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Phil Sheridan: Are quarterbacks really the key?

The only argument about Peyton Manning is whether he's the greatest quarterback of all time or merely in the top three or four.

Peyton Manning and the Colts are 5-2 this season. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
Peyton Manning and the Colts are 5-2 this season. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)Read more

The only argument about Peyton Manning is whether he's the greatest quarterback of all time or merely in the top three or four.

Manning, who will wave his arms frantically and point at linebackers at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, has exactly one more Super Bowl ring than Donovan McNabb, Kevin Kolb, and Michael Vick. He has exactly as many as Trent Dilfer, Mark Rypien, Jim Plunkett and - for what it's worth - Eli Manning.

At a time when the quarterback position is very much the topic of conversation in Philadelphia, these two seemingly incongruous facts are worth considering. What does it say about the still-sensitive issue of McNabb's legacy as the Eagles' franchise quarterback? What does it mean as the Eagles try to forge a future with either Kolb, the heir apparent, or Vick, the unexpected challenger to the throne?

Manning is the prototype of what a franchise QB should be: smart, accurate, consistent, a proven winner, a solid leader. He has delivered season after season of excellence. He has made tons of money and become more familiar to most Americans through his endorsements than his on-field performance.

One championship. One. And that not only took until Manning's ninth season, it also required the good fortune of having Rex Grossman and the Chicago Bears as his opponents.

If all this sounds like criticism of Manning, it isn't meant to be. He is, again, as good at the toughest position in sports as anyone ever to play it. There is but a small handful of players you could credibly consider his peers, and they are all legends: Montana and Elway and Favre and Brady and Aikman and Unitas and Starr and Marino.

This is less about Manning's credentials than about the way we've perceived quarterbacks all these years. It was always an article of faith that the first priority of every team was to find a franchise quarterback. It was the best, maybe the only, way to try to build a championship-caliber team.

That was certainly the logic when Andy Reid was hired in 1999 and immediately went to work evaluating the QBs coming into the NFL in that year's draft. For all the manufactured foolishness in the media here at the time, Heisman-winning running back Ricky Williams was never a consideration. Neither was Edgerrin James, the back the Eagles liked better at the time (and who had a better career).

It had to be a quarterback, and McNabb was the pick. He was also the right pick. There's no disputing that. For 11 years, McNabb's presence meant the Eagles had a chance to win a championship. When he started all season, they went to the playoffs. They reached the conference championship game five times in seven years.

It is a measure of his achievement that fans here came to take all that for granted, even to judge him more for what he didn't do than for what he did.

When McNabb finally got to the Super Bowl, the fates set him up against Tom Brady and the Patriots, the NFL's decade-defining dynasty.

Brady won three titles, of course. It is going on six seasons since the last one. Brady has turned in his best all-around seasons as a QB in that span, but has not won another championship. Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh's inelegant and ungraceful quarterback, has won two Super Bowls in the meantime.

It is going on 13 years since Brett Favre's back-to-back trips to the Super Bowl. He has thrown a lot of touchdown passes since then, but Dilfer, Grossman, Kerry Collins, Jake Delhomme, and Brad Johnson have been to the Super Bowl.

So what does it all mean?

Something like this: Having a first-rate quarterback gives you a chance to be good, year in and year out. But winning a championship is as much about timing, circumstance, momentum, and luck.

Vick was once the kind of franchise QB that Manning, McNabb, and Brady are. He had the chance to be the younger, hipper face of the league. That's just part of what he lost because of the mistakes that led him to prison.

He will start today against Manning because, it turns out, Reid is not beholden to his former philosophy about quarterbacks. He was developing Kolb to be a starter, yes, but the whole idea of a franchise guy through thick and thin? That's history. You wonder if, given a do-over, this Reid would go back and draft an impact defensive player instead of McNabb in that first draft.

If the best QB of his generation, and maybe any generation, is going to produce one title during his long career, there's no reason to get locked into another franchise guy. If you're just as likely to win it all with Brad Johnson or Eli Manning, there's no reason to agonize between Vick and Kolb.