Donovan McNabb just cannot stop talking. He spent most of the offseason criticizing every new contract a quarterback received in the league. He was critical of the mechanics of Matthew Stafford. He claimed Tony Romo was capable of leading the Dallas Cowboys. He questioned the quarterback competition of Michael Vick and Nick Foles. Now, the former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback is slamming the up-tempo offense of Chip Kelly.
McNabb spent his 11 seasons in the NFL working in a traditional offense. The idea of the read-option and nu-huddle offenses had yet to truly take off, so naturally McNabb is skeptical of last ability of the new trend. In an interview with CSNPhilly.com, the NFL analyst noted that Kelly's new offense was simply a fad and would never last an entire season.
"I don't know if any offensive player would want to run 90 plays in a game. If you're running 90 plays in a game, that means your defense is pretty awful and you're running entirely too many plays," McNabb said. "At Oregon, [Kelly] may have ran 75 plays in a game, but you're not going to run 85, 90, not in the NFL, and teams and defensive coordinators are a lot better than what you're going to see in college."
In Week 1 against the Redskins, the Eagles ran 77 plays, blowing people away with how quickly their offense was moving down the field. They had the Washington defense exhausted by the end of the first quarter. In Week 2, the team ran 58 plays while losing to the San Diego Chargers. They racked up 63 points in the two weeks, third-most in the NFL so far. McNabb has noticed how productive the Eagles offense is appearing, but he does not think they can keep the pace.
"I tip my hat off to what they've been doing the first two weeks, but there comes a time if you're up by 14, up by 21, maybe with about 11, 10 minutes to go, it's time to go into a mode where you're trying eat up some clock," McNabb said. "You can't continue to run that fast-paced offense because it continues to run down not only their defense, but it wears your offense down, too."
The biggest question surrounding the Eagles offense will be the health of quarterback Vick. He was already seen limping around the field in both games. Will the up-tempo be too much for him? McNabb thinks so. "You worry about the depth, you're worried about the injuries and long-term. Right now, everything looks great, but I'm just worried as thing continues."
McNabb will return to Lincoln Financial Field on Thursday night to have his jersey retired by the Eagles. Philadelphia will face Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs for the first time since they fired the coach.
