One is the last surviving member of a disappointing 1999 NFL Draft class of quarterbacks that saw five passers taken in the first 12 selections. The other was never even drafted and after 13 seasons he remains an NFL starting quarterback. The third is the league’s Golden Boy, the guy who has broken every mold for young quarterbacks.
McNabb, Kitna and Brady had three very different starts to their careers as NFL starting quarterbacks.
DONOVAN MCNABB
• Entered the NFL: in 1999 with Philadelphia as the second player selected in the NFL Draft.
• When did he become a full-time starter: 10 games into his first NFL season game, he opened for the Eagles on November 10th against Washington. The Eagles won that game 35-28, even though McNabb threw for just 60 yards.
• The quarterback he replaced as the starter: Doug Pederson opened the first nine games of the 1999 season. Previous Eagles starters had been Rodney Peete, Ty Detmer and Koy Detmer.
• Team’s record over the 64 games before he became the starter: 25-38-1, with two appearances in the playoffs.
• Team’s record in McNabb’s first 64 starts: 43-21, with four appearances in the playoffs over five different seasons.
• Head coach: Andy Reid
• Offensive coordinator: Rod Dowhower (35 starts) and Brad Childress (29).
• Offensive weapons available in first 64 starts: RB Duce Staley (64), RB Brian Westbrook (29) and TE Chad Lewis (63).
• Pass protection: in his first 64 starts, McNabb was sacked for a horrible total of 199 times for 1,283 yards lost. That was a sack every 12.6 passing plays. In his 64th start, he was sacked eight times by Green Bay in a post-season game that was actually won by the Eagles.
• Stats for his first 64 starts: 2,375 attempts, 1,339 completions, 14,384 passing yards, 56.4 completion percentage, 98 touchdown passes, 57 interceptions with a 78 passer rating.
Analysis
McNabb was the centerpiece on the rebuilding of the Eagles into a championship contender and he took them to four consecutive NFC title games, winning just once and advancing to the Super Bowl.
His start in Philadelphia began with the fans booing his selection on the day of the draft, as he was picked between quarterback Tim Couch (Cleveland) and quarterback Akili Smith (Cincinnati.) Both of those quarterbacks were complete busts in the NFL and their careers amounted to nothing more than footnotes.
Not true with McNabb. After waiting a little more than half the season, he became the Eagles starter as a rookie and while he did not re-write the rookie quarterback record book, he established early that he knew the value of protecting the football. By his third start he had more TD passes than interceptions and he’s kept those two a healthy distance apart over the next 61 games. Although he was playing for Reid, who is a disciple of the West Coast offense, McNabb did not have the sterling completion percentage that system requires of the quarterback. After 32 starts he was completing just 54.9 percent of his passes; the league average in that ‘01 season was 59 percent.
Big passing days were not the early norm for McNabb. In those first 64 starts, he threw for over 300 yards just five times. In comparison, Peyton Manning threw for over 300 yards 16 times in his first 64 starts.
McNabb became very efficient at managing the game, especially considering he had little in the way of explosive offensive weapons to work with. In those early starts, there were no wide receivers of note on the Philadelphia roster. The running backs like Duce Staley and then all-purpose Brian Westbrook were the big forces. Tight end Chad Lewis served as McNabb’s security blanket, since he did not have any quality receivers.
He also did not have the best pass protection. Here was another case were a very mobile quarterback – that was one of McNabb’s strengths coming out of Syracuse – ends up getting sacked as often as a guy who stayed in the pocket. A dozen times in the first 64 starts he was sacked five or more times, including a pair of games where he was taken down eight times. Ultimately, that pounding began taking a toll, as McNabb missed six games at the end of the ‘02 season with an ankle injury.
What can we translate to Croyle’s situation? McNabb learned very early how to manage the game. Some pundits and fans criticize him today because he does not seem to have been able to grow beyond that role. But if a young quarterback can take any lesson from McNabb’s early days as an NFL starter it would be just that: manage the game. Protect the ball and move the offense. Do that and you can be a winning quarterback. McNabb was 7-7 after his first 14 starts and never again saw his career won-lost record sink below the .500 mark. He will not go down as a record setting thrower in NFL annals.
But remember, not until Terrell Owens showed up in Philadelphia did McNabb have a catcher that could be considered among the league’s best wide receivers. Croyle is already ahead of the game right now with Dwayne Bowe.
JON KITNA
• Entered the NFL: in 1996 as a college free agent out of Central Washington. He signed with the Seattle Seahawks.
• He signed with Cincinnati as an unrestricted free agent in 2001.
• When did he become a full-time starter: Kitna started one game in the ‘97 season and then the final five games of the ‘98 season for the Seahawks, after being the team’s third quarterback for the previous 11 games. He essentially won the job in the ‘99 training camp.
• The quarterback he replaced as the starter: Warren Moon, who had started 24 games in the ‘97-98 seasons.
• Team’s record over the 64 games before he became the starter: 30-34, with no appearances in the playoffs.
• Team’s record in Kitna’s first 64 starts: the Seahawks and Bengals were 26-38, with one visit to the playoffs.
• Head coach: Dennis Erickson (5 starts), Mike Holmgren (28), Dick LeBeau (27) and Marvin Lewis (4).
