2010 Fantasy Football: Donovan McNabb Vs Kevin Kolb

Shawn S. Lealos
Shawn S. Lealos, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Sep 5, 2010 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
Many fantasy football owners will find themselves choosing between former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb and his replacement Kevin Kolb in 2010. Which quarterback will bring the most value to your fantasy football team in 2010?

Following the 2009 season, the Philadelphia Eagles decided it was time to move on.

They dropped their former star running back Brian Westbrook and traded their franchise quarterback Donovan McNabb. The Eagles didn't just trade away their former All-Pro leader, they traded him to a division rival, which is pretty much an indication the Eagles don't believe Donovan McNabb is the threat he once was.

The man they replaced him with is fourth year quarterback Kevin Kolb.

Andy Reid is showing a lot of confidence in the youngster, who he claims to have watched since his early days at the University of Houston. Kolb only threw 34 passes in his first two seasons with the Eagles before they called on him to replace an injured McNabb in 2009.

In his two full games subbing for McNabb, Kolb threw for 718 yards and four touchdowns with three interceptions. He also ran for one touchdown. That accounted for some solid fantasy football stats and was enough to show the Eagles that Kolb's time might be right now.

Donovan McNabb did nothing in 2009 to warrant the trade, though. He threw for 3,553 yards with 22 touchdowns and ten interceptions while helping the young receiving corps at Philadelphia develop into stars. One thing that might have hastened his exit was the team's final two losses, both to the Dallas Cowboys, by a combined score of 58-14.

Coming into 2010, Donovan McNabb now finds himself playing for the Washington Redskins and Kevin Kolb takes over the reins of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Which man provides the better fantasy football value?

Donovan McNabb

Donovan McNabb is now playing for Mike Shanahan, a head coach who developed one of the best running attacks the NFL has seen while at the Denver Broncos. In Washington, Shanahan has Clinton Portis and Larry Johnson at the running back spots and that means McNabb won't have to worry about carrying the team on his back.

However, the receiving corps he has at Washington pales in comparison to the jewels he played with at Philadelphia. His number one targets are Santana Moss and Joey Galloway. The other two receiver targets at Washington coming into preseason were Malcolm Kelly and Devin Thomas. Kelly is now on IR and Thomas might get dropped even further down the depth chart after a disappointing preseason. That does not bode well for McNabb's fantasy football value.

McNabb's best targets might be tight ends Chris Cooley and Fred Davis. Looking at how well McNabb worked with Eagles' tight end Brent Celek last year, that is a good omen for both men.

McNabb was the 12th ranked fantasy football quarterback in 2009 but don't expect him to put those kind of numbers on the board in 2010.

Kevin Kolb

Andy Reid is putting a lot of confidence in his unknown quarterback but Reid knows more about what Kolb is capable of than most people since he has been watching him for so long.

In Kolb's two starts in 2009, he scored 49 points for his fantasy football owners. That is pretty good but those two games were against the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs. The Saints won the Super Bowl based on their offense and the Chiefs didn't win much of anything in 2009.

No one knows how Kolb is going to handle the full load in 2010 but he has weapons in that offense.

While new starting running back LeSean McCoy is also an unknown, Kolb has quality receivers in Jeremy Maclin and DeSean Jackson to throw the ball to plus tight end Brent Celek. The Eagles will be relying on a passing attack this season to win games and that helps raise Kolb's fantasy football value.

The question is whether he can handle the pressure or not.

Verdict

When comparing Donovan McNabb to Kevin Kolb in fantasy football leagues this year, it is always wise to side with the known.

Donovan McNabb has proven over the last eleven years to be a quality quarterback. He is coming off a successful season at Philadelphia and he joins up with the same head coach that led John Elway to his first Super Bowl crown.

Kevin Kolb is coming into a better situation thanks to his weapons but has not been "the" starting quarterback since college.

Go with Donovan McNabb here but keep an eye on Kolb. He could surprise a lot of people.

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Published by Shawn S. Lealos - Featured Contributor in Sports

Shawn S. Lealos is a graduate of the Gaylord School of Journalism at the University of Oklahoma, with his emphasis of study in professional feature writing. He worked as a sports journalist throughout his co...   View profile

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  • Patrick Michael 9/5/2010

    Very in-depth discussion, well done. Kolb looked awesome against the Saints. However, most of that came in the second half after the Saints had already established a huge lead & were playing a vanilla/prevent scheme. Great idea for an article as well.

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