I’ve written quite a bit about the Eagles quarterback situation. I think it’s an important position, but I also believe people make it more important than it is.
I thought Kevin Kolb played well on Sunday. I do think from what we’ve seen out of Kolb, he could be a successful quarterback for the Eagles. I think his success or failure will have a lot to do with how good the other players around him play.
This is true with every quarterback and it’s the reason that I think that you can make too big of a deal about the quarterback position.
The better his offensive line plays, then the better he will be able to play. They didn’t do a great job protecting him but they did supply a running game for him. As the competition improves, it’s going to be nearly impossible for him to have a turning gate at left offensive tackle and put points on the board.
If you don’t protect a quarterback he can’t do his job. We saw that in the Giants-Patriots Super Bowl, when an undefeated New England team with a quarterback who had thrown a record 50 touchdown passes was shut down by a great pass rush, despite New York having a mediocre secondary.
Quarterbacks play a dependent position. If you put a great quarterback with a average team up against a great team, the great quarterback with an average team gets killed. If you don’t believe me, then explain the John Elway-led Broncos getting killed in three Super Bowls. How does the Dan Marino-led Dolphins get killed in the Super Bowl versus the Niners?
This is why it’s stupid to say that this quarterback can’t win a Super Bowl or this one can. Depending on who they’re playing with, we’ve learned that some of the greatest quarterback who ever played the game can’t win a Super Bowl, but guys like Trent Dilfer, Jeff Hostetler and Brad Johnson can. It all comes down to who they’re teammates are.
Let’s go back to Kolb and the Eagles.
The better running game he has, then the better he will play. LeSean McCoy will need to continue to play at the high level he’s currently performing at. The run threat will help the offensive line keep the pressure off of Kolb and the play action pass will open up throwing lanes, which will make his job easier.
If you take away the running attack and continue with poor pass blocking, then add a few drop passes or an inability to get open, and the quarterback’s job is nearly impossible.
McCoy’s ability to turn check downs into ten yards gains kept Kolb out of third and longs, which made his job much easier. That needs to continue.
Any quarterback is going to benefit from his teammates playing well.
On Sunday night, Kolb had a running game to help him, San Francisco’s Alex Smith didn’t. McCoy flourished while Frank Gore was contained and forced to fumble twice. Smith turned the ball over three times, but he had nothing to do with the Gore fumbles, yet they made his job more difficult.
Smith had to carry their offense and he made too many mistakes, which usually happens when he’s been asked to carry their offense. Still he had little help from Gore.
Think about it, if McCoy didn’t bust that 29-yard touchdown run on Sunday night in San Francisco, then Kolb would have had to find a way to get the ball into the end zone.
He could have thrown a touchdown or an interception. It wouldn’t have been easy because when you’re throwing in the red zone, you’re working with tighter windows (which are areas to throw the ball for completions). You’ve got to be just about perfect with your accuracy.
Going forward, the progress of McCoy could affect the Eagles offensive game plans. They don’t have to rely on the big play as much with a back like McCoy who can get you four or five yards a carry, then take a check down and turn it into a ten-yard gain.
If Vick doesn’t come back against Atlanta, then the Birds offense game plan will be constructed more around McCoy than Kolb.
You can win with more a classic west coast offense style which the Eagles used in 2006, when they went to the playoffs behind Brian Westbrook and Jeff Garcia. They built that offense around Westbrook.
He was a workhouse who would carry the ball 30 times and catch it about 10, if necessary. Garcia would get time and throwing lanes from the run threat. This could be where we’re headed if Vick doesn’t return on Sunday.
I do think Brent Celek must play better for Kolb to be more successful. He’s got to come down with some of those passes down the seam. Kolb put the ball on the money but Celek failed to bring it in. Those were keys plays in the second half when the Niners played double zone to control DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin outside.
Kolb did the right thing and threw the ball to Celek down the middle.
Again quarterbacks play a dependent position. They can’t ever catch the ball for themselves. If Celek continues to drop the ball it would make Kolb’s job almost impossible.
Trent friggin’ Dilfer! Enough said!
G, your point has been proven time and time again. That’s why I never understood all the blame laid at McNabb’s feet.
Vick!! Get well so we can make a run
The NFC is wide open.
G – I would add one important ingredient to a QB’s success, play-calling.
