For Eagles, There's Still a Catch

Wide Receivers Seen as Weak Link on Reid-McNabb Teams

The search for capable wide receivers for quarterback Donovan McNabb started long before Terrell Owens's arrival in Philadelphia and has continued well after his tempestuous departure.

The focal points for the football-watching public when it comes to the Eagles usually are McNabb and Coach Andy Reid. They are heavily scrutinized within one of the toughest sports towns, and their futures with the organization are regular topics of debate.

Many people within the league, however, look not at who's calling the plays or who's delivering the passes, but at who's catching the footballs thrown by McNabb.

For most of the time since the Eagles hired Reid in 1999 and he used his first draft pick with the franchise to choose McNabb, the team has lacked what most NFL observers would regard as a true top-shelf wide receiver. Owens filled the void briefly in 2004 and 2005, and the Eagles made a Super Bowl appearance with him.

But he departed in a highly contentious contract dispute with the club that included Owens publicly disparaging McNabb, and the Eagles have gone back to their pre-Owens ways of having McNabb distribute passes fairly evenly to relatively anonymous wideouts.

Once more, Reid and his team have achieved some level of success doing things that way. The Eagles will face the New York Giants tomorrow at Giants Stadium in a conference semifinal, putting them one victory from what would be a fifth appearance in the NFC title game in 10 seasons with Reid as their coach.

McNabb has been highly productive since Reid benched him for half a game in Baltimore in late November, and both coach and quarterback have said recently they're satisfied with the level of performance they're getting from the wide receivers.

"They seem to be playing well," Reid said late in the regular season. "They've all got one or two redeeming qualities, and Don is using those, and Marty [Mornhinweg, the Eagles' offensive coordinator] is doing a great job of setting those up in the offense. And the guys are catching the football. You remember earlier in the year, we had so many drops. I think we were leading the league at one point in drops. So I think the guys are doing a better job of focusing in and catching the ball."

McNabb praised the group, and Jason Avant in particular, following last Sunday's triumph at Minnesota in a first-round playoff game.

"Given the opportunity, he'll make plays for you," McNabb said following the game. "And that's what you've seen all season, not just from Jason but from all of the guys. When you get an opportunity to call plays for them, you know that they are going to come down with the catch and possibly get the first down or more."

Still, it's doubtful that watching tapes of the Eagles wideouts produced sleepless nights this week for Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo or his players. The Eagles didn't have a 1,000-yard receiver during the regular season. Rookie speedster DeSean Jackson came the closest, with 912 receiving yards. That put him only 28th in the league. No other Eagles wide receiver even reached 450 receiving yards.

Tailback Brian Westbrook remains the team's game-breaker on offense, catching the ball as well as running with it. It was Westbrook who made the key play last weekend against the Vikings, going 71 yards with a screen pass from McNabb for a fourth-quarter touchdown that all but sealed the outcome.