One of the big issues on sports talk radio and television shows lately has been the debate over where Kevin Kolb, the former second round pick and current backup to Mike Vick in Philadelphia, will end up playing this season. In all likelihood, that appears to be Arizona. My question though is this: Why is Kolb so highly sought-after?
At the moment the 26 year-old passer has seven starts in four seasons for the Eagles with a 60.8 completion percentage, 11 TD's, and 14 INT's. He has also been sacked 20 times and has a QB rating of 73.2, which is not very good. During his seven games played and five starts in 2010, while Vick was out with an injury, Kolb delivered only seven TD's compared to seven INT's with a 76.1 rating while winning only two games. It seems to me that there is a lot of hype over a guy that has not proven anything up to this point. Aren't there any better options out there?
28 year-old veteran QB Kyle Orton is entering his seventh season and might be heading to Miami to throw the ball to Brandon Marshall and company. In his six seasons with the Bears and Broncos he has compiled a 32-30 record with 71 TD's and 48 INT's. Last season, while playing for the hapless Broncos, he threw for 3,653 yards, 20 TD's, and only nine INT's. Had he been playing for a team that didn't have the worst defense in the league he probably would've won more than three games.
The San Francisco 49ers resigned 27 year-old Alex Smith to compete at QB. While the former number one overall pick in the draft has not lived up to expectations, he still played better than Kolb last season with 14 TD's, 10 INT's, and an 82.1 QB rating while splitting time at the position with Troy Smith. He may have not won a lot of games over the years but it can be argued that the 49er organization has been a complete mess for several years now.
If Orton does finally end up in a Dolphins uniform this fall you can chalk up a win this off-season for Miami. Now they will have a proven winner reaching the pinnacle of his career in Orton and a young, developmental player with starting experience backing him up in Chad Henne.
As for Arizona, they may be trading away some valuable draft picks for a guy that has only been known so far in his career as the guy that got blind-sided by the Mike Vick experiment in Philly. All-pro WR Larry Fitzgerald is entering the last year of his contract in Tempe. If Kolb is not the player that everybody seems to think he is I can't see him resigning with the Cardinals. So in the end, they may just end up with a career backup as starter at QB while the guy that almost won them the Super Bowl a few years ago walks in free agency.
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