New backup QB McCown already fitting in
PHILADELPHIA >> The hushed voices trailing Josh McCown as he walked through the Eagles’ locker room Sunday made the veterans smile.
One look at the 40-year-old McCown, signed Saturday by the Eagles, was all it took for the younger players to nickname him “Superhero.”
McCown, haircut and all is a ringer for Ivan Drago, the Russian challenger in Rocky IV. Hours before his first practice, he began flashing the sense of humor that’s endured for 18 seasons.
McCown has played for so many teams it’s impossible to not know the help. A few lockers away, wide receiver Alshon Jeffery, a teammate of the quarterback with the Chicago Bears, mounted a stool and lobbed a question over a pack of media.
Something like, ask him if No. 17 can play basketball.
McCown took this one, and he stared down reporters answering:
“He’s not bad,” McCown said. “He’s got some skills. But I can lock him down if it was 1-on-1. Just so we’re clear. So, 17 is not bad.”
That’s your new quarterback, the guy Eagles head coach Doug Pederson brought in to, you know, add a little competition to the quarterback room. McCown looked like he was in shape during a brutally hot practice. He still can throw. His release point is high, the 6-4 passer snapping the football like it’s been shot out of a Juggs machine.
It may be Carson Wentz’s team, but for now, the rage is Superhero. No disrespect to Nate Sudfeld, who has a fractured left wrist on his nonthrowing arm, or Cody Kessler (concussion), who also watched practice, but McCown is the oldest, and possibly the most interesting veteran backup to hit Philly since Jeff Garcia took over for an injured Donovan McNabb in 2006.
“We discuss a lot of players obviously,” Pederson said. “I can’t and won’t go into a lot of detail with that. We discuss a lot of players throughout camp. We’re looking at everybody’s roster and even guys like in his case obviously who had semi-stepped away from football. We’re constantly looking to add that value, add that talent, and try to make our team better.”
Pederson didn’t flinch when asked if social activist Colin Kaepernick, who hasn’t played in almost three years and flat-out cannot get so much as a tryout these days, was one of the considerations.
“We consider everybody, honestly,” Pederson said. “We consider everybody and do what’s best for the Eagles.”
There is a lot of validity to what Pederson said about Kaepernick. Eagles veteran Malcolm Jenkins, who also is involved in social causes, said he banged the table for Kaepernick.
“I don’t make those decisions but I would love to see the Eagles sign Kaepernick,” Jenkins said. “I think we have the fan base, the locker room and the need to be that team, to do that and give him that opportunity. Even if he didn’t make the team, just the ability for him to get some tape out there and show people he can still play. I think that opportunity is all he’s really asking for. And I’ve made that known here over the last few years, multiple times. That whenever there’s an opportunity for us to add a quarterback I want to make sure his name is in the conversation. Obviously, they didn’t make that decision but I’ll continue to bang the table for him.”
While all eyes are on Wentz, who physically has been unable to complete the last two seasons, McCown is a fascinating study. He’ll practice Monday and Tuesday when the Eagles entertain the Baltimore Ravens at the NovaCare Complex. And you better believe he’ll be out there Thursday night when the teams get together in the third preseason game.
Though McCown previously said he’d retired from football, and lately had been coaching his ninth and 10th grade sons at Myers Park High School in Charlotte, N.C., his agent knew it wasn’t over. McCown was in the enviable position of being able to pick and choose where he would use those 17 years of experience, including 76 starts.
“It was cool when this opportunity came up and we started to talk about it as a family,” McCown said. “They were excited, and they were like, ‘Man, you’ve got to go.’ And I think it was for all the same reasons that they’ve been through all these situations with me, and they’ve seen it all, and the opportunity to come here and hopefully experience some success, was huge for them too.”