The Eagles offense could be back to full strength on Sunday when they travel to South Beach to take on the Miami Dolphins. Jeremy Maclin plans on practicing Wednesday, and Michael Vick all but guaranteed that he will play this week when he met with the media on Monday. Vick’s ribs still aren’t at 100%, but he feels they could be close to it by the time Sunday rolls around.
The quarterback found it tough to watch the Eagles struggle the last two games and is hoping his return is the spark the team needs. He also said there’s no burden to go out and try to save Andy Reid’s job over the next four weeks.
“The most important thing is to go out there and have fun and play the game,” Vick said. “I’m not concerned with Coach Reid’s situation; I think everything is going to be just fine. I mean, we had our bad breaks this year, let’s be honest and let’s be candid right now. We’ve had bad breaks, games that we should have won, put ourselves in awesome positions to be in a ballgame and just couldn’t pull it out whether we did it on offense or defense. Honestly, I just don’t think Coach Reid had anything to do with that.”
Many Eagles fans would disagree with Vick backing up his coach, but one thing most won’t argue is having him back helps the offense tremendously. While Vince Young managed to throw for over 850 yards during his three starts under center, he was a turnover machine who didn’t have that extra dimension of running the ball that Vick brings to the game.
While Vick has struggled himself at times this year turning the ball over, opposing defenses will respect his cannon arm and swift feet a bit more than they worried about Young. The result could be big plays and more scoring for a unit that has struggled since the starting quarterback hurt himself on the second play of the Arizona game. Vick’s return could also open things up for LeSean McCoy, and as long as the Eagles decide to the run the ball (no guarantee), McCoy should prosper.
Although the Eagles are 4-8, Vick feels the team can still rally and win the NFC East. It may sound absolutely crazy to everyone else, but as the leader of this team, Vick is trying to get his team to believe they can still make the playoffs.
“Absolutely”, Vick said on Monday. “That’s why we’ve got to keep our heads up high, we’ve got to keep playing hard, keep trusting and believing in one another, keep believing in our coaches and the philosophies that are being taught here, and make the most out of this. We’ve still got an opportunity after everything that we’ve been through, even though I think our situation should have been different, and we all know that, but it is what it is. We’ve still got a chance and we’re going to play it out.” The quarterback sounds a little overly optimistic to me. Actually, he sounds downright insane.
The Eagles have shown nothing this year to make anyone think they can win their last four games. The offense hasn’t been nearly as prolific as everyone thought it would be, and the defense has been in absolute shambles. Not to mention, they’ve put themselves in a position where they need the Giants and Cowboys to both collapse between now and New Year’s. So chances are Vick’s bravado about playing postseason football is a bit extreme. But the fact remains that the Eagles are a much better football team with #7 on the field.
In a perfect world he will recapture the magic that made him so breathtaking at times in 2010, and help the Eagles set the tone for next season. At this stage of the game, that’s all the Eagles can really hope to do. In the meantime, Vick’s play could help Andy Reid keep his job for at least another year. Hey, no one said his return would be perfect.
We can’t say anything until we beat Miami. Even then we need the Giants to beat the Cowboys so they both can be 7 and 6. Then we would have to win the last three games and hope the Cowboys and Giants lose two of their remaining three games. I feel this won’t happen, however, the Eagles to step up to the plate and play better oppose to giving lip service. This team has no leaders, no heart, and we show little intensity during games. I tired of seeing players play like since they got paid they don’t care. I would like to see Vick finish strong and see who might want to make a statement to show why they should be here next year.
I want Vick to finish strong because he’s on my fantasy team. The rest of them can kiss my ass. No heart gutless bastards.
It’s amazing how many players on this team still think they are a good team who has had some bad breaks and bad luck.. This team is not good period..
Outside of RB L McCoy, can anyone name any player having a good Season..
Maybe J Peters,T Herreman’s, J Babin & C Jenkins.. That’s about it in my book.. The rest, have underperformed in my book and some have way underperformed (M Vick,D-Jax,T Cole,Asmo,DCR,Nate Allen to name a few)
No.
Michael Vick will cost Andy Reid his job. If indeed it was Andy Reid who convinced Lurie to spend however many million guarantted on the MV/VY combo. Whoever that is will be turfed.
With all of the issue on this team, you say Vick will cost Andy Reid his job? not AR play calling, not the defense, not the personnel decisions, not the record of the Eagles…but solely Vick will be responsible? huh?
Vick is a great player.. mike mayock said on NFL network it was unbelievable how well vick was playing considering all the pressure hes been getting.. and i think after watching what vince young did thats true . becuase vince young is a pretty good quarterback also..the eagles offense was 3rd in the league before last game.. and they lost 5 games in the 4th qurter… its pretty much the defenses fualt .. but desean jackson dropped at least 5 touchdowns this year..
