Acknowledging the ‘True’ Donovan McNabb in Philadelphia

For Donovan McNabb, it must seem awkwardly fitting that Andy Reid will be occupying the opposing sideline of Lincoln Financial Field when his No. 5 is retired by the Philadelphia Eagles later this week . Much like the tale of McNabb’s days in Philly, the relationship between he and Reid has been wrought with irony and controversy through the backend of each other’s careers. And on Thursday evening in front of nearly 70,000 fans in South Philadelphia, the field position between the two will be fitting for a once great pairing that ended prematurely and not to the benefit of either coach or quarterback.

And as people in this city prepare themselves for what will finally be the official goodbye to the QB who holds just about every significant franchise passing record, I also hope they realize that finding another quarterback in this town who will provide the same level of winning consistency won’t be as easy as it was for Reid to knowingly and inexplicably separate himself from the player most responsible for the success of the team during the first decade of this millennium.

This won’t be acknowledged by everyone in attendance, however, and the fact that there should be even a shred of doubt surrounding McNabb’s number retirement as an Eagle is absolutely shameful, one of the most disheartening realities to ever befall the relationship between a professional athlete and this town. Alas, any and all level of debate regarding McNabb’s legacy is primarily rooted in a perception among a collective minority but sometimes verbal majority who believe in a “mythical” McNabb — that version of the QB invented by some as a reason to justify the lack of a Super Bowl parade down Broad Street to date. From the ill-advised, misdirected boos McNabb received from a pittance of Philly fans during his draft selection that ushered in his Philadelphia tenure to the intra-division trade that Easter afternoon more than 10 years later, there has been no lack of drama with even the mention of McNabb’s name the last 15 years — regardless of whether the timing was as positive as, say, fourth-and-26 or the Super Bowl trip to Jacksonville, or as low as, well, the team falling to Arizona in failing to win the NFC title game for the fourth and final time in five tries or losing to Dallas in the first round of the playoffs in the McNabb/Reid swansong.

Presumably the debate will continue long past Thursday night, at least until we learn of his hall of Fame fate. It may not even end there, whether he gets in or not. It may not end until another quarterback actually wins a Super Bowl here and the population at large can let go of any sour feelings for not just McNabb but for any QB who never secured a Lombardi trophy for Philly. Until then, McNabb remains the best signal caller to play for the Eagles, and I’m here to lay to rest the debate with an apropos argument against the “5 untruths” that have shrouded “Super 5” during his time here.

First, consider …

The Nonsense Began With a Few, Misguided “Boo-birds”

As former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue approached the podium at a capacity-crowded Madison Square Garden with the selection card for the second pick of the 1999 NFL Draft, there were absolutely no certainties about whom should/would/could the Eagles have chosen. The Cleveland Browns had minutes before selected Tim Couch with the draft’s first pick in their organization’s return to the league and, at the time, the draft was considered to offer one of the best crops of available quarterbacks in recent memory. But the reigning Heisman Trophy winner was a running back from the University of Texas who at the time of the draft stood as the NCAA’s Division I-A career rushing leader, career rushing touchdowns leader and career scoring leader. To some, Ricky Williams was considered a coveted prize, a future NFL Hall of Famer who would not only serve as a logical pick at No. 2 but who would completely 180 the fortunes of a team and a fan base that had just endured a third-consecutive losing season, a 5-11 campaign under former head coach Ray Rhodes. However, Reid chose a 6-2 quarterback out of Syracuse University who ranked fifth in Heisman voting in 1998 and during his four collegiate years led the Orangemen to a 35-14 record (23-5 in the Big East), conference championships in 1997 and 1998, a share of the conference title in 1996 and a Liberty Bowl win over Clemson in his final college game. You know what happened immediately following — an obvious audible sign of displeasure that would later be classified as boos not intended for McNabb per se but at the notion that Williams was not the choice. Either way, it was gross.

Should it really have been that much of a surprise to any logical fan that Reid, who had previously won a Super Bowl and helped make the NFL playoffs an annual tradition as an assistant and quarterback coach during a seven-year tenure in Green Bay with Brett Favre, would spend what would likely be the most important draft pick he ever made on a QB — especially when considering that the then Eagles roster bore the names of an aging Rodney Peete, career backup Koy Detmer and flash-in-the-pan Bobby Hoying? Finding the right quarterback was Reid’s first to-do from Day 1.

This brings us to our first untruth: “Reid had a system, and McNabb only did well in it because of that system.”

False. Sure, Reid had a system. But it wasn’t the same system employed in Green Bay (nor is it the same he’s using currently in Kansas City) and it only worked so well in Philadelphia because McNabb ran it. Reid employed eight starting quarterbacks during his time here. Only one other QB beyond McNabb won at least one playoff game out of 10 total postseason wins (Jeff Garcia, one win, 2006). Garcia was anointed the starter after McNabb suffered a torn ACL in a Week 11 game against Tennessee that year. (See next “untruth” for more on this.)  Three years after their separation, Reid is still looking for his next playoff win.

