Sal Paolantonio of ESPN has, within the past 30 minutes or so, provided some compelling analysis of the situation in Philadelphia regarding the use of Mike Vick in the team’s offense.
Paolantonio addressed the various confusions and inconsistencies surrounding Vick’s role, from Donovan McNabb’s dismissive use of the term “gimmick” on Monday to the element of surprise that comes from using the Wildcat offense with the personnel grouping that already is on the field to the Kordell Stewart-style approach the Eagles will actually be using when bringing in Vick to the team’s desire to make Vick into a full-time quarterback to Vick’s recent vow that he plans to be a full-time quarterback again, soon.
It makes us wonder what precisely the team’s ultimate plan is for Vick.
Though there’s a chance they don’t have a plan, we’ll assume that this billion-dollar company regards the most important position on the field a bit more seriously than that.
If the goal is to get the most out of Vick this year, then the focus should be getting him onto the field as a slot receiver, so that his periodic use as a quarterback will bring with it the “oh sh-t” factor as the opposing defense realizes that Vick has lined up to take the snap.
And that approach would mean not spending so much time remaking him into an every-down NFL quarterback, devoting some reps to teaching him how to run patterns and catch footballs.
So if the team is more committed to making Vick into an every-down NFL quarterback than it is to getting the biggest bang for their bucks, why are they doing it?
Obviously, if McNabb suffers a multi-game injury, having Vick ready to go will make the Eagles look like geniuses in hindsight. But why would they invite the distraction and disruption associated with signing Vick for the primary purpose of upgrading the No. 2 quarterback?
And if the goal is to buy low and sell high, flipping Vick via trade in March, is the package of picks they’d get in 2010 justified by the short-term head-scratching and hand-wringing that Vick’s presence has created?
Bottom line? We think the Eagles wanted Vick so that they could spend the 2009 season assessing whether it makes sense come 2010 to make him the starting quarterback, and to dump Donovan McNabb. That outcome -- Vick as a multi-year starting quarterback -- is the only scenario that ultimately validates the stresses and strains that the team will experience in 2009.
It doesn’t mean that Vick will supplant McNabb come 2010. But if the powers-that-be decide that Vick can play at a high level and if the powers-that-be decide that the window has closed on Donovan (who’ll be 33 before the current season ends), the transition to new quarterback won’t be nearly as dramatic if Vick already has been groomed to step in.
Some might regard the notion as blasphemy. But Andy Reid surely didn’t burn the 36th overall pick in the 2007 draft on Kevin Kolb because Reid thought that McNabb deserved a backup who was only four picks removed from being a first-round selection. Reid and the Eagles have been looking for the next McNabb for more than two years, and the biggest thing they need to figure out in 2009 is whether Vick is that guy.
Along the way, they need to be sure that McNabb doesn’t figure out that this is the real reason why they brought Vick to town.