This is not Vicks fault. This was not McNabbs fault. This was not Vince Youngs fault. This is all on AR. How many times does it need to be said. Stop throwing the ball 50 times a game. Run the damn ball and use play action. It works all the time. AR puts these players in a postion to fail. VY comes in the game and you make him throw 50 times WTF do you expect? Give the ball to Duce, Give the ball to Westbrook, Give the ball to McCoy it makes it easier for everyone. Lets stop blaming the QBs. If Vick only threw the ball 35 times a game he probably wouldnt get hurt.
wow – DG – nice – but again don’ let facts get in the way – this week – Brady threw 38 times, Brees 36 times, and Rodgers – 46 times – by the way – guess which three passers have the most attempts this year?
now this will make VV happy – VY threw 29 times you don’t think it has soemthing to do with 17 cmompletions and 4 ints?
Also – and again – don’t let facts get in the way – the Eagles were a failry balanced run pass team prior to the 2004 season – yep, prior to the 2004 season the eagles were reasonabley balanced (I blew that myth up – but hey I did not shoot a cannonball threw a house!) until Owens showed up!
and lastly – just cuase I can – Vick averages 33 attempts per game (9 games 300 attempts) – so glad to see Andy and Marty are followig your advice
PS did I just apologize?
The Philly fans have created this myth that his job is on the line. Laurie is so loyal to Reid. He has made him a ton of money and considered an elite franchise. Reid has more than 1 below average season before he gets fired, remember they were in the playoffs last year, and the year before that.
It’s a passing League now with just about all teams passing 60% of the time.. Look a the GIants,Falcons,Panthers even the Bears are all passing more then they used to. It’s about the execution and the match-ups to take advantage of yuor players talents over the Def Schemes they are facing.. The Eagle formations and schemes have become stale and predictiable and many teams know what’s coming just by their formations alone coming out out of the huddle.. It would be nice to see more WR in nmotion, some no h-uddle or somehing to break things up to keep the Defenses on their heels, but not Coach AR, he is always going to outsmart his opponents but his play calling alone…
#1) Coach AR will be back with his Staff in 2012 with a few changes
#2) J Castillo gets demoted to LB Position Coach and a real DC is hired
(which should have been done in the first place last year)
#3) Def Secondary Coach J Lynne gets fired (as he should be and was a bad hire to begin with who has made this Secondary worse if you can beleive that)
#4) I would not be surprised to see Off/Coor MM move on his own and take a job at Penn State to help develop his Son as a O/Coord or maybe even as a HC since Penn Sate will need to hire someone with name recognition and no connections to Penn State and with a clean reputation as a good guy which Coach MM does have.. If this were to occur, expect Coach AR go back to calling the Offensive PLays since he will be coaching for his job come 2012
These are my Predictions for the Coachign Staff for the Off-Season
Names as D/Coord — Chuck Cecil and or Jack Del Rio
Oh Navy you conviently left out on 10-15 called passes per game for Vick whenhe runs for his life to make the run-pass ratio look balanced. Try this stat. Look up how many pass plays were actually called vs run plays that were actually called and give me them stats. I would think Vicks passing avg goes up by 10 to 42 and we subract 10 from the rushing attempts. hmmmm
dag – I don’t know where to find that stat -so basically you are just guessing – and based upon the GCOBB gross exaggeration factor – probably guessing wrong – let me look – well hell son . hmmmmm want to know the real answer – vick has 65 rushes so if we say that EVERY single rush this year QB sneak, QB draw roll out where he ran etc. etc ) was in fact what you described it would add 7 (see that – the GCOBB exaggeration factor) See – you said 50 – 50 right – I said 33 – you then said – look 42 – I said nope maybe 40 – and I am giving you the QB sneaks etc – figuring it will come out in the wash…
Prior to 2004 come playoff time Reid ran RB just 10-15 times!!! those 3 QB are probally the only ones that can get away with throwing that much. Paulman, just cause it is a passing league and 60% does not mean they should…Remember, 49ers with Montana and Rice rushed more than they threw(multiple SB’s) Dillon in SB, rushed 32 times ,westbrook 14, Starks last yr ran over us i think it was 30 times, Brady lost that SB against Giants when he was too pass happy, Manning with Colts only SB win is when he rushed more than he passed, i believe Colts win against Saints if they rushed more, like their SB win. Roethlisberger thought he was Brady and threw and threw last yr when they should have played true Steelers football. So passing league whatever Sb winners usually rush ball 25-30 times a game
Vick like Vinnie stated many times, is not very accurate qb. Dag, he needs to have same attempts as Tebow. 17-24 sounds nice to me……not 35 too many 3 and outs…even brees and Saints if u actually analyze their games, would be better with more balance approach
@Berks
Tebow is nowhere, in Vick’s league, now you cats are going overboard!…have you seen the throwing mechanics of the two? have you compared them?
