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QB Donovan McNabb, Free agent
HT: 6-2, WT: 226, Born: 11-25-1976, College: Syracuse, Drafted: Round 1, Pick 2
| Outlook • Career Statistics • Game Logs • Split Stats • Play-by-play • Latest News |
Click here for 2011 preseason info
Stats and Week 21 Projection
| WK | OPP | RES | CMP | ATT | PYD | Y/A | PTD | INT | RSH | YD | Y/R | TD | FPT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEASON TOTAL | 94 | 156 | 1026 | 6.6 | 4 | 2 | 14 | 59 | 4.2 | 1 | 79 | ||
Week 21 Injury Status and Other News
No official injury reports have been released yet
Week 21 Matchup Info
The Free agent have a bye this week.
Game Summaries
Week 1 at SD - McNabb's first pass as a Viking was a harbinger of things to come. He tried throwing a pass in the flat that was deflected up in the air by Charger LB Shaun Phillips. The ball was straight up and Phillips cradled it on its way down for the interception. While he didn't turn the ball over again, things didn't really improve for him either. The Minnesota receivers weren't able to really get any separation from the San Diego defensive backs, and when they did McNabb was unable to find them. His accuracy left a lot to be desired to say the least, and was never more evident than on a deep pass attempt to Bernard Berrian. Berrian had gotten several steps on the defender, and all McNabb needed to do was get it anywhere near him and it would have been a long touchdown. Instead, he horribly underthrew Berrian by several steps, allowing the defender to catch back up and knock it away incomplete. About the only positive aspect of McNabb's performance was his surprising elusiveness. He made several good reads in taking off and scrambling out of the pocket to convert a couple of key first downs as well as the touchdown pass to Michael Jenkins, and even showed some old school McNabb juke moves to elude defenders. That being said, as good as his mobility was, it wasn't nearly good enough to make up for the fact that he averaged two and a half yards per attempt. Many more showings like this, and McNabb will find himself once again battling for his job.Week 2 vs TB - McNabb looked comfortable in his first start against the Minnesota home crowd and in the first half, he was effective at keeping his team on the field and punishing Tampa for every three and out that their offense ran. McNabb scrambled to avoid sacks, and executed the play action to perfection, frequently hitting guys like Michael Jenkins and Percy Harvin on short roll-outs for nice gains. It didn't hurt that Peterson was running like a madman, tearing up the defense and getting the Vikings out to a quick lead. However, McNabb also was not without his faults. While he didn't throw any interceptions, he frequently over or underthrew targets, and was ineffective at getting anyone besides Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin involved in the game. As the game moved through the second half, the Tampa defense began to put additional pressure on McNabb, and his accuracy suffered for it. His longest pass of the second half was the 17 yard comeback route to Bernard Berrian early in the third quarter. He went 4-10 after that until the final 20 seconds of the game, where he nearly was sacked in the end zone where it not for a lucky flip to Adrian Peterson who took the ball 10 yards for the first down. If you take away Gerhart's 42 yard screen pass which was more a breakdown of the defense than McNabb's passing skills and the final 18 yards in the last 20 seconds of garbage time, McNabb finished with just 160 yards passing for the game. Not exactly starter quality fantasy material, and not enough to give the Vikings a win in a game that they totally dominated for the first 30 minutes.
