Eagles Bye Week Questions

(Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

The bye week in the NFL is traditionally time to kick back and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your team.

With the Eagles being one of the lucky (or unlucky, depending how you look at it) recipients of the earliest bye in the NFL in Week Four, it's hard to come up with conclusive opinions thus far. 

Backup QB Kevin Kolb has been under center for two of the three weeks, thanks to Donovan McNabb's broken ribs that he sustained in the season-opening thrashing of Carolina (and Kolb leads the Eagles in passing yards—never thought I'd live to see that day in 2009). 

The starting offensive line that the Eagles had coming into training camp is now all but a dream, as RT Shawn Andrews has been shut down for the second straight season (placed on IR last week to make roster room for Michael Vick), LG Todd Herremans continues to rehabilitate from a stress fracture he suffered in the preseason, and RG Stacy Andrews continues to work back into starter shape, alongside Nick Cole and Max Jean-Gilles.

Brian Westbrook has already sustained one of his trademark injuries (he sat out last week's game against the Chiefs to give his ankle more time to rest), opening the door for second round pick LeSean McCoy to show what he could do.

And with Kevin Curtis once again sidelined, rookie WR Jeremy Maclin was given the chance last weekend to start alongside WRs DeSean Jackson and Jason Avant.

With that in mind, let's look at the biggest questions the Eagles face in the stretch run of their season (granted, their stretch run happens to stretch for 13 games).

1) The health of their QBs:

This is, by far, the most important issue the Eagles must confront for the rest of the season.  McNabb is a fighter, through and through (how about when he broke his fibula playing the Cardinals on the third play of the game... and finished the game with four touchdowns?), but his cracked ribs could become a dominant issue of the 2009 season.

Unlike Matt Hasselbeck of the Seattle Seahawks, who only suffered a partial crack in Week Two, McNabb's bottom rib cracked all the way through. Neither Andy Reid nor I are doctors, but from his explanation, McNabb needed to remain more-or-less immobile, especially at first, to allow the rib to gel back into place.

Luckily for the Eagles, they seem to have a competent backup with Kevin Kolb, the third-year pro who just became the first starter in NFL history to throw for 300-plus yards in his first two starts (although, give Reid's pass-happy offense and the Chiefs' gawd-awful some credit for that one).

But Eagles fans don't pay hundreds of dollars each week to see Kolb...they pay to see No. 5. While the Eagles have a relatively easy schedule coming out of the bye (tilts against Tampa Bay, Oakland, and Washington in Weeks 5-7) that could give McNabb more time to rest if necessary, Eagles fans are praying they see McNabb out on the field sooner, rather than later.

2) The Mike Vick/Wildcat Element

On a related note to their revolving turnstile of quarterbacks, I couldn't go any further without mentioning QB Michael Vick. Once arguably the most electric, explosive, dynamic player in the NFL (and this was only three or four years ago!), Vick is now firmly set on the road to redemption with the Eagles this year. While he's not speaking to churches or school children about the evils of dogfighting, he provides the Eagles with the ultimate Wildcat option.

In fact, Vick's gone so far as to say that he was the "originator" of the Wildcat in Atlanta. While that may or may not be true (really, can you take credit for being such a non-threat passing that running became your best option?), Vick does provide the Eagles and offensive coordinator Marty Morningwheg a new and exciting toy.

If Vick can retain some of his explosiveness that he demonstrated during his pre-jail days, he certainly can gain the Eagles some tough yards on the ground and through the air. Thinking back to the Eagles' propensity to fail on third-and-short conversions last year, it's hard to say Vick doesn't add an extra element of danger to the team.  (Seriously. Put him in on 3rd-and-2 and watch the defensive coordinator on the other sideline have an aneurysm trying to figure out the play call.)

Given the Eagles' love of the Wildcat so far (by Reid's count, the Eagles ran 12 plays in the formation against the Saints, and got Vick on the field for 16 plays last weekend), it's hard to say whether they'll maintain this torrid pace of single-winging it when McNabb returns.  But it's sure worth watching.

3) The offensive line

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