Mike Vick apparently plans to earn every penny of his latest $100 million* contract.
Despite late-season evidence of regression and/or defenses figuring out Mike Vick 2.0 in 2010, Vick remains supremely confident in his abilities.
“I’ve been hearing that for years,” Vick recently told Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports. “You can’t design a defense to stop me, especially not on this team. We have so many weapons, and some teams have tried to make that their primary focus. That’s when we run up the score.”
Coach Andy Reid agrees, explaining that Vick has worked on his struggles last year against the blitz.
“Now he’s got it,” Reid said. “People can say there’s a way to stop Michael Vick, but this is a team sport. You’ve got this beautiful mind of [offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg’s] and you’ve got to deal with what he’s gonna throw at you, and there are all these other players you have to defend. You can say you’re gonna stop Michael Vick, but you’ve got to stop the whole group.”
(Lions fans have passed out from laughter regarding the use of “beautiful mind” in reference to Mornhinweg.)
Of course, stopping the whole group becomes a little easier given the struggles of the five men responsible for opening holes and buying time for Vick. And so instead of talking big, Vick, Reid, and company would be better served finding a way to dial back those sky-high expectations while they focus on getting the job done, once and for all, in 2011.