Teams Begin Calling Eagles About Kolb

Honestly it is no surprise that other teams are hoping to cash in on the Eagles promoting Micheal Vick to starting quarterback, by trying to trade for opening day starter Kevin Kolb. Kolb, not Vick was the reason the Eagles felt comfortable moving Donovan McNabb in the offseason, and it is Kolb that has a brighter NFL future. That all being said I understand the team’s decision to go with the hot hand in Vick over Kolb. I also understand the Eagles reluctance to respond favorably to any phone calls from opposing G.M’s right now.

Kolb is still a young and promising quarterback and unlike Vick (and McNabb) Kolb is signed through next season. He would be an immediate upgrade over the quarterback situations in at least a half dozen cities, and could probably compete for a starting job in another half dozen. While Kolb had a bad opening game against Green Bay, it was just one game. Matt Schaub didn’t look to great against the Colts, but rebounded fairly well against the Redskins.

While Vick proponents, who think Kolb is done will point to his success these past two weeks they leave out a few salient details. For one thing Vick came in relief of Kolb and the Packers defense didn’t game plan all week for that situation. Had they spent their time gearing up for Vick it is possible his numbers would have been much worse. And while the Lions had all week to prepare for Vick and they still couldn’t stop him, it was the Detroit Lions defense, one of the weakest in the league.  If Kolb had the opportunity to face them, he very well could have put up just as good if not better numbers.

Now this was a tough situation for the Eagles and they might have made the best decision, but there is no way they should entertain the possibility of trading Kolb. For one thing they’d be selling extremely low on him, not exactly the best idea. For another they have already had one QB injury, what happens if they have another and Vick goes down. Do they really want to turn the ball over to rookie Mike Kafka, when they had Kolb on the roster? Also, remember this is just two games for Michael Vick, one of which was against a bad team. What happens if he starts to struggle as defenses start throwing different looks at him. Even in his best years Vick wasn’t a true ‘franchise’ quarterback, and it is hard to believe he is right now. Finally, Vick is a free agent after this season and up until 2 weeks ago it seemed like his time in Philly was over. What if Vick doesn’t want to return to the Eagles or gets a mega-deal in free agency Philly can’t match. The Eagles could end up without both quarterbacks, and need to scramble to find a viable option behind center.

While I’m not surprised to see teams calling to see if they can get Kolb on the cheap and take the P.R. nightmare off the Eagles hands, Philadelphia is making the right call here rejecting all offers. While some fans have given up on Kolb he still has a future, and it could still yet be as the Eagles longterm answer at quarterback.