• Offensive coordinator: Bob Bratkowski (5), Mike Sherman (15), Gil Haskell (13) and Bratkowski again (31).
• Offensive weapons available in first 64 starts: RB Ricky Waters (28 starts), WR Joey Galloway (5), RB Corey Dillon (31) and WR Chad Johnson (16).
• Pass protection: in his first 64 starts, Kitna was sacked 138 times and lost 868 yards. That’s a sack every 16.7 passing plays.
• Stats for first 64 starts: 2,172 attempts, 1,265 completions, 14,037 passing yards, 58.2 completion percentage, 82 touchdown passes, 81 interceptions with a 74.8 passer rating.
Analysis
The odds were decidedly against Kitna having much of an NFL career. At Central Washington, he led his team to the N.A.I.A. championship game as a senior and finished his career there with 99 touchdown passes. But he was not selected in the ‘96 NFL Draft, in a year when only eight passers were drafted in seven rounds.
Kitna spent a year on the Seahawks practice squad and then went to NFL Europe, or what was then called the World League of American Football. He was the World Bowl MVP in the spring of ‘97 as he led his Barcelona Dragons to the championship. But it was not until ‘99 when he got a chance to be the Seahawks starter. In his final season, Erickson elevated Kitna from No. 3 quarterback to starter for the final five games, jumping over Moon and John Friesz.
Those first five starts have the look and feel of an untested NFL quarterback. His TD/INT ratio was 7/7. One game he completed 70 percent of his throws, the next just 51 percent. There were no big passing days, but the Seahawks won three of the five games.
The next year brought Holmgren and an entirely different offense to Seattle. Kitna adapted well. He became a more accurate thrower and he dropped his interceptions. After throwing seven interceptions in his five ‘98 starts, he threw six in his first nine starts during the ‘99 season.
At no time did the Seahawks ask Kitna to win games with his arm; in his 33 Seattle starts he did not throw for more than 300 yards. After Galloway left following the ‘98 season, Kitna’s receiving options were the likes of Sean Dawkins and Derrick Mayes. Watters was the offense in the Pacific Northwest then.
Holmgren pulled the plug after the 2000 season, making a trade in early March for Matt Hasselbeck, his former backup in Green Bay. A week after the trade, Kitna signed with Cincinnati. In the second half of the 2001 season, the Bengals went 2-5 in his seven starts and he threw four TD passes to 11 interceptions, while completing only 51 percent of his passes. He actually threw 68 passes in one game, a victory over Pittsburgh.
What can we translate to Croyle’s situation? Like McNabb, Kitna did not spend a lot of his early starts working with outstanding receivers. Not until late in his first 64 starts did Chad Johnson show up in Cincinnati. What Kitna struggled to do was manage the games. Once he left the guidance of Holmgren, his interceptions went up and his completion percentage went down. Those are classic signs of a quarterback trying to do too much.
At times last year Croyle was guilty of that: trying to make something out of nothing. That usually ends up with the quarterback looking bad. Croyle understands that and if he needs a refresher, he need only look at the career of Jon Kitna.
TOM BRADY
• Entered the NFL: in 2000 with New England as a sixth round (199th player) selection in the NFL Draft.
• When did he become a full-time starter: on September 30, 2001 when he opened for the Patriots against Indianapolis in a 44-13 victory. He did not throw a touchdown pass that day.
• The quarterback he replaced as the starter: Drew Bledsoe, who was injured in the second game of the ‘01 season.
• Team’s record over the 64 games before he became the starter: 29-35, with two appearances in the playoffs.
• Team’s record in Brady’s first 64 starts: 51-23, with three appearances in the playoffs and three Super Bowl victories.
• Head coach: Bill Belichick
• Offensive coordinator: Charlie Weis
• Offensive weapons available in first 64 starts: WR Troy Brown, RB Antowain Smith, RB Corey Dillon and WR Deion Branch.
• Pass protection: in his first 64 starts, Brady was sacked 130 times, losing 794 yards. That’s an average of a sack every 17.2 passing plays.
• Stats for first 64 starts: 2,111 attempts, 1,293 completions, 14,378 passing yards, 61.3 completion percentage, 94 touchdown passes, 50 interceptions with an 86.6 passer rating.
Analysis
It’s really unfair to introduce Brady into this analysis. His early career was unlike anything that happened to a young quarterback in the game’s recent history. He is very definitely the exception and comparing other young throwers to him is a waste of time.
For example: Brady threw the ball 118 times in his first four starts without throwing a single interception. In his fourth start, a victory at Indianapolis, he had a passer rating of 148.3, with three touchdown passes, while completing 80 percent of his passes. In his first 64 starts, he had a passer rating of 100 or better 20 times. Peyton Manning achieved that 12 times. None of the other quarterbacks in this evaluation came close.
What helped Brady in those early starts was the stability of the Patriots coaching situation, with Belichick and Weiss. That made his transition easier, but his success belongs to him, not his coaches.
What can we translate to Croyle’s situation? Nothing. Brady is an NFL quarterback freak, a guy with Hall of Fame credentials and he won’t be 31 years old until early August.
