With Mike Vick conceding the starting job in Philly to Nick Foles and poised to become a free agent after the current season, it’s not too early to wonder about Vick’s future.
Vick plans to find a starting job, somewhere.
“Going to start for two more years,” Vick said Tuesday, via Reuben Frank of CSNPhilly.com. “Then be a backup. I’m going to be a good backup. I’m going to come off the bench and win some games.”
Frank said that Vick’s comments came while the veteran “joked around” about his future with reporters. But as Vick approaches his 34th birthday and the Eagles embrace Foles as the quarterback, Vick needs to be pragmatic.
“It’s tough when your future’s uncertain,” Vick said. “But you also have to look at the things that you did, the things that you’ve been able to do well and hopefully that’s enough to continue to show that I can still play.
“I feel good. I feel great,” Vick said. “I still feel like I have a lot of time to play this game. . . . I feel like I can still start in this league. But I still have to focus on each and every day for the rest of the season and continue to try and help this team win games.”
The question in early 2014 will be whether another team believes Vick can start in this league. More importantly, the question will be whether any team will trust Vick to stay healthy as the starter, something he’s done for the full season only once in his entire career.
With so many rookie quarterbacks available in the draft, it’s hard to imagine another team handing Vick the starting job in March. At a minimum, he’d have to compete with another quarterback -- possibly a first-rounder who will be the presumed favorite to win the job.
There’s also a chance that no one will make the kind of commitment, financial or otherwise, that would make Vick even a contender to start. If he involuntarily will be entering the backup phase of his career in 2014, it makes plenty of sense for him to stay in Philly, where his sixth season would match the number of years he played for the Falcons.