Sid Hartman: Musgrave believes McNabb has plenty left in tank

The Vikings offensive coordinator sees his QB as someone who can do damage with his arm and feet.

August 1, 2011 at 5:07AM
Former Falcons assistant head coach Bill Musgrave, now the Vikings' offensive coordinator, helped groom Matt Ryan, left, into a Pro Bowl quarterback.
Former Falcons assistant head coach Bill Musgrave, now the Vikings offensive coordinator, helped groom Matt Ryan, left, into a Pro Bowl quarterback. (Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

New Vikings offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave said veteran quarterback Donovan McNabb showed he still can play by having a fantastic start to last season with the Redskins before a number of offensive linemen went down.

Washington started the 2010 season 4-3 and had victories over Green Bay and at Philadelphia and Chicago. McNabb threw for 252 yards a game, completing 57.5 percent of his passes with six touchdowns and seven interceptions.

"McNabb had a fantastic year initially, they had some shoot-'em-out games with the Houston Texans, that comes to my mind, he made a lot of plays for Washington. Then they had some injuries along the offensive line and he ended up running for his life," Musgrave said Sunday.

"He took a bunch of shots, which we all know, those of us who follow football, when a quarterback starts getting knocked around, it definitely effects him adversely as the season progresses."

Musgrave said he believes McNabb has a lot of football left in his 34-year-old body.

"This is a man who's played in the league for 12 years at a very high level, as we know, and he has a lot of tread left on his tires. You can imagine we're elated to have him on the Vikes," Musgrave said.

Musgrave, who was given a lot of credit for developing the Falcons' Matt Ryan into a great NFL quarterback, said he believes McNabb still is capable of scrambling, saying that was McNabb's strength early in his career and that he is still capable of getting three or four first downs a game running the ball. McNabb ran for 151 yards on 29 carries last year, an average of 5.2 yards per carry; his high for rushing yards in a season came in 2000, when he ran for 629 yards and six touchdowns with the Eagles.

Still, Musgrave said it will take time for McNabb to absorb a new system.

"It's going to be a process," Musgrave said. "We met already over the weekend, and he's a sharp study. This is a fella who has a tremendous football IQ, one of his strengths for sure. We know that. These free agents can't practice until August 4th, so there's going to be a little break-in process for Donovan and some other fellas where they can sit back and learn through osmosis and hopefully hit the ground running when they do get into drills."

Musgrave is also high on Joe Webb and Christian Ponder, the Vikings' two young quarterbacks.

It seems almost certain that Webb will remain as a quarterback, but Musgrave said there is a limited possibility that Webb might convert to receiver, a plan the Vikings previously had for him when Webb was drafted last year. However, a position change isn't likely.

"Not at this time, but Joe is going to prove to us whether he belongs on the field or not," Musgrave said. "We're not going to be so regimented and rigid that we don't always want to have the 11 best players on the field at one time, regardless of what position they occupy."

Likes Jenkins Musgrave had been Atlanta's quarterbacks coach since 2006, so he is plenty familiar with new Vikings receiver Michael Jenkins, a first-round pick of the Falcons in 2004. Musgrave liked what he saw of Jenkins last year.

"Michael brings a lot of toughness to the wide receiver room," Musgrave said. "He'll go in there and block safeties, and we're going to be a running team, as we all have declared. He'll fit in really well with our mentality, and of course he has size and speed, which will help when we do throw the football down the field."

Jenkins missed the first five games of last season because of injury. "He was hurt initially during our Friday night scrimmage there in Atlanta, broke his collarbone," Musgrave said. "We didn't have him until maybe Week 6 or 7, if I can recall. But still had his 50 catches. ...

"Mike will definitely have a role, and he'll fill that very admirably."

Twins tried to trade Bill Smith wasn't available to the media on Sunday morning because he was busy on the phone trying to make some trades that would cut a Twins payroll that is way over budget. Rest assured, the Twins general manager tried to trade one or two of the high-salaried players who will be free agents after this season, but apparently he wasn't able to get back what he thought was fair. Look for the Twins to try to do some selling before long via the waivers system.

Meanwhile, Joe Mauer, who was hitting .186 on June 24 after his seventh game since coming off the disabled list, is now hitting .296 after going 3-for-5 at Oakland on Sunday. He is hitting .350 since June 25.

Jottings• A panel of three judges heard the University of Minnesota's appeal of the Jimmy Williams lawsuit July 21. Williams, who claims he was hired as an assistant men's basketball coach by Tubby Smith and quit his job at Oklahoma State only to have athletic director Joel Maturi overrule the hiring, was awarded $1.2 million by a jury in May. A decision is expected soon.

• The fact that highly recruited Jonah Pirsig, the 6-8, 290-pound, nationally recruited lineman from Blue Earth, Minn., whom Iowa and Wisconsin spent a lot of time trying to recruit, has committed to the Gophers could help Minnesota sign three more of the best football players in the state. There is Osseo tight end Will Johnson, who has Auburn, among other schools, knocking at his door; Eden Prairie tackle Nick Davidson, son of Vikings offensive line coach Jeff, who was rated by some to be among the top five high school players in North Carolina before he moved here; and Hopkins wide receiver Andre McDonald, who committed to the Gophers but is now considering Ohio State, although he did recently attend the Gophers summer camp. ... The Gophers' MarQueis Gray, Troy Stoudermire and Christyn Lewis impressed a lot of people at DeLaSalle this summer as they worked with students as interns.

• Gophers men's basketball forward Trevor Mbakwe is one of 14 finalists for 12 places on the Team USA roster for the World University Games, which is next month in China. Purdue's Matt Painter is the team's coach. Two players will be cut before Aug. 8.

• The Vikings signed former Gophers defensive lineman Cedric McKinley, who a year ago really impressed defensive line coach Karl Dunbar in training camp but was released because of the numbers game. Incidentally, Dunbar's son Karmichael, who plays for Prior Lake, visited Louisiana State and Washington during the summer and also attended Gophers camp. He will attend one of those three schools.

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. and on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. • shartman@startribune.com

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Sid Hartman

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Former sports columnist Sid Hartman.

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