And now for our second untruth: “McNabb was not a gritty, tough player who fit the blue-collar Philadelphia mentality.”

Absurd. Not only did McNabb prove to be overly durable during his 11 full NFL seasons by averaging more than 14 starts per year, he also played through multiple brutal, nagging injuries. While this can be said for many pro football players, there’s a shorter list, particularly among quarterbacks, who can say they played half a season with an upper-body injury that required the use of custom shoulder pads and a sports hernia, which in 2005 progressed until becoming a total tear in Week 9. Then there was the ankle he broke on the third play of a game in week 11 of the 2002 season and continued to play on until the final whistle. Brought off the field for an X-ray, McNabb soon returned during the following series to complete a 20-of-25, 255-yard, four-touchdown performance on the day before it was learned after the game that the “sprained ankle” diagnosis he had originally received was actually a fibula broken in three places. He’d return for the playoffs seven weeks later, but could have ruined his career by playing in the condition he was in. Similarly, he played noticeably injured during the 2003 NFC Championship game against Carolina when the Panthers spent the evening dive-bombing McNabb and rag-dolling his wide receivers into submission.

This brings us to our third untruth: “McNabb was an inaccurate ‘worm baller’ whose success was a result of TO, his running backs and his defense.”

Total fallacy. Yes, while it’s true McNabb was at his most elite during the first-season availability of Terrell Owens in his offense, an acquisition made almost immediately after the loss to the Panthers, McNabb beyond maximized a litany of “non star” skill-position players surrounding him throughout the bulk of his Eagles playing days. But first let’s start with the defense. Undeniably, the late, great Jim Johnson was one of the most innovative defensive coordinators the game has ever seen, and McNabb surely benefitted by having played while he coached; but McNabb also benefitted Johnson, who, in all fairness, probably isn’t even the best defensive mind the Eagles have ever retained (see Buddy Ryan). There’s no question that a successful offense can improve the fate of a defensive unit. On that note, it’s worth pointing out that Johnson’s best defensive unit wasn’t the 2004 Super Bowl team, but rather the 2001 team, when ranking via points scored against. In the same vein, it’s hardly coincidental that Johnson’s defense posted its worst two consecutive seasons overall with rankings of 27th in the league (his worst unit of all) and 15th, respectively, during McNabb’s injury-riddled years of 2005 and 2006.  Imagine, a quarterback’s and an offense’s success aiding a defense’s productivity. It’s not rocket science. Neither is the utilization of speedy running backs as check-downs for situations in which receivers aren’t open or reliable enough and/or an opposing defense’s approach dictates a shorter pass attack. Surely, Brian Westbrook spent time as one of the league’s best all-purpose backs and would have been a welcomed commodity during his prime to any NFL quarterback, but he did have three seasons in which he made fewer than 10 starts as an Eagle and never started a full 16-game schedule. So, that’s worthy of a peg down on the old “reliability” scale. Yes, he’s the recipient of the most touchdowns from McNabb (followed by Owens) by an individual (27), but he’s the only running back among McNabb’s top 10 touchdown targets (a group that includes underwhelming receivers Todd Pinkston, Reggie Brown and Charles Johnson). The bottom line is that Westbrook and TO were the two best pass catchers McNabb ever had, which is why they have caught the most touchdowns from him. Likewise, McNabb’s accuracy speaks for itself. He ranks No. 14 in the league all time in completions with 3,170 and is fourth all time in interception percentage. Enough said.

This brings us to our fourth untruth: “McNabb’s statistics bottomed out the minute he left Philadelphia.”

Um, no. While we first have to acknowledge that we’re only talking about a portion of two years when we talk about McNabb’s Philly career vs. non-Philly career, the reality is that his numbers were not bad. They certainly weren’t as good as they were in Philly, but they weren’t down to the point that his trade out of Philadelphia was justifiable. He’d collect more than 3,300 yards in 13 games in Washington during his first season out of Philly, a pace that would have resulted in  more yardage in a single season than he ever had as an Eagle (3,916 in 2008 — without Owens, mind you, who only played in one Super Bowl, the same one McNabb did). He did throw more interceptions than touchdowns in DC (by a mere minus-1 at 15/14) for the only time in his career, but that’s not a felony for a QB playing in a new system. For comparison’s sake on that point, the aforementioned Favre threw a league-high 22 picks his first season away from Green Bay.

Even in Minnesota in 2011, where the sample size (six games) is especially relatively small, his 60.3 completion percentage is identical to the number he posted in 2009, his last year in Eagle green. However, with his mobility in clear (and natural) decline, the Vikings’ 30th-ranked defense that shared the field with him that year harbors a lot of blame for a 1-5 record. That said, the most dramatic decline to his game after Philadelphia was his wins vs. losses as a starter, and yes that’s pertinent. It’s just that the Eagles progressively also saw their wins vanish during Reid’s last three seasons here without McNabb.

Which brings us to our fifth and final untruth: “McNabb wasn’t ‘clutch’ and couldn’t win come-from-behind games.”

