Is Donovan McNabb starting quarterback material?
The Washington Redskins quarterback, Donovan McNabb, is in uncharted waters. The Redskins don’t look interested in picking him up for next season and his performance on the field so far this year has not been one that inspires too much confidence.
For his first 11 years in the National Football League (NFL), there was no doubt that McNabb was a franchise quarterback but he had a major setback last year with the Redskins. If you take a look at his previous yeears, he had the third best winning percentage
behind New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. Last year, his stats took a free fall and he really did not make the plays required to carry the team, which you would expect from a franchise quarterback.
He has receivers in places that he should be able to throw completed passes to but he couldn’t. Last year, he completed only 58% of his passes. In another game last season, he converted two of his 14 third down conversions. In that game against the Detroit
Lions, McNabb was benched later on for his poor play. On a couple of plays, he had a receiver that was open but was not able to complete the pass.
Keep in mind that this was probably his worst performance since…well, ever. He threw 15 interceptions this season and converted only 47.3% of his third downs successfully, both of which were his worst performances ever. Even worse than his rookie season.
He threw only 14 passing touchdowns and had a season quarterback rating of 77.1, which is the worst since his rookie season way back in 1999. All of these stats suggest that he is no longer a franchise quarterback.
He has to go back and really put himself to work. He has to work on his conditioning and work on his accuracy if he ever wants to play at his highest level ever again.
The thing that you really have to ask yourself is, can he be a franchise quarterback if franchise quarterbacks are usually the top five quarterbacks in the league. We can tell that he is not one of those five from his past season but is he a quality starter
that can be trusted to lead a team? Some say that he certainly is. In 11 of his 12 years, he has had twice as many touchdowns as he has had interceptions. In his last three years with the Philadelphia Eagles, he completed over 60% of his passes. Granted, he
did fall off with the Redskins but the reason behind that is a new system.
Let’s be honest. The weapons that he had in Washington compared to those with the Eagles are substantially different. Yes, Santana Moss did have a 1,000 yard season but with only a 12 yards per reception average, he’s not going to be scaring anyone down
the field. Anthony Armstrong, Keiland Williams and Ryan Torain can eventually be Pro Bowl quality players but right now they don’t seem to be a major threat to the opposition.
So that is part of the problem for McNabb. He comes into a new offense, tries to understand what head coach Mike Shanahan wants done from an offensive standpoint and goes to a new city without the attack that he had in Philly. These were all problematic
for McNabb but if he finds the right system with the right team that has that quality, such as the Miami Dolphins, he could go in and make a big impact right away.
However, you can’t be a good quarterback if you can’t hit an open receiver. Regardless of what system you’re in, you know that a quarterback just has to pass to the open receiver. It’s literally in the job description. So does McNabb have what it takes to
be a franchise quarterback? We’ll let the future decide.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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