Because of excellent play-calling by Reid, the Niners’ linemen didn’t know whether to:
1 – Charge upfield to rush the passer (to prevent a downfield pass),
2 – Hang at the line of scrimmage (to defend a screen play); or
3 – Play the gap (to stop the run).
The Niners were hesitant because they had to identify the play before making a move. That split second gave the offense an advantage.
I agree G,
Teams are going to continue to double up on the outside on D-Jax/Maclin on the deep routes wit Safety help over the top.. The middle of the field will be open and area where the Eagles can get big plays,
Celek will have to beat the LB Coverage and catch the ball better,which this year, he seems to have the bobbles a little bit, He needs to get his head turned around sooner and get his arms/hands extened..I’ve noticed on a couple of his drops this year, he is letting to ball come to him instead of extending and going out and catching with your hands..
Celek drops last week actually stalled about 2-3 drives in which the Eagles could have put the game away, He will ned to make these plays against better teams for the Eagles to win. Celek has had a sub-par season starting out but I think he will pick up the pace and start matcking the plays/catches that we are accustomed to, he’s too good and works to hard not to succeed…
On a side note,
Isn’ t it a shame the Draft pick TE C Ingram never was able to stay healthy.. Imgaine him running some
seem routes.. This TE position is an area the Eagles need to address next year to become more athletic.. Celek is a good solid TE, but not a great one or a game changer type (like Finely,Gates,Cooley,Gonzales,M Lewis,V Davis,J Gresham,Winslow Jr,Clark ) and other up and coming TE’s in the NFL (Hernandez,Pettigrew,Nelson,Dixon,Cook,F Davis,Moeaki,Keller)
The Eagles need to get more athletic at this position in the future for the days of a slow-footed guys who can catch but not run away from anyone is going to be a thing of the past as this position now attracts big,gifted athletes who can run and catch…
TO ALL GCOBB READERS, PLEASE ACCEPT MY HUMBLE APOLOGY:
I went back and read some posts. In so doing, I ran across G’s post regarding racism. It was I who broached the topic. Please know that I meant no offense. I will refrain from injecting the subject going forward.
Pman ease up on Celek . In all honesty i think he is better than alot of tight ends in the leauge right now. Last year in particular he got FING ROOKED in the probowl for jason witten. He is an absolute monster who never goes down on initial contact and can take some massive hits and never cry about it. I still remember last year celek dragging at least four saints on his back out of bounds. That is celek to me in a nutshell. I will agree he is not ELITE yet but def one of the tops in leauge. And serious qeustion for you too paul that maybe you can answer for me. What happened to clay harbor. I heard his name like 57 million times thorugh out traning camp and otas then he dissapeared. Last i saw of a back up for celek was some dude who got promoted from the pratice squad. Have you heard anything?
PMAN, where have the stud TEs been on the winning superbowl teams recently? None come to my mind. Anyone got some examples? Sure, it’s an attractive thing to think about, but Gates hasn’t really made SD into a SB winning team, and they had LT!
You can’t really get a stud athlete TE unless you draft high, and if you put a backup TE to Celek ahead of Oline or LB in terms of needs for this team… well….
Its amazing how the excuses come out with regards to our TE and WR. Jackson and Maclin arent new to the league. Teams have been trying to stop Jackson for 3 years. Is no coincidence that Vick and McNabb arent here so Jackson is ineffective. Dont you believe for a second Jackson isnt running open through everyones secondary. Nobody can cover that speed. If Kolb is your future Jackson is useless.The deep game is gone. The ONLY thing that saved Kolb from Jackson last week was the Eagles won. I guarentee you if another week goes by and Jackson gets 3 catches for 26 yards and the Eagles lose all bets are off. Jackson goes public with his concerns. He stated in an interview already that he cant control the ball being thrown to him. Vick better hurry back.
Fully agree with the article. A running Game that is feared and respected can help a QB that can’t make all of the throws needed to run a wide open offense. You need to play good D, control the ball with a running game and throw accurate timely passes on third downs. Receivers have to get open and make catches and most of all the coach has to be great at preparation and game day adjustments
If you can get the ball down the field consistantly you have to be an effecient well coached offense that can run the football.
Didn’t our receiving corps break a scoring record last year? Doesn’t that mean something?
dw – are you saying that’s a bad thing?
