Phil Sheridan | McNabb can carry Birds back to Bowl
Inquirer Columnist
The nagging question is whether the Eagles have enough talent at wide receiver to get back to the Super Bowl and win it.
The answer is that the Eagles have the quarterback to get back to the Super Bowl, although, of course, Donovan McNabb still has to prove he is the man to win it.
If this becomes the Season After T.O., it will be up to McNabb to run an offense with Greg Lewis, Billy McMullen and rookie Reggie Brown as the wide receivers. You can assume that Andy Reid will add another legitimate wideout to the roster, but you can also assume he won't be as explosive as Terrell Owens.
However it shakes out, McNabb is the answer to the question.
All the talk about young receivers struggling in Reid's system has missed a major point: When Todd Pinkston was a rookie, McNabb was in his second season and first full year as the starter. When Freddie Mitchell was a rookie (miscast as the world's smallest slot receiver), McNabb was in just his third season.
Back then, the quarterback was learning the offense, too. Back then, when a play went wrong, the coaches had to explain to everyone what happened. Maybe McNabb made the wrong read. Maybe Pinkston read the wrong coverage. Maybe Mitchell didn't adjust to the correct route.
"When Pink came in," McNabb said, "I was just learning the offense and I had been a couple of years in. So they [the coaches] were throwing in different wrinkles and trying different things. You are trying to visualize it and make sure the guy is in the right position at the right time."
Reid's offense is just as complicated as ever, obviously. There is as much for Brown, the second-round pick from Georgia, to learn as there was for Pinkston and Mitchell. The difference is that the guy under center has mastered the system and has run it against every kind of NFL defense.
So Brown may feel as if he's underwater at this point in camp, but now the quarterback is able to throw him a lifeline.
"Now I am able, before we get out of the huddle, just to make sure Reggie knows what route he is running," McNabb said. "The rest of the guys as well. I can make sure we are on the same page and give him an idea that if we get certain coverage, he might get the ball if he's not the first or second read."
Don't misread this as saying Brown will step right in and fill the role Owens played last year. There's no substitute for experience. Owens understands the nuances of the system, how to slide across just in front of a safety and use his body to shield the incoming pass.
The point is that McNabb's experience and knowledge can help make Brown, Lewis and McMullen more productive than Pinkston, Mitchell and James Thrash were at similar points in their development.
Ironically, Owens is one reason for that.
For the first five years of his career, McNabb worked under Reid's philosophy that it was better to have a bunch of good, solid, smart receivers than a superstar who demanded the ball. People close to McNabb made it clear that he hungered to find out what life would be like with a true No. 1 receiver.
He found out last year. His collaboration with Owens was great fun to watch, and it will be a shame if that is lost. But there's no erasing the confidence McNabb picked up from it, or his awareness that you have to trust your receivers to make plays.
It's easier to trust Owens than McMullen, but the principle is the same. Case in point: With the Super Bowl on the line, McNabb threw the ball to Lewis, a rookie in whom he had developed trust over the course of the season.
"I think there's always a rapport any time you make a play for your quarterback," offensive coordinator Brad Childress said. "You make a play and then you have a tendency to get another ball thrown your way. You drop it on the ground, he may shortcut a read and look past you because he's not sure what he's going to get."
There is one more reason to believe that McNabb can be the answer to the most pressing question about this offense.
After a year with T.O., and an off-season of being insulted by T.O., you have to believe McNabb would love nothing better than to prove that Owens wasn't the key to the Eagles' success last year.
"We have been to three NFC championships with guys that everyone decided to turn their back on and talk bad about," McNabb said, referring to the likes of Pinkston and Thrash.
They can go back without Owens, and the reason is No. 5.
Post a question or comment for columnist Phil Sheridan at http://go.philly.com/asksheridan. Or by e-mail at psheridan@phillynews.com.