McNabb missing pieces in Washington
The city of Washington has been buzzing with anticipation ever since they found out that quarterback Donavan McNabb was traded to them by Philadelphia in April. And why wouldn’t they? McNabb is coming off an 11-5 season with the Eagles before gracefully exiting the first round of the NFL playoffs.
He is a decorated player, throwing for 32,873 passing yards and tossing 216 touchdowns in his career. He also almost led the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl, but came up just short to the New England Patriots. So now McNabb, 33, is supposed to do the same for the Redskins’ organization and have the same type of production that he did with his former team.
Isn’t that asking a bit too much for one guy? I know the Redskins want to start fresh firing former head coach Jim Zorn and bringing in Mike Shanahan. That’s definitely a step in the right direction. But the fact still remains that Washington finished a disappointing 2009 season last in the NFC East and with a 4-12 record.
Three of their four wins were against teams with losing records. This is certainly not a team that is expected to do damage during the 2010 regular season or even make it into the play-offs. They play in arguably the toughest division in the NFL and just don’t have the offensive talent for McNabb to lead them over .500.
McNabb had a talented receiving corps in Philly with DeSean Jackson, Kevin Curtis and Reggie Brown and Brent Celek. He also swung a lot of short passes to running back Brian Westbrook for his 3,553 passing yards in 2009.
The Pro Bowl quarterback doesn’t have that type of talent in Washington. Santana Moss is on a downward spiral over the past few seasons and has not had a breakout season in recent memory. Since his arrival in Washington, Moss has only reached the 1000 receiving yard mark once. To make matters worse, Moss has only scored three touchdowns in 2009.
His other options in Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly are unproven at the NFL level. The absence of a leader at the receiver position will hurt this team down the road and McNabb will have to deal with inconsistencies and mental mistakes from his young receivers. This is why McNabb invited his receivers to his training camp dubbed “h**l’s Week,” for a chance to get training and more practice time with his new team-mates. "I think it's important for the specialists on the offence to have that chemistry, to have that bond, where they can trust me and I can trust them," he said
However, McNabb will have the luxury of tossing a few passes to tight end Chris Cooley. But other than that, the former Eagle will be thin at receiving options.
He will also occupy a different role within his new team. Washington is a run first, pass second type of offence, something that McNabb is not used to. In Philly, there was no big running back to hand the ball off to and get those hard-fought yards on third and fourth downs.
The Redskins are loaded at the running back position with Clinton Portis, Larry Johnson and Willie Parker. Combine that with the fact the coach Shanahan is known for running the ball, as shown during his stint with Denver, and you can’t help but feel that McNabb might be handing the ball off quite a bit during the regular season.
If Washington sticks with a conservative game plan and decide to run the ball often and a lot, McNabb’s impact might be minimal. It seems that the veteran quarterback might not be in a system where he is bound for success.
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