To DW
What it means for 2010 is that opponents don’t honor ,respect or fear theEagles running game which is just another good reason to run it more often to catch Defenses in nickle/dime packagages and off balance and pound the rock… Then that will open up down field for big-play opportunities
Mancini they havent honored our running game for 8 years. Why was down field open for all them years for McNabb and 2 games for Vick? All of the sudden down field isnt “opened up”. What defenses dont fear, honor or respect is Kevin Kolb. McCoy has shown he is by far the best pure runner this organization has had in the past 10 years. If anything, down field should be even more opened up. Can you imagine a run we will have with Vick, McCoy, Jackson, Maclin, Celek and Schmidt out of the backfield? This potential is scary.
SOme repsonse,
I heard that HArbor has been slow to pick-up the playbook and has not really improved in the area of blocking so back-up Mills who used to play for the Vikings in CHildress system which is very similar to the Eagles was able to pu the playbook,terminology quickly and outperfom HArbor
I think Harbor,Teo Neisham,Sapp are good young players who will really blossom next year after a solid year of Pro Style conditioning and I don’t expect any impact at all this season from any of them and of course Sapp is on IR for the year and Teo Neisham has been inactive every week and will probably remain so unless major injuries happen on the DL..
Harbor may get a chance or 2 over the season but I think the Eagles have been pretty happy with
the play if Mills in a limited role, but the trend in the NFL is the tall,fast,athletic type.
G-great article! It all comes down to just doing your job. If it’s blocking, running a route, pass protection, reading a D, picking up a blitz, getting the ball out, it doesn’t matter. You do your job and things tend to work out more often than not. Of course you’re gonna get beat every once in awhile but good diciplined play from the top down makes teams good.
About the TE position, I too was hyped at the thought of having Celek, Ingram, and Harbor in a redzone package. On paper it looked like it could be dangerous but alas, no Ingram, no Harbor, and no replacement or help in that area either.
I hope AR now realized that we can run the ball effectivly and play-call accordingly. However I think he might try and get too fancy and out-coach himself with wannabe gimmik plays. Just keep it simple AR, it worked last week.
****************Trade Alert************************************
Eagles trade with Cleveland Browns and send RB M Bell in exchange for RB Jerome Harrison
********************************************************************
sorry Paul…Bell have a no trade clause for this year as part of his contract.
My fault Paul…just seen it….My bad
Paul
It’s always been good to run the ball. Nothing’s changed there. It keeps the defense honest.
Schiller
No, I’m not saying that breaking a scoring record is a bad thing. I’m saying that the same receivers who broke that record are a year improved. The only thing that’s changed is the QB. So, why aren’t they getting ball under Kolb?
There was much written about Kolb and Celek being roommates and how they would hook up on the field. To date, that hasn’t happened. It’s been Vick who has successfully gotten the ball to Celek.
drummer – Maclin is getting the ball under Kolb. He wasn’t in that 1 game, poor example and only one game, because the defense was leaving other options open. The goal is to win games, not get the ball to Maclin and Jackson.
Drummer, Kolb threw Celek’s way a bunch, what are you watching. And it scored a TD – doesn’t that count for you?
Wait G, this is Philadelphia….. the QB position is the only position that gets the blame and no praise. It isn’t a dependent position here. It’s all about what they do regardless of how good the rest of the players are. Well at least that’s what it’s been for the last 11 years. Pretty interesting of how many people point out o-line issues and playcalling when Kolb played bad. But when Vick played well, it was against garbage teams, while Kolb played good against an 0-4 team and being praised. Something is wrong that. I just would like it to be consistent for EVERYONE.
Celek is overrated. He drops easy passes that Pro Bowl TEs catch. He’s probably the 5th best TE in the conference behind Witten, Cooley, Gonzo and Finley (no specific order). Only thing more overrated than him is Bradley.
Schiller
I think I’m watching the Eagles games. Perhaps I’m mistaken.
Kolb FINALLY connected with Celek, but it’s been Vick who’s gotten it to him consistently.
Why do you always get so smart? Are you a girl or something?
Schiler
If you’d like to get together to discuss our differences over a beer. I’d be more than happy to oblige.
Pauls top TE’s in the NFC
#1) Finley
#2) Gonzo
#3) Witten
#4) Cooley
#5) V Davis
#6 Schianco
#7) G Olsen
#8) J Shockley
#9) WInslow JR
#10) Celek
Celek is a good player but he is not an elite TE, He doesn’t have enough speed nor can he block too well. Just another example of Philly Fans & Local Media overstating a Eagles player because they have a couple of good games,catches or even a season ..The same thing is happening right now with McCoy… who is having a great season so far, but Philly fans/Media are so quick to jump on or off a players bandwagon, that it’s comical to watch/read and listen to …
By the way, my top 10 list does not even include the AFC which is stacked at TE position too
Oh yeah I got all about Vernon Davis. I don’t know how I did that after he had Bradley chucking for air trying to stay with him. I’d give Shianco the nod over Celek too. So I guess he’s 7th on my list in the conference. He’s in the middle of the pack league-wide. And he still can’t block.
