Donovan McNabb Will Not Return to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2011

Ever since Donovan McNabb joined a few of his former Philadelphia Eagles teammates for a workout recently, the rumor mill has been abuzz that McNabb could be returning to Philadelphia in a backup role to Michael Vick.

Let me say now with 100 percent certainty: there is absolutely no chance that happens.

For starters, McNabb is not ready to accept a backup role — nor should he. There is still a lot in the tank for McNabb, and at least one team will be smart enough to see that and give him the opportunity to run their offense.

Unlike a lot of aging players who switch teams and wind up looking like a shell of their former selves, McNabb was not on a decline before leaving Philly. In fact, he was consistently completing more of his passes and in typical McNabb fashion was still throwing an incredibly low amount of interceptions.

The only reason McNabb was traded at all was because of the inexplicable love for Kevin Kolb from the coaching staff and front office and the fact that McNabb was the guy being used as the scapegoat for the late-season collapse against the Dallas Cowboys.

But anyone who knows a thing about football could instantly recognize the problem was the loss of Jamaal Jackson and the poor play of Nick Cole — not McNabb. As soon as Jackson went down against the Denver Broncos in Week 16, all hell broke loose right up the middle of the line. Cole could not handle his guys one-on-one, and he wasn’t smart enough to make the line calls and put the rest of the guys around him in their proper place.

However, all the media saw was McNabb struggle and they refused to dig any deeper than that. The clowns did what they do best which is spark up the uninformed, loud-mouth twits that make up a remarkably high percentage of the Philadelphia fanbase.

Granted, it’s still a minority, but it’s at least 25 percent — a rather conservative estimate — of the total Philly fan population that will blindly follow what the ignorant Philly media prints and circulates or screams into a microphone.

These guys are reporters, they are not analysts. The line got blurred somewhere along the way and I just don’t understand it. Why in the world would anyone listen to the guy with a degree in journalism talk about his opinion of what the Eagles need to do on the field and with the roster?

I’ve hit a bit of a digression here, but it’s absolutely mind-boggling.

McNabb is predicting a “special” season for himself in 2011, and I have to say I’m right on board.

"“2011 is different than 2010,” McNabb said on YouTube. “For those who wanna sit back and dwell on what happened last year, so be it. But 2011’s gonna be a special season. A season in which I feel that I’ve prepared myself well — not just conditioning and strength-wise, but most importantly getting back to the fundamentals. And I look to display that in the 2011 season. And for those who feel like it can’t be possible: I’ll prove you wrong.”"

Remember the last time McNabb felt he had something to prove? It was after the benching against the Baltimore Ravens, and all he did four days later on Thanksgiving night was throw four touchdowns and completely torch the Arizona Cardinals.

From there, McNabb got the Eagles back into the playoffs and back to the NFC Championship game where the would lose to the Cardinals, but not because of anything McNabb did wrong. McNabb brought the Eagles back from an 18-point half-time deficit and after a long touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson, actually had them in the lead for a short time.

The defense, however, would crumble as they had all game long.

So why, exactly, would anyone think McNabb won’t do the same thing with a much bigger chip on his shoulder this time? Especially if he’s able to go to a place like Minnesota where a lot of the pieces are already in place around him.

Here’s a semi-bold prediction for McNabb’s 2011: he will be back in the playoffs. I do not care if the Carolina Panthers sign him, he will take any team he’s controlling next year to the playoffs because the guy is flat-out a winner and with a chip on his shoulder there isn’t any reason to believe he’ll have one of the best years of his career a la Brett Favre in 2009.

McNabb will be back in the NFL next year, but it will be as a starter and it will not be in Philadelphia.