Week 3 vs DET - McNabb was the Jekyll and Hyde quarterback we have come to expect over the last few seasons and, judging by the sounds coming from the stands, Vikings fans are losing patience. He had a few drives and a few specific throws (most notably the 8-yard TD to Shiancoe as the first half clock was winding down, where he evaded the rush and zipped the ball in for the score) where he looked like the spark the Vikings offense has sought for the past 3 seasons with aging veteran gunslingers. Other times, though, McNabb was one-hopping passes to open receivers (sometimes due to pressure, other times due to his inconsistent footwork and the resulting inaccuracy), and overthrowing others. As a result, the first 2 drives stalled in the red zone and the Vikings had to settle for field goals. It appeared as though McNabb may have been hurt when he was stripped of the ball in the 3rd quarter by Cliff Avril as he was preparing to throw. The Vikings recovered, but his next throw was 5 yards over the head of an open Michael Jenkins on 3rd down and McNabb went to the sideline after that throw grimacing and shaking his throwing hand. He never left the game, but had a very rough second half until the drive that led to the game tying FG near the end of regulation. McNabb had a few passes dropped, but had plenty opportunity for success as the Lions were selling out to stop the run and left corners in a lot of man-to-man coverage. He had a difficult time making the quick throws accurately and avoiding the pressure from the Lions' pass rush
Week 4 at KC - McNabb is clearly teetering between what he used be (an All Pro QB) and what he is well on his way to becoming (an EX-All Pro QB). In the first quarter of this game, he was definitely the former. While most of his throws were of the short variety, McNabb was supremely accurate early on, with his only incompletion being a throw away as he was chased from the pocket. When he finally did look deep with 1:47 left in the quarter he threw easily his best ball of the day, hitting Devin Aromashodu with a perfect pass down the left sideline for a 34 yard touchdown. The next 2 ½ quarters were pretty much without highlight for the 34 year old quarterback. In the 2nd quarter McNabb turned the wrong way on a handoff to Adrian Peterson, and they fumbled the exchange. While Peterson recovered that miscue, McNabb had no such luck two plays later when he overthrew Toby Gerhart on a simple screen pass. The ball bounced of Gerhart's hands into the breadbasket of Chiefs' defensive back Brandon Carr for his only interception of the day. The third quarter was mostly uneventful with the Vikings keeping the ball on the ground or relying on short passes. To start the 4th, McNabb took another shot deep, this time to Percy Harvin who failed to get two feet in bounds. Vintage McNabb returned on the next drive with the Vikings trailing 22-10. McNabb was 5/5 on the touchdown drive in which he spent most of the time trying to elude Chiefs' sackmaster Tamba Hali. On a huge 4th down play McNabb avoided the rush and made a great throw to hit Bernard Berrian across the middle for a first down. He finished the drive with a precision throw at the pylon to hit Michael Jenkins for 6. McNabb made one last impressive throw to Visanthe Shiancoe with Tamba Hali in his lap to start the Vikings final drive, but it would be his final completion of the game.
Week 5 vs ARI - McNabb was the second worst starting QB in this game. Yes, you read that correctly. McNabb played better than Kevin Kolb, but that isn't saying much. McNabb frequently threw passes into the turf well before they reached their intended receivers, and when the Vikings entered the third quarter with a big lead AGAIN, it was clear that the Vikings were going to let Adrian Peterson run the ball rather than trust McNabb to lead them to victory. McNabb completed just two of his first 10 passes, and finished the game with just 10 completions. His biggest pass was a 60 yard catch and run to Devin Aromashodu over the middle, where the pass was actually good, but the defender fell down and Aromashodu turned a 20 yard gain into a 60 yard gain. On his TD run, it was a smart play -- a designed draw where McNabb probably could have run for another 20 yards with the size of the hole that he went through. However, for most of the game, McNabb was just 'OK'. His bread and butter play is to play action to Adrian Peterson, roll the other way and hit a receiver in the flat. They tried this several times with limited success, but ultimately when they Vikings had the big lead, they were determine to let Peterson run the ball and keep the clock moving. For now, McNabb can celebrate a good victory, but it's questionable if he'll make it the full season as the starting QB for the Vikings.
Week 6 at CHI - McNabb actually didn't have a bad game for the Vikings. In fact, of the five incompletions that he had for the day, three of them were drops by his receivers. However, as the game wore on and the Vikings fell farther and farther behind, Chicago became more and more relentless with their pass rush. On his final series of the game, McNabb was sacked on his last two pass attempts. One was a play where Julius Peppers chased him down from behind and basically shoved him to the ground. This was particularly troubling since Peppers came into the game with a bad leg. On the next play, the pocket totally collapsed and McNabb went down in a sea of Bears. When the Vikings came out for the 4th quarter, rookie Christian Ponder was under center. McNabb has already stated that he expects to be the starter for week seven, but the Vikings say they won't announce it officially until Wednesday. Given the injuries along the offensive line, Ponder might be the better choice because he is more mobile and able to avoid the pass rush a bit more than McNabb.
Week 7 vs GB - Any thought that Christian Ponder might have a 'quick hook' against the Super Bowl Champions was gone on the first pass from scrimmage when Ponder uncorked a 72 yard bomb to Michael Jenkins. McNabb is officially the backup for the rest of the season.