How well do you think the Broncos would be doing had they had Vick in the beginning of the season?
Vick isn’t an accurate QB? when he’s completing 60% of his passes? Dont know where the hell that 44% BS, Vinnie spewed out on the other thread….
By my calculations Vick has had 300 attempts, and has completed 181 of them….Accuracy isn’t Vick’s problem…decision making at time, I’ll give you that..
Lets trade Vick for Tebow…that sounds great!
To RT
All tebow has done was win 5 games in a row with a much less talented team and are playing meaningful games to get to the Playoffs, What’s VIck been doing all Season..
What are we arguing here that the Eagles dont pass to much? Are you kidding me? For the last 13 years everyone in America has said why doesnt Reid run the ball more including his own players(Runyon,Thomas). . lol We are defending that he runs enough? The problem isnt just that the Eagles dont run enough the problem is that we have had good backs who actually were able to run. That compounds the problem.
Tebow is better than Rivers by your logic paulman. Dilfer is better than Marino and so on and so on.
DG – there is no logic to this season, if there was we (well at least I wouldn’t) be in such foul moods about the eagles
Pman – but isn’t this the crux of many of the arguments we have been having on this site – all that has happened 9 of the last 12 years is the team has won games and gotten to the playoffs – then we want to go back and evaluate the win loss verse the winning teams, the quality of the players and other teams, the wooulda coulda shoulda drafting and play calling and on and on and on
I realize we are all frustrated – and Denver is definitely interesting to watch – wait till some of the better teams get some film (I don’t see Denver doing well against Baltimore or Pittsburg)
There’s is logic to this season. Every person who had half a brain knew Castillo would not be able to match against the offensive minds at the pro level.
Everyone knew Nate Allen was ass and was getting toasted badly before his injury.
We all knew Graham was an undersized bum before his injury and would be another first round bust.
We knew the linebackers were average at best before Stewart left in free agency and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to predict the linebackers would be a liability.
The Eagles fans seen Matthews was garbage during preseason and screamed for Tulloch or a better option but Andy and Juan told us he would be fine.
So who obviously didn’t know?
Look back at some of the comments on this very site before the season and you’ll see every one of the concerns the Eagles fans had are the same reasons we’re 4-8 right now.
I can’t believe Andy is this blind. He see what we see….But choose to do things his way.
His way doesn’t work and those walking papers should be coming soon.
Songs – I was referring to the ENTIRE NFL – and if you had half a brain – yes Songs, castillo has been overmatched – BUT – do we not lead the league in turnovers? Do we not suck at Red Zone offense? Could scoring some more and not turning the ball over maybe help Mr Castillo? Perhaps?
Nate Allen was having a fine Rookie season – he had one bad game – I am so glad you can remember that one bad game –
Graham was not undersized and wieghed exactly 2 pouunds less and was much stronger the the Pierre Paul you keep touting – he was having a better rookie year and then he got hurt – monkey and the banana songs – let go
Yeah – the LBs have not worked out – that one I will give you –
Look back over this site and you can selectively cherry pick anything you want – I love when people post your quotes about how great you thought Roseman was when they first hired them – I guess you keep throwing enough shit against the wall, something will stick –
and yes, his walking papers should be coming soon – but you know what Songs – it would not surprise me if he is given one more year to try and fix it…
we shall see
On another note reports are Phillies are close to resigning Rollins.
Marlins sign LHP Mark Buhrle and pull the Pujols offer off the Table
Marlins will have a Starting Rotation of Joe Johnson, Mark Burhle, Anibal Sanches and Ricky Nolasco as their Top 4 Starters… WIth Position plays like Gabby Sanchez,J Reyes,Bonifacio,H Ramirez,L Morrison and M Stanton and close Heath Bell, they should have a pretty strong everyday line-up to compete with the Phils & Braves in the NL East…
LHP Burhle signed a 4 Year Deal at $58 Million fyi…
(I bet Hamels and his agent are licking their chops..)
In kind of a strange trade today.. the Colorado Rookies traded Closer Huston Street to the San Diego Padres for Cash and a Player to be named later..
Last Year Padres had 4 Quality Relievers and traded Mike Adams to Texas, and have let both Heath Bell and Mike Qualls walk via free Agency ..
