There's also the bad. Before his productive '09 work, Kolb struggled mightily in limited reps, posting a For his career, he has five total touchdowns and nine total turnovers. It's fair to have reservations about his ability to ably endure the physical toll of the position while leading a complicated, demanding offense in a demanding media and fan climate throughout a full season.
It's simply something he's never done before. To defuse some of the static uncertainty surrounding Kolb, let's delve into what do know about him as a player and the gig he's about to take over in Philly. One thing is for certain: This guy has enjoyed unparalleled continuity during his football career. Dating back to high school, Kolb has had just a handful of coaches in the past 12 years. Incredibly, Art Briles was his coach during his freshman year in high school, then later coached him at the University of Houston, where the quarterback started all four seasons.
For his entire professional career, he's been under the stewardship of Andy Reid, the second-longest-tenured head coach in the league. In taking over Reid's variation of Bill Walsh's West Coast scheme, Kolb is entering the most enduring offensive system in football. If in fantasy we are seeking statistical certainty in the players we invest in and thus the scenarios and settings they are entrenched in, there are few offenses that are more stable than Reid's version of the West Coast scheme.
From through last season, Philadelphia went to the air on 58 to 59 percent of its offensive plays; we've witnessed a comparable ratio so far this preseason. The Reid era offense does not look at the "man in the mirror" as Michael Jackson once suggested, as the Eagles are not about to change their ways just because McNabb, Reid's partner in crime for the past decade, is no longer welcome in the NovaCare Complex. If some were to suggest that Reid and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg intend to run the ball more in the Kolb era as they did in the stints when quarterbacks A.
Feeley and Jeff Garcia had played in years prior, they would be incorrect. In two preseason games so far this summer, the Eagles passed on 63 percent of the snaps when Kolb was behind center. If anything, we should expect a "purer" West Coast look going forward versus the more vertical hybrid that emerged in McNabb's final campaigns, especially given that it's been widely reported that Kolb has proved to be a disciplined student of Reid's verbose playbook and distinct philosophy.
His physical skill set purportedly translates seamlessly to the system. The West Coast offense, particularly in Reid's offshoot, aims to use a short, horizontal passing attack as a means to stretch out the defense and is predicated on accuracy and precise timing, two elements with which McNabb famously struggled.
We haven't even mentioned the weapons to which he'll be throwing all these attempts. Throw in the capable hands of second-year halfback LeSean McCoy , an ideal West Coast fullback in Pro Bowler Leonard Weaver and the reliable Jason Avant , and there's considerable talent for Kolb to lean on as he adapts to the helm of the offense. It's of note that two of his four career passing touchdowns have gone to Jackson for huge plays 71 and 64 yards , with Avant and Brent Celek nabbing the others.
If they don't do anything by next week, Kolb will be stuck as an Eagle until a new deal is worked out, and nobody knows when that will happen. Michael Vick will be 31 next season.
The way he plays football, nobody knows how much longer he has. After the season he had last year, Michael Vick is the best option for the Eagles right now. However, how much longer can he go?
Kolb will be 27 next season and still has a lot left in him. He's never been a full-time starter but can definitely flourish in that role. Michael Vick is subject to injury every time he hits the field. Technically every player is subject to injury on every play but nobody is more at risk than Vick. Vick's style of play is very dangerous.
He is a phenomenal running quarterback and will probably go down as the best rushing QB ever. However, if he gets hurt and Kolb isn't there to step in, the Eagles are done.
Keeping Kolb gives the Eagles excellent insurance should anything happen to Vick. Kolb can step in if Vick gets hurt, plays bad, or gets into trouble off the field. If they trade him away, the Eagles put themselves in great danger of a losing season if the unexpected were to happen to Vick. That is something to watch. One thing I love about Kolb from this summer is the way he's handled things. He could have panicked a bit when the offense wasn't clicking.
That didn't happen. Kevin tried to rally the guys up on the sideline and get everyone re-focused. He's taken the blame when talking to the media. Kevin isn't pretending the criticism doesn't exist. He hears it. He acknowledges it. He then goes about trying to fix whatever the problems are.
I think that cost Matt Leinart his job. I see Jay Cutler struggling in Chicago. Anyone watching Hard Knocks sees Mark Sanchez unsure of what to do and say at certain times. Kolb is far from perfect, but I like his approach to things.
It should serve him well in the long run. After all, even great players are going to have some rough stretches from time to time. The biggest thing we learned about Kevin Kolb this summer is that he's not a finished product. He has a lot of learning left to do. There will be good days and bad days.
He's no rookie, but when you have more years in the league than actual starts, you're still a young QB and there will be growing pains. That's okay. We're reasonable fans.
All he has to do is throw a lot of touchdowns, sweep Dallas, lead us to the Super Bowl, and appeal to us as a blue collar guy in the process. And maybe during the bye week Kolb could do something about the economy and getting Lindsay Lohan through rehab. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from.
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Good luck, Kevin. We'll be watching. Loading comments Share this story Twitter Facebook. However, if he can provide real value in return via a trade, it's a luxury the Eagles will be willing to sacrifice should the right compensation present itself. The Eagles can and usually do play the "We're not interested in trading fill in the player " game, to give the impression that you better come with a strong initial offer or we won't even begin discussing it.
