This we know, the day after he turned 32 years of age:
He has not been in this spot before, never operated with as short of a leash as he has now.
Not in his professional career, not in his years at Syracuse, not in Pop Warner.
"Never," he said.
At every level, McNabb has won the job and kept the job until he moved to a bigger, better job. At every level, including this one, he has excelled at the job. Five Pro Bowls, people, four NFC Championship game appearances, a Super Bowl, too. He has lost the job at times due to injury, but never ineptness. Not until now.
Is he a bad game away? A bad half away? The discussion about whether Kevin Kolb should be the Eagles quarterback has been replaced this week by a discussion of when. The bittersweet irony of it all is that many who want Kolb to be that guy think it's unfair to throw him into the offense that McNabb is expected to operate efficiently.
"I wouldn't even look at it as if I'm on a short leash," said McNabb. "I don't think that's a way of looking at it. I think a lot of people can make assumptions of what happened in the past game. But I look at it as just me going out and playing football and just doing what I'm supposed to be doing at the position. And then everything else will take care of itself."
Once that might have been true. Once this team went as McNabb went, but not now. This is Brian Westbrook's team now, probably has been since before the Eagles were within a play of the NFC Championship game with Jeff Garcia subbing for an injured McNabb.
But Westbrook, with a bad ankle sprain and a knee that has to be drained every week, is not Westbrook right now. And McNabb, trying to fill that void with a suspect cast in the skill positions, has instead sabotaged the team with indecisiveness and poor throws.
