The Philadelphia Eagles struggled with quarterback accuracy over the years. However, the Eagles got by on the big plays that offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg drew up. But when he couldn’t deliver those anymore, Philadelphia fired him and let him go to the New York Jets, who don’t have the most accurate quarterbacks themselves.
Nevertheless, Mornhinweg gave an interview to the Jets’ official website on March 8, where he stated that accuracy isn’t that important for quarterbacks. He cited Super Bowl winning quarterbacks like Brett Favre who won big despite completing under 60 percent of their passes. Unfortunately for Mornhinweg and the Jets, he has never won like that with his inaccurate quarterbacks.
Mornhinweg is with the Jets because the Eagles tanked in the last two seasons under Michael Vick. He struggled to complete more than half his passes, but he didn’t wiggle his way out of it like Favre and other past winners. Instead, he kept getting hit and turning the ball over, which finally became too much for Mornhinweg, Andy Reid and the Eagles to overcome.
Perhaps Mornhinweg is right when he says not every successful quarterback has to be accurate. Joe Flacco had some awful games in the regular season before he finally got hot in last year’s playoffs, and Tim Tebow overcame horrendous passing numbers with the Denver Broncos in 2011.But Mornhinweg and the Eagles never had a Flacco or Tebow in their final years together.
Since Mornhinweg couldn’t win with an inaccurate Vick in 2011 and 2012, he is not the best person to say that accuracy isn’t important. In fact, given the poor job Mornhinweg did in his last two years at Philadelphia, it is fair to ask if he is the right person to revive the Jets’ poor offense at all.
Mark Sanchez needs to improve his accuracy now, since 2013 may be his last chance to keep his job. He did win big in 2009 and 2010 despite never completing over 56 percent of his passes, but he had much better Jets teams to help him.
If he’s going to bail out his current Jets team, he has to be accurate or New York will find someone else who will be. Nevertheless, if Mornhinweg makes the Jets a pass-first offense like he did with the Eagles, how accurate can anyone really be if they throw 40-50 times a game?
Comments