I guess we'll have to agree to disagree then until we have a 16 game season to watch. But I'd urge you to read both those articles on Bleeding Green and take a look at all 85 throws the guy made in weeks 2 and 3. There's a few bad throws absolutely, but there's also quite a few positives. Regarding your issue with leading the receivers, you'll see that there are a number of throws where he chooses NOT to lead the receivers, instead puts the ball back shoulder or low to prevent them from getting hit.
Think back to some of the Mcnabb to Jackson's TDs in 2009. Are there any throws that Mcnabb made that you don't think Kolb could? Off the top of my head, without digging for them I really can't. Deep ball to the left side against the Giants (think ref falling down), maybe 45 yards in the air, hits him in stride nicely. Left side against Washington, WIDE open, maybe 50 yards in the air Jackson has to stop and turn around to catch an underthrown ball. Vs the bears, middle of the field, just over the fingers of the outstretched defender, Jackson again has to slow down to haul in the 50 yard pass. Second Giant game, open Jackson cutting across the field deep to the left, ball went about 50 yards and again Jackson has to slow down to get the ball, defender dives and misses. I'm sure any Desean Jackson highlight clip with crappy music will have all these passes
Oh I remember one that I don't think Kolb could have made! I think Mcnabb's biggest throw was when he loaded up from about 60 yards out and hit Maclin in the end zone against TB, I don't think Kolb has that throw in him quite yet. The same might be true of the deep out to Maclin (challenged) against Denver without about 50 seconds left.
But yeah, though we lauded Jackson for his plays over 50 yards, the longest reception he had from Mcnabb was in that 2nd Giants game, 60 yards. We shouldn't pretend like Mcnabb was throwing 60 yard tosses on a rope to the guy all season long. Of course we can agree that Mcnabb has a bigger arm, but I'll remain cautiously optimistic that the quality of our skill position guys will keep our big play offense moving. Will we score more than we did last season? Almost certainly not, we set a franchise record for points in '09 so it would be silly to suggest that we'll improve on that, but I do think this team should be able to put up points, when turnovers don't limit them!
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