will see a lot of defensive schemes that feature press-coverages the rest of the season because defenses know that the Eagles do not have a go-to guy right now, who can consistently get off the jam and give the big plays.
McNabb will be fine physically, but his inaccuracy could continue unless he gets better production from his skill players. In an attempt to help him, the Eagles may try to put their receivers in motion to avoid the jam or maybe they will run some no-huddle schemes to get McNabb in a better groove.
Even though McNabb was booed this past week there is plenty of blame to go around. McNabb, Eagles' receivers and the play calling have all been shaky at best.
posted: Friday, September 21, 2007 | Print Entry
filed under: Philadelphia Eagles, Donovan McNabb, Reggie Brown, Kevin Curtis
I had the pleasure or misfortune, however you want to put it, of watching Donovan McNabb and the Eagles play live this past Monday night and it looked to me like his lack of accuracy was due to poor mechanics and sloppy footwork. While I was watching the game, I had just assumed the reason for this was because he was still a little rusty after coming back from his knee injury. However, after breaking down the film this week, I came to some different conclusions.
Donovan McNabb
Quarterback
Philadelphia Eagles
Profile
2007 SEASON STATISTICS
Att Comp Yds TD Int Rat
79 43 406 1 1 68.7
First of all, McNabb's overall mechanics seem to be fine. His footwork is good, he is stepping into the ball nicely, planting well and his velocity is excellent. Plus, he is also hanging in the pocket and not trying to scramble every time the play breaks down. Those are things I thought he was doing wrong at first glance, live at the game. The good news is that his foot mechanics seem fine when I watched him on tape.
The bad news is that his accuracy through two weeks is unacceptable. McNabb is missing wide-open receivers and many of his passes are off because they are too high or as we say in scouting language his ball is "sailing" on him. Coaches will tell you that when a quarterback is throwing a lot of passes that "sail" it's because he is releasing the ball to early and in McNabb's case it makes a lot of sense. Physically, he can make all the throws, but mentally, you get the feeling that he is still worried about getting hit and it has affected his release point.
A quarterback has a built in alarm clock in his head determining when to get rid of the ball and in McNabb's case the alarm is going off too early.
However, it is not all his fault. He has a group of receivers, mainly Reggie Brown and Kevin Curtis, who are really struggling to get off the line of scrimmage and separate. Because of their poor play, McNabb is forced to hold on to the ball an extra second or two and that's when he gets hot and worries about his knee. He will probably never be a big threat running the ball like he used to be, but he needs to develop better pocket-presence because as long as he has this current group of receivers, he is going to need time to move around and let his guys get open.
McNabb has also been very inconsistent in the red zone, especially when defenses come after him, which may also be tied to the fact that he is psychologically feeling the pressure. As a result, McNabb will see a lot of defensive schemes that feature press-coverages the rest of the season because defenses know that the Eagles do not have a go-to guy right now, who can consistently get off the jam and give the big plays.
McNabb will be fine physically, but his inaccuracy could continue unless he gets better production from his skill players. In an attempt to help him, the Eagles may try to put their receivers in motion to avoid the jam or maybe they will run some no-huddle schemes to get McNabb in a better groove.
Even though McNabb was booed this past week there is plenty of blame to go around. McNabb, Eagles' receivers and the play calling have all been shaky at best.
