Ashley Fox: McNabb has message for young Eagles

Every word that comes out of Donovan McNabb's mouth for public consumption is deliberate. Everything he says has meaning, a purpose, and an intended audience.

It's not for you or for me. It's for the rug rats in the Eagles' locker room. DeSean Jackson. Jeremy Maclin. LeSean McCoy. And a few others.

McNabb has been through enough to know that tonight is a big game against Dallas. It's for the early lead in the NFC East. Win and the Eagles move to 3-0 in the division, 6-2 overall at the turn, with the most difficult part of their season still to come.

But tonight is just another brick on the path McNabb hopes will lead to Miami. It won't make or break the season. Those kinds of games don't occur until December and January. McNabb knows that. He needs the kids to understand that, too.

After 11 seasons, McNabb is the senior voice. For the first time, he's surrounded by young skill-position players he desperately needs to achieve the ultimate goal. McNabb needs McCoy, Maclin, and Jackson to keep it together, to not get inflated egos and to not smack against the midseason wall so that they can be effective in the make-or-break games.

It's a lot to ask of a second-year player, much less a rookie who played 11-game seasons in college.

So when McNabb speaks, as he did Wednesday, he speaks to them. Listen . . .

I think the problem at times is people focus so much on how teams start the season and talk about them being in the Super Bowl and this is a great team, and all of a sudden they hit that wall and things don't go as well as they want it to for weeks, and toward the end of the year they are losing in the first round of the playoffs.

Translation: The Eagles haven't done anything. Don't listen to the hype. Remember the Cowboys in 2007? They went 13-3, had the bye and home-field advantage - and lost to the Giants in the playoffs. The Super Bowl isn't won in November. Turn off the ears and hunker down. There's a lot of work still to do.

I think it's really premature to say that [the Eagles are playing at a high level] at this point, because, again, this is a long season and you do hit walls. . . . Teams are really measured by how they are able to pull themselves out.

Translation: It's not going to be this easy. You might think it is, but it's not. You're going to struggle. Defenses will try to take you out. It's how you respond that determines the player.

I think what you're seeing is you're seeing a lot of guys stepping up and making big plays for us, where for myself, I've been a part of a team where something like this happened back in 2004.

Translation: Check yourself, kids. Catch nine passes for 122 yards in the Super Bowl on a bum ankle, then you can go Hollywood.

I think when some guys come out of college, they think they're invincible, and you have to make sure that they understand that they're not, and you have to make sure that they are preparing at all times for what they'll be faced with. I think that once they get settled in and they understand exactly what it is that you are trying to express to them, then things begin to go even-keeled.

Translation: There's a lot of work to do Monday through Saturday to have success on Sunday. Put in the time.

They will be hit with [the wall]. I think there are a lot of guys who are not aware of kind of how we do things around here, and I think it's important that we prepare and we set the tone for them to make it a lot easier for them.

Enough said. Message delivered. Are the kids listening?