ESPN analyst: ‘I tip my hat to Kevin Kolb’
Oct 4, 2012, 4:19 PM | Updated: 5:46 pm
There is a school of thought that says a player should not lose his starting job because of an injury.
Former NFL player and current ESPN analyst Mark Schlereth doesn’t buy into it.
“I’ve never bought that you don’t lose your job to injury,” he told ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike Thursday morning. “You lose your job to injury if the guy who replaces you is better than you.”
As it pertains to the Arizona Cardinals, it would be a little unfair to simply say Kevin Kolb has been “better” than John Skelton, the man he replaced in the lineup.
Skelton, you may recall, did not even play a full game before being sidelined with a sprained ankle in a Week 1 win over the Seahawks. He had completed 14-of-28 passes for 149 yards with one interception, but was injured before having a chance to rally the team for another come-from-behind victory.
Kolb got that chance, led the team to a win, and hasn’t looked back.
“I tip my hat to Kevin Kolb,” Schlereth said. The former Pro Bowler looked back to the preseason when Oakland Raider Tommy Kelly called the QB out for being scared in the pocket and said things have changed quite a bit since then for the high-priced acquisition.
“I don’t care about getting paid a lot of money; when you lose your confidence, regardless of what your bank account looks like, it is hard, especially at the highest level of a professional sport, to go out there and perform,” he said. “And he has been scrutinized, he has been buried, he’s been kicked under the table.
“And yet he’s come out in crunch time; a phenomenal job of competing by him.”
Kolb is completing 62.6 percent of his passes and thrown seven touchdowns against two interceptions. His quarterback rating of 97.6 places him ninth in the NFL, ahead of greats Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers and Eli Manning.
So, should Kolb maintain his hold on the starting job — and it’s assumed he will even though Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt has said nothing of the sort — it would only make sense to view it as the former Eagle earning the job, not Skelton losing it because of an injury.
