[PHIL INQUIRER] So far, Kevin Kolb looks like a quick study

Eagles QB Kevin Kolb throws in minicamp. "For a rookie, he's really consistent," offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg says.

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He is a rookie, and it is only June. The pads aren't on. The rush isn't coming. It isn't the fourth quarter, down by three to the Giants at the Meadowlands with Michael Strahan's foot on his throat.

But the early reports on Kevin Kolb, the quarterback the Eagles picked in the second round of the draft, have been favorable. Good attitude. Quick learner. Nice arm.

And the rook certainly throws a catchable ball. Between the numbers. Not too hard. Right where, and how, you want it.

Let's get this straight right off the top. Kevin Kolb isn't ready to start a game in the National Football League. At this point, he isn't even a viable or valuable backup. Kolb is learning the playbook, learning the schemes, learning the tendencies of his teammates. He can't think on his own. He can't read and react. He is like a baby who must be nurtured and shown the way.

But if Kolb indeed is the heir apparent to Donovan McNabb - and please, let's not get into this argument, but no one should be forcing 5 out the door any time soon - at this early juncture, he looks like a solid choice.

"He's handled himself really well considering the circumstances," Eagles backup quarterback A.J. Feeley said.

"For a rookie, he's really consistent and he has been, up to this point, very accurate for a first-year player," Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said.

"If you can step back and keep the entire picture in focus, it'll help you proceed through the struggles you're having," Kolb said.

Last week, under a punishing sun that made the temperatures feel more like August at Lehigh, Kolb took virtually every snap during a camp for rookies and younger players. After Kelly Holcomb was given time off, Kolb was the only quarterback on the field for four practices. At times, he had four, and sometimes five, coaches working only with him.

Kolb ran through red-zone situations. The two-minute drill. The Eagles' no-huddle. It was mentally taxing and physically draining, but it was an invaluable experience that will serve as the foundation of Kolb's professional career.

He survived. This week, when the entire team reconvenes for the final organized team activity before next month's training camp, Kolb will revert back to what he really is at the moment: The guy with the clipboard who gets few, if any, reps in practice. And that, too, will be fine.

"This week was what I needed," Kolb said. "I needed to take every rep to where I have a short memory, forget about any mistakes I made and continue pushing forward just like a game situation. . . . We've pushed pretty far with this [young] group. I really think a lot of the guys are - we've gotten a lot of reps - struggling and tired. It's not a relief, but it's going to be a nice change of pace to get everybody back in here."

Kolb is a football junkie and a sports nut. Recently married to his high school sweetheart, Whitney, Kolb is slowly making his way onto every golf course in the area. Memorial Day weekend, he and Whitney went to New York one day, played 18 holes (both are a 12 handicap) and took in a Phillies game. This weekend, they were off to Atlantic City. They are still looking for a house, but have settled on an area in South Jersey that reminds them, as much as it's possible, of the countryside in Texas.

Otherwise for Kolb, it has been football 24/7. The Eagles playbook is thick, and there is a lot to learn and digest.

To his new teammates, Kolb seems prepared and relatively at ease.

"It can be tough, especially because it's like learning a new language," Feeley said. "The verbiage can be foreign to you, and you have to learn all that, and especially coming here and everybody has expectations of you and people are always watching you. It can be tough. It can be a lot of stress on yourself, but he seems to be doing great with that. He did better than I thought a rookie would do in his situation when he came in here for the first minicamp, let's put it that way."

"This is a hard offense for anyone to learn," wide receiver Reggie Brown said. "It's all about timing. I think once he gets his feet wet and comes into the camps and gets a better grasp of what the coaches expect and all the timing, then his natural abilities will come out, and he'll be able to show people what he can do."

Asked when he fully grasped Andy Reid's offense, Brown quipped: "Who said I was there yet?"

And Brown is starting his third year here. Kolb is just a rookie.

It likely will be years before we can adequately judge whether Kolb was worth a second-round selection. But the early reports are in, and they are about as favorable as you can get.