Sunday, September 13, 2009

Jay Glazer: McNabb Out vs Saints



Jay Glazer, via Twitter, is reporting that Donovan McNabb has already been ruled out for the Eagles home opener against the offensively-potent New Orleans Saints. Andy Reid said in his post-game conference that there's still a chance McNabb will play, but there's a possibility that could have changed by now.

The thing that doesn't make sense is that Glazer then goes on to say that the injury is not as bad as the Eagles first thought. When the diagnosis came back as a broken rib, I said that I didn't expect McNabb to miss time anyway. Now that Glazer is reporting the injury isn't as bad as first thought, I'm convinced we'll see McNabb play against the Saints.

McNabb is labeled as an oft-injured guy, and it's not an unfair label, but it would be unfair to say that he's not a tough guy. He has a high tolerance for pain as made evident by his game against the Cardinals in which he played with a broken ankle, and even in 2005 when he played a few games with a sports hernia.

He's a tough guy who doesn't want to miss any time, so I expect that he'll do everything he can to convince Reid and trainer Rick Burkholder that he's good to go. My guess is that you'll see him taped up like a mummy around the area of that rib, have the flack jacket on, and probably receive a shot full of painkillers before the game and at halftime.

Tomorrow will tell the real story, as the Eagles will most likely get an MRI of that rib to really find out where McNabb is at and how high the risk of further injury would be were he to play. If it's a high risk, he could sit this game out. If it's not, he will play.

The Eagles next two games are at home against the Saints and then the Kansas City Chiefs. The Eagles then have a bye during Week Four. Considering that a broken rib takes about 3-4 weeks to heal (in less severe cases, in more severe cases it's more like 6-8) completely, McNabb should miss, at the very worst, two games.

Those two games come against very beatable teams. The Saints offense is great, but that defense is putrid as made evident by the 27 points put up by the lowly Lions. If the Eagles can hold the Saints to 20 points, which their defense should be able to do, the Eagles will win. Then with the Chiefs, the Eagles feel they could beat the Chiefs with Reid at quarterback.

Check back tomorrow for a more definite report, but right now I'd say McNabb will play, despite what Glazer says.




Enter your email address for all the best NFL news, rumors, and analysis daily:

Delivered by FeedBurner