Welcome Number 7?

I’ve spent the past few days convincing myself that this Vick move is a good one, and, well, I’ve basically succeeded. I don’t want to get too deep into the moral dilemma of bringing him in, because I really want this post to be about football. Suffice it to say that I love dogs and find what he did to be horrible, almost unforgivable. But if he is sincere in his intentions to “help more animals than [he] hurt,” well that’s a start, and even better would be if he can reach out to impoverished youths tempted to get involved in dog fighting (I read he first started with it at age 8) and perhaps help discourage a mindset that promotes callousness and tolerates cruelty among some youths growing up in rough places--or at least Jeffrey Lurie hopes he can, and so do I. Having met several men who have developed a constructive outlook on life while incarcerated, I’m inclined to give Vick some benefit of the doubt that he really has rehabilitated/is rehabilitating himself. If Roger Goodell, Tony Dungy (who I often find annoying and holier than thou, but must admit seems to be a decent, moral man), Andy Reid, and Jeffrey Lurie are all willing to give Michael a second change, well, then I guess I am. (Although as Eagellectual reader Josh the Writer has pointed out, I’d probably be less supportive of him getting a second chance, if that second chance happened to be in Silver and Blue attire or at East Rutherford, New Jersey—but that’s the ambiguity of how morality and self-interest interact for all of us at some time or another, but I digress).

Now for the football part. For that I’m excited. Sports Illustrated’s Peter King correctly assessed, although in phrasing that would make me cringe if I read it on a freshman paper: “Vick is most definitely going to play an important role on what the Eagles do on offense.” Vick, when healthy, was one of the most dynamic players we’ve ever seen. Indeed the man has run for a thousand yards in a season from the quarterback position. The Eagles are saying that they brought Vick in to be a qb, but don’t let them fool you, and for what it’s worth, it doesn’t seem like any one is being duped by assertions that he’s really here to be a straight QB. Vick WILL be used for the wildcat, and a whole heck of a lot more than the 12 times they used DeSean last year (eleven runs, and one Monday night pass for an interception in the Cleveland end zone by current Eagles safety Sean Jones). Indeed, if Vick’s back in playing shape, he might be the ideal wildcat qb. As a younger qb, he at times struggled with accuracy and timing, but his rocket arm was never in question. With Vick taking a direct snap, teams would have to choose between bringing a safety forward to help defend him in the run or leaving the safety back to prevent a deep fly route. In that scenario, Vick is dangerous to either run for a first down, or launch one deep to one of our multiple ultra-speedy receivers. The amount of speed this team can put on the field between DeSean, Westbrook, McCoy, Maclin, Curtis, McNabb, and now Vick really will be downright scary for opposing defenses. Basically, I think we can expect to see Vick everywhere all over the field, plus if McNabb gets hurt and Kolb turns out to be a huge disappointment (although I’m still optimistic), well Vick is another option, one I’d personally take over Adam Joshua Feeley (I both have the same tendencies to throw interceptions but Vick has a cannon arm and lighting speed).

As for the roster spot, it will be interesting to see if they keep all four QBs or not, but it’s a decision they won’t have to make until Vick is fully reinstated, probably around week 6. If Vick really is going to be used as a weapon in the running game, I don’t see why they couldn’t keep him and the other three. Part of this question stems from the fact that I believe Vick is probably just going to be a one year rental, unless he comes in at QB for a hurt Donovan and blows everyone away (let me get back to that in a second). The thing about this roster right now is that it’s not clear that there are five running backs worth keeping. Traditionally, the Eagles keep four tailbacks (although for most years that number requires you to count the Mormon fair catch machine Reno Mahe as a tailback) and one fullback. If we keep five backs, then right now, we’ve got Westbrook, McCoy, and Weaver, leaving two spots for, in all likelihood, two of the following three: Eldra Buckley, Kyle Eckel, and Lorenzo Booker. I see no reason to assume that the Eagles wouldn’t consider cutting one of the remaining two come week six, if/when Vick is cleared, especially if it turns out that one of those last two RBs has injury issues by then (although hopefully not).

Concerning Vick’s future, it seems unlikely that it remains in South Philly beyond this year, unless McNabb suffers a pretty serious injury and Kolb does not turn out as advertised. Next year the Eagles have a team option to pay Vick over 5 million dollars (this year he comes in around 1.6 million), so that would be a whole lot for a guy who is not starting, especially if Kolb remains (and we have every reason to believe he will) the heir apparent. If indeed, Vick is only intended as a one year rental, then it makes it harder to cut A.J. Feeley to make room for Vick, but Feeley is only under contract through 2010, so they’d only be wasting one year of a backup’s contract against the caps, so it’s possible. It will be interesting to see how the Eagles use Vick and what this means for the rest of the roster, but I don’t think Donovan has much to worry about right now (if he stays healthy that is). It will probably be quite some time before we really get to see what Bick can do for this offense. He is slated to play in the final two preseason games, but Andy will probably play things pretty close to the vest and simply let Vick take a quarter or so under center. For the real creative uses of Vick, we’ll be waiting until mid-October, or later, but that’s usually just about the time of the season that the offense needs a good kick-in-the-ass, which makes this signing very intriguing, if equally complicated.