Agreed Paulman guys like Keller, Clark, Gates, Daniels easily move Celek to mid-bottom half of the league in starting TEs. I’d take a guy who can block well and is only decent at pass catching any day than a guy who has trouble blocking and drops a lot of easy passes and doesn’t get that much separation from defenders.
Who’s idea was it to have Bradley run down the fied with Davis? Seriously. I know he’s just supposed to run him to the safety and you hope the QB can’t drop the throw in there was Bradley was just so slow that the gap was so large where the safety was irrelevant. Dude is not a top LB to be running with Vernon Davis.
What’s the deal with all the reports about Andy being more involved with the defensive playcalling?
@PMAN that was me who ask about harbor and commented on celek. Thank for the response bro i enjoy your input. People on here are rough in there opions on celek. The dude is a beast.
I saw Ar on the Sideline during th egame barking out signals and hand motioning to S Allen and LB Bradley a few times during the game (mostly in the 2nd half wehen 49ers were mounting a comeback)
I posted about this and asked G for his comment but never received feedback..
I am pretty sure that in Coach AR 12 years, I ‘ve never seen him engaged with the Defense like he was in las tweeks game versus the 49ers.. I kinda of liked it myself.. I see a definite sense of Urgency with AR this year and I really think moving forward this young team will progress nicely.
I also think he will play both QB’s a lot (if and when healthy) and not show his hand or say too much about it which I think can work and drive some other teams Defensive game planning into a nightmare…
I thought E Sims (Speed) or M Fokou (arm reach and physical) would have been better match-up suited to run down the field with V Davis..
TO Scorp,
In AFC, there’s reliable TE like T Heap, Z Miller, B Miller, with young studs like Hernandez,Moeaki, Gresham, Dixon,O Daniel,J Cook, Nelson.. TE’s is probably one of the deepest positions in the NFL and most Teams now have 2 good TE’s on their Roster
drummer, I’m not a girl, what does gender have to do with anything here or ‘getting smart’? And sure, I’d love to grab a beer and talk Eagles – there’s few things I’d enjoy more.
Celek has regressed this year. The last 2 years he was better than middle of the road TE. He was running defenders over and a playmaker. His blocking I couldnt tell you if its improved or not I dont look at the coaches tape and I dont know his assingments so I wont pretend to know like others. But I do see the dropped passess. I think we were all expecting another level from Celek. Hopefully he can pick it up.
Yep
QBs don’t win Superbowls
Teams do
QBs don’t play defense and defenses win Superbowls more than offenses
Paulman I agree and that shows urgency, desperation and lack of trust in McDermott. When JJ was here, Reid never ever did anything with the defense. I think McDermott isn’t the D-coordinator next year unless the defense plays lights out. But I don’t think that’s happening. They will play well sometimes but they will give up a lot of points and a lot of yards at times too. He has to replaced after this year if the D continues to play like this for the rest of the year. When you play against better teams in the league they are going to score points and they are going to play well against your offense. So if our offense doesn’t put up 24+ points against the good teams, chances are we won’t win.
Paul, I also agree about the TEs. There are a bunch of reliable ones out there that I would rather have than Celek more for their blocking and consistency than anything.
daggolden, I agree and that’s because the league has tape on him. When Celek really started to show promise was when LJ Smith was the starter and Celek backed him up while he was injured so Celek kinda caught people off guard. Even the eagle fans didn’t want celek to be the starter, which is why so many got upset when they didn’t draft Pettigrew. But now that everyone knows about him, he’s gets the attention like a legit 1st string TE. Problem is that when he has the opportunity to show how legit he is, he misses a key block or he drops a key first down or touchdown that hits him right in the hands. He has great size and can easily get in position to make tough catches but he doesn’t finish it well enough. He’s not fast enough like a Vernon Davis or Gates to outrun any LB and he’s not savvy enough like Witten or Clark to create separation with very subtle movements. Right now he’s a middle of the pack starting TE.