Les Bowen: Pressing questions heading into Eagles training camp

JUST FINISHED enumerating the five key areas of concern as Eagles camp commences Sunday, and then I realized not one of them had anything to do with Donovan McNabb.

I'm not quite sure this is allowed. I might have to check with an editor. Usually, training camp begins with the declaration that McNabb is "at a crossroads." The man has spent more time down at the crossroads than Robert Johnson.

That's not so much the case at Lehigh this year, though. This year's crossroads, as far as I can see, came during the offseason, when McNabb wanted a contract adjustment and the Eagles acquiesced. True, they did it in a way that would not hinder them from moving on to Kevin Kolb next year if this year goes badly. But they seem to have settled the matter of who will start at quarterback this season, barring injury, regardless of slumpage, and they've given McNabb every reason to think that if he plays well, he'll have the job in 2010. That's more certainty than most of us can get in an uncertain world.

A few years ago, the big issue was health, after back-to-back McNabb surgeries in '05 and '06, for a sports hernia and an ACL. But now McNabb has started 33 of the last 35 games, including last season's playoffs. There is no reason to consider him particularly fragile.

McNabb played unsteadily on his still-healing knee and the Birds missed the playoffs in '07, so last year at this time there was speculation that the Kolb era might be near. It seemed that speculation was being borne out when McNabb was benched for the second half of a loss in Baltimore on Nov. 23. But Kolb did nothing to change the tone of a crushing defeat. Then McNabb rallied the Eagles into the playoffs, and the NFC Championship Game.

Now, well, things are about as copacetic as they are going to get in Philadelphia for an 11th-year quarterback who hasn't won a Super Bowl. Sure, the issue of whether McNabb is capable of doing that remains crucial. But as urgent, attention-demanding worries go, in July 2009 it is way down a list that starts with the suddenly iffy outlook for Brian Westbrook.

So, feel free to relax a little, DMac. Take a deep breath. Maybe even smile at the first Lehigh news conference. This time around, it isn't all about you. At least, not so much.

The five most obvious

areas of concern as the

Eagles convene at Lehigh:

 

1What's up with Brian Westbrook?