Buchsbaum reports

Why the Bears and Eagles are still one year away

By Joel Buchsbaum, Contributing editor
May 21, 2000

Now, many people are predicting that both clubs are ready to make a run at the playoffs, and both teams’ fans are expecting such a run this year. But I feel that both clubs may be a year away.

I’m basing this on one big factor: Both clubs are being built around young quarterbacks who were drafted in the first round in ’99, and both youngsters probably took less than half the offensive snaps last season.

Both Chicago’s Cade McNown and Philadelphia’s Donovan McNabb have tremendous potential down the road, and they are going to be excellent quarterbacks (or at least have the characteristics to be excellent quarterbacks). But I still feel they need 15 or 16 more starts under their belts before they develop into the kind of quarterbacks who can take a team to the playoffs.

Both players have tremendous upsides. McNabb is probably the most athletic quarterback from the class of ’99, and he can do some amazing, Brett Favre-like things. McNown is probably the headiest quarterback of that class. He has a great sense for the passing game, and he has an excellent group of young receivers to throw to.

But very often, the first year a young quarterback starts, he lets things go too easily, and the second year, he concentrates so much on detail that he thinks instead of reacting on the football field. Then in the third year, things start to come together.

That’s why I feel the Eagles and the Bears will stumble a bit this season. It’s imperative that their ownership show great patience with the people in charge, who definitely have both teams headed in the right direction.

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1999 - 2000 Season