Will Kolb be an Eagle past the Week 6 trade deadline?


According to Anthony Gargano of 610-WIP, the Cleveland Browns placed a call to the Eagles last night about the availability of quarterback Kevin Kolb. With Kolb now relegated to the bench, it would make sense for a quarterback-needy team to make such an inquiry.

It makes even more sense when we look at the guys who are now making personnel decisions in Cleveland: former Eagles' general manager Tom Heckert and Andy Reid's former boss and mentor Mike Holmgren.

The two teams are natural trade partners, and Heckert just happens to be the guy who had a hand in drafting Kolb in the second round back in 2007. So, to say this is story is plausible would be just short of an understatement.

But, according to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, it's not true.

Cabot tweeted that a league source has told her the rumor is untrue, and I'm certainly more inclined to buy what Cabot is selling over that blowhard Gargano.

There is, however, a good chance Kolb gets moved before the Week 6 trade deadline. Reid was asked about the possibility Kolb is playing elsewhere in Week 7, and had this to say:

"Listen, I can’t predict anything down that far. Nobody in this league can do that. That’s ridiculous. It’s very similar to the things that were reported about – and I tried to be very thorough about it – that there was nobody that influenced this call. This was my decision and the future, we will just have to see and we’ll cross that bridge when it comes."

It doesn't take that guy from "Lie to Me" to know what Reid is saying there. Basically, if the right offer comes along there's at least a shot that Kolb could get shipped out.

Reid did seem to cover his tracks when asked if he would listen to offers for Kolb when he said "No, I want Kevin Kolb on this football team."

It sounds like Reid is just going to keep talking Kolb up in an effort to up his trade value. It surely had to take a hit with his poor performance against the Green Bay Packers and his subsequent benching, but a little praise from a guy like Reid should go a long way in convincing the other teams around the league that they'd be getting a quality young quarterback.

Whether they are or not will be for them to find out on their own.

UPDATE: Sal Paolantonio is saying a team source has told him that the team has "had calls," but Philly.com's Jeff McLane is reporting a team source has told him there is absolutely no truth "whatsoever" to the rumor.

So, right now, it's 2-2.
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McNabb patiently awaits your disingenuous reasons.


The Eagles needed a guy who could more efficiently run the west coast offense. They needed a guy who could be more accurate on the short throws. They needed a guy who got the ball out quickly rather than a guy who might get sacked a bit more often while attempting to make a play.

Overall, they just needed a guy whose strengths were all of Donovan McNabb's weaknesses, and that is exactly how they wound up with Michael Vick.

Wait. What?

Of course we all know the saga of how Vick wound up being named the Birds' starter with Kolb's benching -- or, if you ask Andy Reid, Vick's promotion -- but wouldn't this entire situation have been a whole lot easier had the team just kept McNabb in town?

Overall, Vick is basically the same guy, just not as good. Sure, he's a better athlete, but when it comes to passing the ball he still isn't on the same level as McNabb. But, for argument's sake, they're basically the same guy running basically the same offense.

Reid thinks Vick is the best option for his team now because he might actually be realizing that he does not run the west coast offense. The west coast was built around balance between the run and pass, a short and efficient passing game, and using the running back as another receiving threat with swings and screens that can "substitute for runs."

Outside of that last one, does any of that sound like the "Andy Mornhinweg" offense?

So now that they've traded McNabb, they've left themselves with a quarterback situation that is now even more uncertain than it was at the beginning of the season.

What happens to Vick at the end of the year? Do they resign him? Do they slap him with the franchise tag? Do they let him walk and try with Kolb again? Do they trade Kolb? Do they franchise Vick and then trade him? Do they cut Kolb while there's no salary cup to get out of the extension they gave him?

But, if McNabb is still in town, this isn't even a discussion. Had they simply extended McNabb they would very likely be sitting at 2-0 right now, would have Vick as the backup and gadget player, and could have moved Kolb for a Matt Cassel-like bounty.

The goal for the team and the city would be the Super Bowl and fans would look forward to games with excitement rather than just curiosity.

Unless Vick takes the team to a Super Bowl the decision to trade McNabb will forever be looked at as one of the worst trades a team has ever made. Even if Vick is wildly successful in Philadelphia, people will wonder whether or not McNabb could have done more.

And even still, Vick is not the guy who was supposed to replace McNabb. It was Kolb. And now Kolb has been replaced after two quarters as the team's starter.

So let me ask again, why exactly did the Eagles trade McNabb?
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Week Three is too late for a quarterback competition.


After Michael Vick's masterful performance over the past game and a half, and Kevin Kolb's disastrous debut, the talk of Vick vs. Kolb has not only taken over the discussion in Philadelphia, but all over the country.

And while it's fun for the national media and the fans of the other 31 NFL teams to go back and forth on what they think the Eagles and Andy Reid should do, the fans in Philly would like to know once and for all who should be the guy under center.

Most fans have a strong opinion one way or another based on what they've seen so far, but there are two concrete ways this all could have been avoided: 1) they could have just kept Donovan McNabb, or 2) had a quarterback competition throughout Training Camp and the preseason.

I suggested the idea back when mini-camps were just getting under way, and it wasn't meant with much enthusiasm.

The arguments made against it varied from "you're an idiot" all the way to something along the lines of "wouldn't it look bad if Reid shipped McNabb away without having a guy behind him he was ready to commit to?"