That strategy can fail miserably in the event teams around the league call your bluff and you're left with a player you have no use for because you overplayed your hand. However, in the Eagles' case, because of Michael Vick's penchant for taking too many big hits as noted above , having the best backup QB in the NFL isn't a bad thing at all. He'd be unhappy in that role, but the Eagles aren't just going to hand him over to avoid having an unhappy player in the locker room, and Kevin Kolb doesn't strike me as the "team cancer" type.
Well, why not just go to the video tape? Here some of Kevin Kolb's performances on film Falcons , 49ers , Redskins and Cowboys game tape missing , with Tommy Lawlor's game reviews that he wrote at some point during the week after each game in blockquotes. If you don't read Tommy's game notes after each game which can be found here , then shame on you.
Tommy wrote all of the game reviews, with the exception of the Ravens game:. It's very difficult to judge Kolb on this one. He was coming in after halftime against a Ravens team that had probably one of the two best defenses in the NFL in Donovan McNabb was completely ineffective against them throughout the entire first half, and thus, the benching occurred. It's noteworthy that the Ravens more than had an answer for the Eagles' offense that day, and Kolb was essentially thrown to the wolves.
It was his first meaningful regular season action in his career, under extremely difficult circumstances. He actually provided a spark at one point during this game, when he led an impressive drive in which he went for 53 yards Good game. Got sloppy at times and made some mistakes, but did well overall. Can you imagine if I told you last week that Kolb would throw for yards and a pair of touchdowns? Not many people would have believed that. Kolb did make some mistakes, but they were due to lack of experience, not skill or talent.
You can coach him up on the areas that need work. I was pleased with his pocket presence. He took some big hits, but still got the pass off and the ball was on target.
He threw some passes away when it was clear no one was open. The one sack he took was a blitz up the middle where the defender was untouched. You just have to eat that ball, which Kolb did. One area that many fans have worried about is Kolb's arm strength and ability to throw the ball on intermediate or deep routes.
I thought he did very well in this area. He threw an excellent ball on the long touchdown catch by DeSean Jackson. That pass was accurate and had some zip. Kolb threw a couple of good passes to Jason Avant in the middle of the field. He hit Brent Celek on a seam route for a good gain. We had 5 pass plays of longer than 20 yards. We had a couple more than went 19 yards. Kolb doesn't have an elite arm, but he showed enough arm strength to run an NFL offense and make the defense cover the whole field.
I thought Kolb made good reads and accurate throws. He was comfortable running the offense. Some young quarterbacks look nervous and it shows in their play. Kolb did fine. Until we got to the red zone, that is. Kolb struggled down there. All of a sudden things get compressed and you have to be very precise. Reads have to be made quickly. Throws have to be on target. The quarterback also has to get the ball out quickly so as not to give defenders a chance to bat the ball down at the line of scrimmage or make a play on it near the receiver.
Kolb was indecisive and his reads were slower than you'd like. These are typical mistakes from a young quarterback. The one touchdown that he threw in the red zone came on a fourth down play where Kolb scrambled and relied on his playmaking instincts. He saw Avant open in the back of the endzone and got him the ball.
Kevin played even better than last week. He wasn't flawless, but had a darn good game , 2 TDs in the air and 1 on the ground. Kevin was generally accurate. He made good reads and threw the ball well. His passes had good velocity. He was deadly on 1st downs. Through 3 Qtrs he was on them. That's impressive.
Kevin seems very comfortable in the shotgun. He can drop back, but doesn't look as smooth. He threw the ball well on a few intermediate routes. He hit DeSean for a gain of He hit Celek for his TD down the field. Kevin threw off his back foot a couple of times. Both passes were caught and had some zip, but that can be a bad habit to get into. He threw the ball quickly.
It was accurate. It had zip, but was catchable. Brent got it easily and put us down a the 2. Simple play, but that's the kind of Red Zone passing you need. Be decisive, be on time, and be on target. Kevin saw the field pretty well. There was one play where Celek was uncovered in left slot. Kevin dropped back and immediately got the ball to him. That was a gain of 15 or so.
Sounds easy, but how often do you see something obvious before the snap and the QB goes elsewhere? You yell at the TV "how could you not see that? My biggest problem with Kolb right now is that he's erratic on some throws over the middle. This cost us last week on a couple of 3rd downs.
Ditto for this week. The problem he has is throwing to his targets and not leading them. When guys are crossing the field you have to throw to the spot where they will be, not where the player is. Young QBs have to adjust to how fast the guys are moving and get the ball out in front of them. Kevin must work on this. I'm not sure if this is his fault, but there were at least 2 plays where he and the WR were not on the same page. Kevin threw to Reggie on the left side.
The ball went one way and Reggie cut to the other. That was almost picked off. Later Maclin and Kolb looked confused on a pass to the right side. I don't know who was at fault, but this needs to be ironed out.
You don't want to leave points on the board due to confusion and you sure as heck don't want a turnover because of it. Pretty much a nightmare start. Things started innocently enough. Hit Maclin for 5 yds on his first completion. That was pretty much the highlight of the 1st half. Kevin finished Not great numbers, to put it mildly. He never looked comfortable on the field. I'm not sure what the problem was, but he was just off. He gave us the worst of both worlds. On some plays he was hesitant to pull the trigger and held the ball too long.
Other times he threw the ball too quickly instead of making good reads. He was at his worst forcing the ball to DeSean, who was heavily covered for most of the game. Kevin almost had 2 passes picked off.
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