Only one of the Eagles quarterbacks played well last Thursday and it wasn’t Michael Vick or Vince Young. Third-stringer Mike Kafka was the guy as he led the Birds to two fourth quarter touchdowns, which made the game look a lot closer than it was.
The second-year quarterback completed 14 of 19 passes for 160 yards and a pair of touchdown passes. His passer rating was 133.7 as compared to Michael Vick’s 13.6 quarterback rating. True it was only one game, but Kafka made the best of his opportunity.
The former Northwestern star made the best of his opportunities during the lockout, Kafka was at the football field in Marlton, New Jersey throwing the ball to Eagles slot receiver, Jason Avant or anybody else who would show up. Numerous times I would stand there and watch him get in his work. I admired his work ethic. He put in the work trying to get better and it seems to be paying off with his two preseason performances.
Both Eagles head coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg are keeping their eyes on the performances of all of their quarterbacks.
Young wasn’t as bad as Vick, but his performance was no where near as good as Kafka’s. The former Texas Longhorn was 5-of-8 for 34 yards as well as an interception. He’s trying to learn all of the verbiage of the west coast offense to the point where he can perform comfortably. It makes you wonder who the Birds would send into the game, if it were the regular season right now and Vick were to go down.
“I haven’t made any final decisions on anything,” said Reid. “I want these guys to compete, because that’s what brings out the best in them…That’s how I feel about the backup quarterback, but you can ask me about other positions and I feel the same way.”
“Well, I will tell you this, [QB Vince Young] has done an outstanding job with many things”, Mornhinweg said. “He’s right in the middle of the hard work, and it takes a lot of hard work especially with this system, in all that preparation. So he’s right in the middle there. He’s done some excellent things on the field. Mike Kafka really has…he did a fine job last year; he made a big jump because he did a lot of hard work in the off season without us. He did a lot of hard work on his own and he’s done some excellent things on the field as well. So we’ll see how quickly Vince is coming and that’s a hard thing in this system without an off season. So he’s doing everything possible to get himself ready to play at a high level and in a late game. And [Quarterbacks coach] Doug [Pederson] is working hard, hard, hard on that. And so, I would suspect that Vince is going to expedite this thing pretty good.”
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Quick….answer these questions….
How many times has Vick thrown for more than 2600 yards? (not 4000 like Brady, Manning, Brees, but 2600 like Carr, Leinhart, Couch, Fiedler, Blake)
How many times has Vick thrown for more than 20 TDs? (not 30+ like Rivers, Manning, Brees, Brady, Rodgers, but 20 like Orton, Fiedler, Collins, Couch)
Now ask the same questions of Young……(shudder)
If these guys couldn’t run fast, they’d have been run out of the league years ago. And this is what we’re hanging our hopes on. Good times all around.
Please noone respond to this clown…he comes on this site to hate on Vick, thats the only time he speaks…He is not an Eagle fan at all…Please dont pay any attention to this dumb ass!
And that’s Real rose coloured glasses Talk!
You’re so funny. Its ok to rip on the LBs, Safties, Oline or anyone else, but God forbid you bring up the QB’s liabilities. That’s akin to blasphemy. That’s not a REAL FAN!
While I refuse to get into anything about Vick, one could make the arguement that the talent has ALWAYS been there. The guy throws one of the prettiest balls in the league and has worked at his accuracy–which is MARKEDLY better than McNabb’s ever was. Sometimes it takes a little while for guys to mature while some never do. I believe that Young never will and he is not the athlete or passer that Vick is. Plus, he is allegedly only as smart as a Labrador Retreiver.
As for Kafka, I applaud his work ethic and hope the best for the kid. I am not sure if his arm is strong enough for our big play passing attack, but he fits the classic west coast offense well. I do not see any way that this kid should be 3rd string QB. If Young is listed as thrid string QB, I wonder how quickly he acts like as arsehole.
Kafka is the #2 QB right now and may be for the entire Season..
VY has struggled to pick-up the “System” and though he has a Career winning record, if he can’t pick thsystem up nad master it, he will not be able to operate the Offense.. The Titans had to “limit” their Offense for VY to play but the Eagles will not do this, VY either picks it up or he doesn’t play much at all..
So they have a $5 mil 3rd string QB. Seems a little excessive.
Vin, you can point out all you want, but if you look at his stats last year which was less than a full season, you can see how he excelled in this offense. 62.6% completion % with 55.3% career. Career high in TDs and low in INTs (for a full season). He did stumble down the stretch, so maybe he will this year too or maybe not. Bottom line is that he had a huge season regardless of his “limitations”.
I like vick’s arm but only if the threat of the run is real. I don’t like Andy telling vick to stay put because it telegraphs the rest of our offense. Yes vick still can run but you could tell last year that Andy told him to stay put. How many times were we in the 10 and vicks dropping back like friggin joe montana. LOL> Andy Reid really is overrated
I could see Vince Young being used as the short yardage QB like Vick was for McNabb. That way Vick won’t get so tore up all year.
To Bugsy
Why not give the ball to a RB whose job it is to run and protect the ball
HOpefully they will use Ronnie Brown a lot more than previous back-up RB’s..
I don’t like the idea of any QB running the ball any more than they have to..
For the Record, VY Salary is $3.5 with another $1.5 in BOuns $$ for hitting perfomance statistics/tagets as in in games played,yards thrown, TD’s etc,etc, which are things that are unlikely to happen unless Vick suffers a major injury..
Kafka will start the season, if not the entire season, as the backup to Vick.
VY is a brain dead stiff!! I’m still mind boggled over that move. I think the Birds just want to be media darlings, & get the pub that goes along with it. I don’t know, just saying, but I could be wrong.
BTW, I hope they don’t use that Wildcat garbage this year. I hate that crap!!!
PAUL, at 11:14am, what did you mean by Nad master it. LMAOROTF!!!!
😆 😆