Will Kevin Kolb's More Serious Attitude Backfire?

Written By Bob Cunningham On Thursday, May 27, 2010

How will the team react to Kolb's in-your-face style?



For some reason, Donovan McNabb's laid-back style just didn't sit right with most people here in Philadelphia. Many perceived it as indifference and quickly labeled him as a guy who didn't care about winning and was more interested in using the NFL as his own backyard.

So for those people, the word coming out of mini-camp that Kevin Kolb is taking a completely different approach must be welcome news.

According to those with the luxury of attending all of the practices, Kolb doesn't try to hide his emotions -- at all. He will apparently beat himself up for a bad pass, and isn't afraid to holler at his receiver if they run the wrong route, drop a pass, or anything else that he might not be pleased with.

The reaction has been largely expected. The Kolb love affair only grows stronger as now most believe he's the leader Philly has needed and he cares much more than McNabb did and whatever else, but there's also a downside to this way of handling things.

With McNabb, everyone could tell he thoroughly enjoyed what he was doing and, while he is a very competitive man, he made sure not to take anything too seriously. That doesn't mean he didn't show a clear frustration or disdain any time he messed up, but he took the "I'll get 'em next time" approach and moved on to the next play.

This mentality probably helped him survive in Philadelphia as long as he did because he refused to let anything get to him. Kolb, on the other hand, might be a little too hard on himself and could wind up doing himself a disservice.

I'm an old school type of guy when it comes to how football should be played and how players should handle themselves, but it's important not to dwell on your mistakes or they will eat you alive and kill any and all confidence.

With Kolb, it seems like he's unable to forgive himself, if you will, for a bad play and simply move on to the next. He seems to treat every play like the +/- in hockey: every bad play is a minus, so he must come back with a positive in order to make up for it.

It's certainly a good thing to want to improve, but every football player -- and especially the quarterback -- must be able to forget about a bad play, not let it kill their confidence, and go out and give it another shot. If he starts forcing the issue in order to make up for previous bad plays, he could get himself in a lot of trouble.

And now that we know this about Kolb, it makes a lot of sense that he was seemingly rushing everything in the second half of the New Orleans game and was hellbent on making something out of nothing rather than playing smart football and going at it again on the next play.

Then there's also the problem of dealing with his teammates. The young guys, especially a much-too-soon superstar like DeSean Jackson might not respond well to Kolb getting in his face and telling him what he needs to do. Say what you will about McNabb, but he understood how to handle the guys around him sans Terrell Owens.

Kolb has the right idea in that perhaps McNabb was a bit too laid back at times, but he can't counteract that by being the other extreme. He's got to find a way to be that leader while also being accessible to the guys around him and cutting loose every once in a while.

He seems to have all the physical tools and seems to have a grasp of the offense, but if he can't pick up the nuances and being a leader and this team's quarterback, he's going to have a very, very rough time in Philly.


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