The End For Michael Vick

The days of seeing Mike Vick in an Eagles uniform may well be numbered.

It isn't a coincidence that rookie Nick Foles faced less pressure in his 2 and a half quarters as the Eagles QB than Vick has faced in any single one of his drives all season long. The offensive line is terrible, and there’s no question about it. That said, it is fairly obvious at this point that Vick has no clue how to read an NFL defense. He routinely has no idea where a blitz is coming from.  This point was something we just couldn't know for sure until we saw someone else behind this putrid offensive line. Now that we have seen what the line looks like with a ROOKIE WHO HAS NEVER PLAYED OR EVEN PRACTICED WITH THE FIRST TEAM OFFENSE DURING A SEASON, there can be absolutely no question that the majority of the fault lies squarely on Michael Vick’s shoulders.

The fact that a rookie who, again, hasn't practiced with the first team since the preseason, and who has never played a real NFL game, is significantly better at recognizing a blitz and getting the ball out quickly says A LOT about the lack of awareness that Vick has showed throughout his entire NFL career. Most of his career he was able to rely on his superior athleticism to make plays and avoid sacks, but age has caught up to him and he finally lost a step (evidenced by 300 pound defensive linemen catching him from behind multiple times this year, something that would have been completely unthinkable as recently as last year).

The offensive line did not look good in yesterday’s Eagles – Cowboys game, but it looked a thousand times better under Nick Foles than it ever did in front of Michael Vick. His days of being an elite NFL quarterback are over.

You are now seeing why NFL QBs need to be extremely smart people in order to consistently have success in this league. Just having the average person's intelligence isn't anywhere near enough to be worth your salt as an NFL quarterback in 2012. You need to be MUCH smarter than the average person (not to mention you must be able to think extremely quickly on your feet and make snap decisions), and Vick is simply not capable of thinking through the game the way he needs to in order to make up for being 32 years old and having taken the beating he has taken over his NFL career. And if you are going to tell me how smart Michael Vick is, I would refer you to the fact that he risked a $100 million dollar contract to run an illegal dogfighting ring with his high school buddies. That is something that an intelligent person would never even think of doing with a $100 million contract in their hands. I would go so far as to say that that is something that even a person with average intelligence would never think about doing. So spare me all the talk about what a genius Mike Vick is, because I am simply not going to buy that.

Nick Foles may never be great (or even good), but Vick certainly has no chance to even be better than average for the rest of his career. All you will see from any team with Mike Vick is turnovers, sacks, and bad decisions. Eagles scored fewer points with Vick as their quarterback this season than every single NFL team except for Jacksonville (and this is with superior offensive talent at the skill positions).

Let none of this excuse Andy Reid (even remotely) because the blame for this abomination of a season lies squarely with him. I am just comparing the offensive line with Foles and Vick, and I don't see a comparison. That just shouldn't be the case with a rookie seeing his first action while being completely unprepared to play.   The fact that Vick isn't a million times better at reading a blitz than Foles is really says it all.

The time for Mike Vick is in the past while Nick Foles' time is just beginning. Let's hope it doesn't run out as fast for him as it did for Vick.

- Al Redrup