Donovan McNabb says patience under new offensive coordinator Brian Johnson, the lack of a running game—specifically non-RPO attempts—and the quick game are the things he is focused on regarding the Eagles' disappointing offensive performance in Week 1.
"I'm going to speak from a quarterback standpoint," McNabb told Jon Marks and Ike Reese on Tuesday when asked about Jalen Hurts' lackluster 2023 season debut. "There are three things right now in the beginning of the season that people need to be patient with. One, he's not going to give you the explosive plays that you're used to last year because your coordinator is gone, it's a new coordinator. Two, they need to run the football. Turn around and hand the ball off and run the football. The RPO stuff it only lasts for so long. It's like the wildcat, people start to diagram that and start to defend that a little bit more...
"I love [Kenneth] Gainwell, but where is [D'Andre] Swift? Where is Boston Scott? We need our running backs to be running backs and run the ball. Don't look for Jalen to be that guy to get 10, 15 carries. That's your quarterback.
"Utilize the quick game, utilize your tight ends, utilize your three step drop to now open things up in the offense."
McNabb also talked about the Eagles looking sluggish due to their lack of preseason reps.
"When you don't play in the preseason, you're going to come out sloppy in the beginning," he said. "I can be the old man on the lawn as some of these people may say, but you can practice with a team but it's not game mentality. It's not game approach, it's not adrenaline high...To me when I watched that game, we looked sluggish, we looked slow, we looked kind of like we were questioning ourselves—should we go or should we not go. And then we allowed them to stay in the game, which now Mac Jones turned into like he was back in Alabama."
McNabb will join Marks & Reese every Monday during the NFL season at 4pm.