Making mistakes in practice isn’t that big a deal, provided you learn from those mistakes. That’s precisely what Andy Reid has loved about Kevin Kolb in this camp.
"Well, that’s a great question, [Philadelphia Daily News writer] Les [Bowen], because today – and I don’t like telling you it was a great question, but that was a great question – you saw where [CB] Asante [Samuel] read a play over on the right side; offensive right side. [WR] DeSean [Jackson] had run an eight-yard hitch route and Asante squatted on it, just like we saw the other day. Kevin reared back, he went to throw it and then he held up; he pulled it back. He threw it the other day, came back today and learned from it. Pumped it, checked it down, plus eight. That’s what he’s doing. When Kevin makes a mistake, he learns from it and he makes progress. That’s a very important quality to have. The guys that make them over and over and over and over again, those guys can’t play at this level. It doesn’t work for them. He studies it, he sees it, which is important, and then he reacts to it, which is even more important."
We’ve already seen some evidence of this in Kolb’s two starts last year. Against the Saints, there was a play where he didn’t read Darren Sharper lurking across the middle and threw a pick that ended up getting returned for six. A week later against Kansas City, Kolb had no turnovers and appeared to looking off the safeties much better. For an in depth look at the game tape of Kolb’s week 3 start against KC, check out Bleeding Green Nation.
Reid also praised Kolb's presence in the huddle.
“He’s very good in the huddle. He’s able to get in there and give them information, which is important; down and distance. Both he and the center are giving them down and distance in the huddle. Snap count, if we go an off-snap count, he’s going to present it to them first. This all sounds fairly easy here, but the clock is running. So he gives them the snap count. If it’s an off-snap count, other than one, he gives them the play, repeats the snap count, tells them the situation, ‘Hey, keep your eyes open for this. Give me an extra step if it’s a seven-step drop.’ He’s coaching them up in there as he’s giving them the play. Doing it time, giving himself enough time to get to the line of scrimmage and still make a check if he needs to. I think he handles all that very, very well.”