Another week, another star quarterback in the tank. And, with apologies to Aaron Rodgers, it wasn’t him.
Donovan McNabb, who was on his way toward a tremendous season and was likely leading many fantasy football teams to the top of their league, tore his ACL on a freak play at the sideline on Sunday and is out for the season.
First things first: You can’t expect the same kind of production from Jeff Garcia, but the drop off could be a lot worse.
Garcia is a veteran who should be able to carry the load, but likely won’t shine as brightly as McNabb has all season. Garcia is certainly available in your league, so grab him if you have a chance.
He’s bounced around quite a bit since his Pro Bowl years with the San Francisco 49ers, but there’s no mistaking Garcia can still play and he’s exactly the type of veteran backup a NFL team wants to have step up in this situation, and the same holds true for fantasy teams.
But the real tragedy here is McNabb, who was posting the best fantasy season of any quarterback heading into Week 11, all without the services of that guy with the most famous initials in football, who flew the Eagles coop to Dallas. To make matters worse, McNabb’s top option coming into the season, Donte Stallworth, missed significant time and was just getting back to form in the past couple of weeks.
Through nine games, McNabb posted more than 2,600 passing yards, more than 200 rushing yards, 21 total touchdowns and just seven turnovers. Garcia will be asked to manage games and take fewer chances than McNabb did, but remember this is still the Philadelphia Eagles – the team that gets knocked regularly for failing to gain many yards on the ground. Running back Brian Westbrook has been getting the job done lately, with three 100-yard rushing games in the past four outings. But he still gains yards through the air on a regular basis and if Sunday was any indication, he’ll be counted on plenty through the air. When he was needed most, Westbrook caught 12 passes for 46 yards. That isn’t an overwhelming average per reception, but don’t forget that when Westbrook does break a short outlet pass for a long gain, it’ll be Garcia that gets the passing yards on his stat line.
And Eagles head coach Andy Reid won’t hesitate to give Garcia chances to throw. He attempted 48 passes on Sunday – more than McNabb tossed in any game all season – after entering the game in the second quarter. It was a conservative 48 passes as he completed 26 and totaled just 189 yards, but it’s a good indication for those desperate to replace McNabb or any other top-notch passer who has been lost in recent weeks.
The real victim in this loss – besides McNabb, of course – could be Stallworth, who was making a habit of catching a deep ball in just about every game in which he was healthy. Garcia can’t heave it quite the way he did a few years ago to that that guy with the initials in San Francisco, so it will be up to Reid and the coaching staff to give Stallworth options to catch short passes and outrun defenders to pay dirt.
Columnist Victor Balta:balta@heraldnet.com.
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