The answer to both is likely yes, but Reid is setting himself up to look a whole lot worse once Kolb stinks up the field against the Jacksonville Jaguars next Sunday.

He would have been able to save face had he admitted his with Kolb in Training Camp or early in the preseason when it became apparent he couldn't handle being an NFL quarterback.

Vick, to my surprise at the time, would have easily won the competition and would have entered the season as the starter. And from what we saw against the Green Bay Packers, the Birds would have a real shot at sitting atop the NFC East right now at 2-0.

But instead, the team will likely have to sacrifice a few more games and put themselves into a deeper hole before Reid admits his mistake and inserts Vick full-time.

It's still odd to say and goes against everything I thought I knew only a couple months ago, but the improvements Vick has made as a quarterback has been absolutely outstanding. He is much better than he was back when he was in Atlanta, and his presence alone could be enough to will this team to a wild card berth.

The best Kolb can hope for is to lead this team out of a top five draft pick.
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Vick's play should earn him a shot to be the starter.


In his debut as the Philadelphia Eagles' starting quarterback, Kevin Kolb was wildly inaccurate, looked incredibly lost, and played scared. He stared down his receivers, refused to plant his feet, and had a deer-in-the-headlights look every time the Packers hurried him.

Michael Vick, on the other hand, did everything a starter should do. Let's even forget for a second his individual play. While Kolb was in, the team looked flat. There seemed to be a lot of confusion for everyone on the field and a total lack of confidence that Kolb would make the play.

But with Vick, the guys were flying around doing everything they could because they knew that if they played just a half-second longer, Vick would make something happen.

The offensive line was throwing two or three blocks in one play. When Vick took off, the wide receivers were throwing blocks all the way down the field. When he was moving around behind the line of scrimmage, the receivers were doing everything they could to get open.

And Vick, in the fashion of a leader by example, rewarded their efforts by making the plays when they needed to be made.

I never thought I would be advocating Vick as the starter, but here I am. I have always viewed Vick as a running back with a strong arm, but his play against the Packers has me singing a different tune. He did all the little things a starting quarterback should do and, at the very least, I'd like to see if he can keep it up.

But I do understand the other side of the coin. The Kolb supporters will say that he was only able to play one half, so how can we determine that he's not the answer?

Well, that's a fair point -- if we don't dig past the surface. Looking at Kolb's entire career, he's never been overly impressive.

In 2007, his rookie year, Kolb did not see the field. Not a single attempt. So, obviously, not much to talk about.

In 2008, Kolb saw action in four games. It was all garbage time -- except for his surprise appearance against the Baltimore Ravens after Donovan McNabb's infamous benching -- so one would expect at least a decent or average stat-line.

Instead, this is what we got:

Week 1 vs. St. Louis Rams: 5-6 for 53 yards, 0 TDs and 0 INTs
Week 3 vs. Pittsburgh Steelers: 2-3 for 18 yards, 0 TDs and 1 INT
Week 11 vs. Baltimore Ravens: 10-23 for 73 yards, 0 TDs and 2 INTs
Week 14 vs. Cleveland Browns: 0-2 for 0 yards, 0 TDs and 1 INT

It probably goes without saying none of that did a whole lot to breed any confidence that this was the guy for the future.

Then, in 2009, Kolb saw action in three games. Two of them were his only two career starts before his debacle against the Packers and apparently were the two games that gave the Eagles the confidence they needed to dump McNabb and anoint Kolb the starter.

But when we look a bit closer, he wasn't as impressive as we've been told he was.

Week 1 vs. Carolina Panthers: 7-11 for 23 yards, 0 TDs and 0 INTs

Kolb entered this game after McNabb broke a rib diving into the endzone. Damione Lewis landed directly on top of McNabb in a hit reminiscent of Mike Rucker's in the 2003 NFC Championship game, and that was the end of McNabb's day.

What we saw from Kolb was a guy who looked panicky, held onto the ball far too long, and was overall pretty ineffective. But the excuse for that game is easy. He was thrown into the fire.

Fair enough.

At this point we find out McNabb's rib is broken and that he will not be able to play in Week 2 against the New Orleans Saints. Kolb is the guy, with a full week to prepare as such.

Week 2 vs. New Orleans Saints: 31-51 for 391 yards, 2 TDs and 3 INTs

Sure, the yardage looks good, but Kolb threw a couple costly interceptions that changed the tide of the game. He was by no means terrible against the Saints, but this is where the hype started getting a bit out of control.

Time for start number two.

Week 3 vs. Kansas City Chiefs: 24-34 for 327 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs

Again, the stats look pretty good, but this was against a very bad team. Even the touchdown he threw to Jackson -- the slant that Jackson took, split the defense, and flipped into the endzone -- was behind him and would have been picked off by a good defender.

Kolb showed some potential in this game, but that's about as close as it ever got. It was certainly not enough to give Reid and the Eagles faith that he could come into the season and do anything other than what he did against the Packers.

My point is when you put these two quarterbacks up against one another, there really isn't a comparison. I know Kolb will be the guy because Reid is married to him, but I think the frequency in which we saw Vick even in the first half shows that Reid's faith in Kolb was never as great as he made it out to be.

It's likely Kolb is forced to miss the Lions game with a concussion, and if Vick plays well again in his absence and gets the Birds their first win of the season, it's just going to get the flames of this controversy burning brighter.

I certainly won't pretend like I've always supported Vick as a quarterback, but right now he is without a doubt in my mind the best option and gives this team the best chance to win.
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