If you could get Hamels for Burhle numbers thats a bargain. I have heard he wants Halladay, Lee money more like 20 million a year,. Why wouldnt he? Also Puljos used the Marlins to jack up the price in St Louis. He isnt going anywhere.
Pirates sign LHP Erick Bedard and CF Nate McClouth to deals today..
I don’t get how some of you can’t just admit that Andy Reid passes too much and it’s not just that he passes too much; he passes in the wrong situations. He is too worried about his script of plays and not paying attention to common sense factors like down and distance, defensive personnel etc. If the games were played on paper the birds would be undefeated. Andy’s arrogance is both his biggest asset and liability. He believes that his game plan will work no matter what the other team is doing. At first it worked great but now everyone is on to his scheme. If he can’t adjust he has to go. This problem is reflected in most of Andy’s decisions , such as his belief he can change a players position even though they are obviously good at a certain aspect he feels like they can “coach him up”. I’m so tired of his bs. He was great and I appreciate what he did for us but it’s time for him to go!
paulman who cares who the pirates sign, you have vast knowledge and resources, but please comment on pertinent topics, thank you paulman , and remember you gcobb fools, there will always be paulman , there will always be paulman ……..
Why doesn’t Vick do what he’s asked???
When the OC calls for a pass, what does he expect? A throw. What do the WRs expect? A throw. What does the oline expect? A throw. What does Mike Vick do? Well, 25% of the time he doesn’t do what’s asked.
(remember called passes are atts + sacks + scrambles)
This year Vick had been asked to throw 380x. He’s actually thrown the ball only 300 of those times. Or 79%. How does this compare to other QBs in the league?
Arron Rodgers threw 408 of the 490 times he was asked. 83%
Tom Brady threw 459 of the 504 times he was asked. 90%
Drew Brees threw 496 of the 532 times he was asked 93%
(I mean how can his coach not like him? He actually does what is asked over 90% of the time! Wouldn;t that be nice!!)
Are those guys too good for Vicky?
Eli threw 442 of the 489 times he was asked. 90%
Do I need to go on. What is the one thing in common? These guys do what their coaches ask 90+% of the time. Vick is under 80%
Well clearly this must be because of Vick’s terrible O line right? Well, wait a second, lets compare Vick to the other Eagle QBs over the past 2 years:
In 2011
Vince Young threw 114 of the 127 times he was asked 90% (I wish he hadn’t!!)
Mike Kafka threw 17 of the 19 times he was asked 90%
In 2010
Kevin Kolb threw 189 of the 221 times he was asked 86%
Mike Vick threw 372 of the 506 times he was asked 74%
What does this say? Tells me pretty clearly that Mike Vick bails on plays. A lot more than his contemporaries and colleagues. A 13% difference on 500 pass attempts means Vick bails on at least 60 plays that his colleagues do not.
WRs, TEs, Oline and Coaches must love it!!
Oh…and BTW…..those passing #s might put to bed the “Vick passes too much business I keep reading in here.
Because VIck holds onto the ball too long, he can’t complete the short wasy routes because he can’t see over the Line of Scrimmage forcing his to drop further back and taking an extra second or 2 to release the ball, meanwhile the WR who ere open are no longer open as the Coverage converges on the receiver to deflect and in some casse step in front and intercept, or have the DL stop their rush, jump up and block the pass leaving the WR with no chance to make a play… I’ve stated this since summer on why QB Vick is not a good fit for Coach Ar & MM System.. most teams know that Eagles and Vick are not going to throw the short to intermediate routes for the reason i just listed therefore the are able to cover more space making it less likely that that Recivers are open and this my friends is why the Eagles offense stagnates and is very inconsistent…
To jakedog,
I try to keep my comments on pertinent topics, but since the Eagles ruined all of our seasons, I have to scrape for Post Stories, Comments. and Ideas…. ha
The question should read “will vick be able to save HIS job”…Why do we owe this guy an apology? what has he done for Eagles fans? somebody please tell me…hasn’t even won us a playoff game. This dude needs to steps up period in whatever games he plays this year and next or else he won’t be the QB here plain and simple after 2012.
11 Tds and 11 interceptions is pathetic. what a joke of a season. That doesn’t even include all his fumbles. Freakin Colt McCoy, sanchez, hasselbeck etc they all have better numbers than our guy.
And before somebody says “Hey Vick missed a bunch of games not fair” they need to shut it cuz that just adds another negative to the guy since he can’t stay healthy.
If the Eagles have that low pick they better draft Griffen or Barkley if they have the chance. If you have no QB in this league you will never win. Furthermore, maybe it will give Vick a kick in the ass to step up his game next year.