Eagles Still Not Ruling Out McNabb For Sunday's Game

Oh man. You know how I said last Sunday that we would know more about McNabb's status for New Orleans on Monday, well, it is now late Thursday night and either Andy Reid is channeling his inner Mangini and just hiding his cards to keep the Saints off-balance for Kolb, or there really is a chance that Donovan McNabb could play in this Sunday's home-opener against the Saints. Via The Associated Press.

The Eagles aren't giving up hope of having Donovan McNabb on the field when they play their home opener Sunday against the New Orleans Saints.

McNabb made a brief appearance on the practice field Thursday afternoon but did not take part in any drills, after fracturing his rib on a touchdown run late in Philadelphia's 38-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers last weekend.

"Donovan is working very hard," offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said. "You know Donovan, he's doing everything in his power to get back out there, make it to this game. He's played with a broken ankle, a broken sternum and all these things. Donovan is a very tough man."

Given the way that Kolb has played in his brief appearances this year and last year, if this is just a smoke screen, you really can't blame Reid. After all, Kolb has struggled and if he can keep the Saints guessing and off balance, then advantage Eagles. If McNabb does play, it certainly is not the lack of practice time that I worry about. As far as him playing goes, I'm more concerned about how effective he'll be throwing the ball given the fact that he will be throwing with a broken rib, something that while he can play with (Westbrook played a lot of the season with 2 broken ribs last year), is very painful to do and certainly throwing the ball and taking body shots like McNabb has a tendency of doing will not do much to alleviate his pain.