"Donovan is the unquestioned leader on the Eagles, "
"McNabb is the face of the Eagles, the unquestioned leader"
These are overstatements. My guess is that you do not live in Philadelphia. McNabb's leadership skills have been nothing but questioned in the past few years. He handled the whole TO incident poorly and has not stepped up as a leader. Waiting months after the season was over to make ridiculous statements about the T.O. thing as a "black on black crime".
Over the years, Hugh Douglas and Brian Dawkins stepped up to lead when the Eagles needed team leadership in the locker room. McNabb is often aloof making goofy statements, faces and smiling when his team is getting beat down.
That being said, McNabb is extremely talented and there are only a handful of QBs that I would replace him with..........however he has not been a leader for the Eagles.
as a philly resident, i found it amusing how Jon Runyan and Freddie Mitchell caught little or no slack for calling their 'leader' McNabb out on his puking & hyperventillating (spelling?) incident and putrid execution of the two minute offense in the super bowl, but when TO mentions something the whole world paints him as a troublemaker. Sure, TO's issues are cumulative and not the result of one single incident but saying that McNabb is the unquestioned leader is ridiculous. TO led by example with his nothing-short-of-amazing comeback and performance in the Super Bowl. If McNabb was 1/2 the leader he's painted to be by some in this post, he would have called TO directly or had a players only meeting once he came back to the team. it never would have escalated to the point it did. The 'black on black crime' thing is so ridiculous it doesnt even warrant commentary, but i'd find it hard to believe any of his teammates called him to voice their sympathy for him when they heard about it.
Most fans also forget that McNabb is the one who went out of his way to sell management, his teammates, fans and the coaching staff on TO despite his track record of being a troublemaker in SF. A lack of a big time WR was supposedly the only reason they lost to carolina in the conference finals. That first year he and TO did all kindsa interviews together where McPuke proclaimed that he had no concerns about Owens, how well they get along etc. Once things got a little sketchy he was nowhere to be found. Granted, TO never shoulda signed a contract if he knew it would be unfair 12 months later, but he did what he had to do to get out of baltimore and his downfall came when he wasnt willing to live with the consequences of his decision...but this post isnt about TO but Mcnabb...
Yeah - McNabb is talented but he'll be overdrafted in every league this year. He will be on the cover of some magazines and odds are that somebody will take him in the first two rounds while the rest of us nab a solid rb or wr and pick up much better value at qb later in the draft.
Eagles defensive struggles, Reid's reluctance to run the ball, lack of a tough yards rb, and the rest of the defenses in the division no longer being the cakewalk they were in 02, 03 and 04 all factor into his not being worth a top pick.
