Excitement, anticipation, eagerness. These words don’t do justice to describe the once long awaited return of Michael Vick. Now that he’s back however, these words have been replaced with melancholy, inaccurate, and out of shape. Michael Vick has been a big waste of time for the Philadelphia Eagles unless he proves himself to be valuable over the second half of the season.
Prior to the Eagles vs. Redskins game in week 7, a whole to do was made about Michael Vick’s playing weight. It wasn’t until this week that he had gotten back to his playing weight of 2006. This is a huge on field factor and is coupled with the fact that others have gotten into the heads of the coaching staff suggesting not to trust this former all pro QB. The Eagles favorite play for Michael Vick is a handoff out of the Wildcat formation, and his stat line consists of 6 attempted passes, 2 completions for 6 yards, and 11 rushes for 25 yards.
The Eagles have a great history of team management over the past decade, so why did they opt to pick up perhaps the most controversial player in NFL history? It’s simple, because of what he could have brought to the team for only $1.6 million on the season. At this price the three time pro-bowler is a steal for the Eagles who were adding offensive weapons like rapid fire this offseason (Peters, Maclin, McCoy, Weaver, Ingram, Gibson, Stacey Andrews). Vick’s contract has an option for next season at $5.2 million; rest assured he will not be seeing that from the Eagles.
Vick’s presence on the field still has the ability to throw off any NFL defense, however not in the manner in which the Eagles use him. It’s known now that if Michael Vick gets on the field he will be taking the snap out of the Wildcat and either handing it off, or running the QB option. With this in mind, Vick’s presence is rendered null, and he is no longer even a decoy, just a waste of time.
The bottom line to the whole Michael Vick scenario might just be the presence of Eagles WR Desean Jackson. Jackson is a magnet for electricity, he’s virtually a human lightning rod, so it’s clear that Michael Vick is standing too close to him on the sidelines, but with those rubber cleats he is more grounded than electrified. Vick was once called the most “electric” player in the NFL, now he functions as the most prolific NFL decoy.