First, let’s just address right now that it’s quite difficult to pull off a come-from-behind win when your team is already winning as the end of a game nears, which was the case with McNabb’s Eagles more often than not. That said, McNabb orchestrated 26 game-winning drives throughout his career, 17 of which came via 4th-quarter comeback. And in the ultimate of ironies, as a Redskin McNabb orchestrated what would have been a game-winning drive as time expired against the eventual Super Bowl champion Packers (the same Packer team that twice beat the Eagles that season) except that Graham Gano missed a field goal as time wound down. McNabb and Washington would go on to secure the overtime win, however, and his final “comeback” win would occur one month later.

Regardless, what’s most important concerning McNabb and the Eagles is what he did while here. And while the rest of the ’99 draft class quarterbacks were flaming out (with the exception of Daunte Culpepper), McNabb would begin to commandeer the franchise’s most successful stint of the Super Bowl era, winning 92 games (an Eagles’ record; never fewer than eight in a full season), leading his team to the playoffs five years in succession before injuries limited him to partial seasons in 2005 and 2006, advancing to the NFC conference championship game five times between 2001-08 (four straight at one point, winning one) and nearly pulling off an upset of Tom Brady’s New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX. Williams, meanwhile, would play with three clubs over the course of 11 years and be part of just one playoff win. He’d lead the league in rushing just once for the 2002 Miami Dolphins, a team that didn’t reach the postseason.

Despite not winning the bowl in Philly, McNabb and his Eagles continued to be a dominant force in the NFL throughout his time here first and foremost because he remained one of the league’s best at his position. McNabb was named to the Pro Bowl five straight seasons (2000-04) and six overall; and still entered 2013 ranked fourth in wins among those in his generation (behind just Peyton Manning, Brady and Drew Brees) despite not playing since 2011 (and ahead of HOFers Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Bart Starr, Dan Fouts and Bob Griese). He’s also still ranked fourth in the league amongst his peers in career completions, passing yards, and touchdown passes behind (in no particular order) Manning, Brady and Brees.

Now, nearly two years since his last NFL game (despite, at age 36, being six years younger than Steve DeBerg was when he set an NFL record by being the oldest quarterback to start a game for the Atlanta Falcons in 1998) and more than three calendar years since he last played in Philadelphia, I can’t help but still ask — how much more could McNabb and Reid have accomplished together in Philadelphia had Reid not left the fate of the franchise and his own legacy here in the hands of Kevin Kolb (and ultimately Michael Vick)? We’ll never know, obviously. But what is clear is that the fall from football grace in Philadelphia is most linked to McNabb’s departure. Clearly, other factors contributed to the Birds’ collective drop-off from the NFL’s elite aside from the McNabb trade, i.e. the resignation and death of Johnson; lackluster drafts, particularly post-Super Bowl and specifically in 2007 with the selection of Kolb in the second round. Be that as it may, no one transaction, whether it be the trading/release of a player, coach or administrator (and there were many significant moves that Reid received justifiable criticism for during his reign, but most notably Brian Dawkins, Jeremiah Trotter, Brad Childress, Tom Modrak and Tom Heckert) has caused the same level of fallout as the exit of McNabb. Even despite losing the late, great Johnson and the sure HOFer Dawkins after the 2008 season, the Eagles made the playoffs in 2009 and 2010. They made the postseason in four of seven seasons with Reid after Childress’ departure to Minnesota, beating his Vikings in the first round of 2008. Though they’d later reconcile on their mistake to let the four-time Pro Bowler Trotter leave for Washington, going to the Super Bowl after reuniting with the linebacker in 2004, they still went to the playoffs throughout his two-year hiatus, winning 12 games in both 2002 and 2003. Yet, without McNabb they went through a consistent, steady decline that resulted in Reid being fired. Yes, they made the playoffs by winning the NFC East in 2010, but they were able to do so with one fewer win than they had with McNabb the year prior (for all those who have themselves convinced that the “down” division allowed the Eagles to win five championships during McNabb’s reign) and have since won a total of just eight and four games in consecutive years heading into 2013. They never went two straight seasons outside the playoff picture with McNabb on the roster.

Justifying A Potential Hall-Bound Player

McNabb detractors, brace yourselves: The impending retirement of his jersey is an indication that an invitation to the NFL Hall of Fame could be forthcoming. If his stats don’t resonate enough for you as they should on their collective face and you maintain that the lack of the Super Bowl win will keep him out, consider Jim Kelly: a guy who never won a bowl either, lost four of them and has mostly inferior stats to McNabb. We’ll have to wait at least a few years before we learn McNabb’s fate and just a few more days before we witness he and Reid as two imperfect strangers during his retirement ceremony; but the least that Philadelphia fans can do between now and what we can only hope is an eventual love affair with whatever QB brings Philly a Bowl is acknowledge and appreciate McNabb for what he was —the QB who gave this city it’s best chance to win in the history of the franchise. There’s no harm in that.