Yes, it could be a heartfelt comment but it could also be Vick honoring a contract agreement. It's a strange time to make such a statement a week predraft. Either way, the Eagles fan are putting him down for not wanting to compete for the QB. He also refers to the Jets as "that" team. What's with the outsider status????
On one hand, Vick is saying all the the right things and assuming the role of the consummate team player by being so publicly politically correct with his statements to the press. On the other hand, (and at the same time) he is saying that he is working as hard as he can to be the best player he can possibly be (although he is declaring a desire for "longevity" as his specific purpose for these efforts). If Vick plays to the best of his well known abilities, Smith has no chance of starting unless he makes a profound leap forward in his development. While Vick's attitude, maturity level and public demeanor have undergone a 180 degree transformation from his pre-prison days, anyone who believes his competitive drive and desire to be a starter has diminished in the least will be convinced otherwise late this Summer when he is officially named our starting QB. So there....
I agree with this. I can't really count myself as someone who has closely followed Vick's career, but it certainly seems that he is extremely sensitive about being careful in everything he says. Like last year, it must have been tough dealing with his injury amidst locker room turmoil, with Nick Foles breathing down his neck. But Vick handled it very well. That doesn't mean he was happy when he slipped behind Foles. It also goes to follow that if Vick really doesn't want to compete with Smith, then I am not sure how they can get $5mil of value from him.
I count myself as someone who has followed Vick's career quite closely from his college days at VT to the present. While I was always in awe of his skills and tremendous talent, I detested his selfish, me-first, gangsta attitude which represented everything I hate about many of today's professional athletes. During his Atlanta days, he was essentially "unteachable" and never made (or was even willing to make) the hoped for progression from being a run-first QB into the effortlessly strong-armed passer his coaching staff and friendly outside mentors like Steve Young tried to encourage him to be. After he got out of jail and he placed his fully dedicated focus, faith and cooperation into Tony Dungy's mentoring hands, he immediately became a person and gradually thereafter, a player whom I found impossible NOT to root for. If you get a chance, go back and take a look at his stats over the 2010 season when he got his first opportunity to start early in the year after Kolb got hurt. Some of his performances were just flat out insane. In the MNF game against the 'Skins, he threw for 3 TDs and ran in another 2 in the first half. He also had a remarkable game late that season against the Giants when he lead a stunning 4th quarter comeback by throwing two TDs and running for another one. And just in case there is still anyone here that doesn't remember the offensive coordinator in Philly who was chiefly responsible for helping Vick take his game to the next level, it was none other than Marty Mornhinweg under whose watch Vick achieved career highs for completion percentage (62.6% ) and QB rating (100.2) while throwing 21 TD against only 6 INTs. He put up a little over 3000 yards passing and 676 yards on the ground with another 9 rushing TDs. When you look at the age and limited remaining viability of a free agent signing like Chris Johnson, it only further supports the logic of the CS taking more of a win-now strategy which, taken together with Vick's greater overall experience and more advanced familiarity with MM's offense, that he be the Jets' starting QB in 2014.
Nice post, but on the last part, I think if the Jets can pick up serviceable starters at Cb and Wr in this draft, with Vick behind center they can compete for a playoff berth. I will not say they will not compete for a playoff berth if Smith is the qb, but it is obvious to me that Vick is more likely to take the team to the playoffs.
The Eagles OL was pretty good last year and Vick still managed to get injured. Vick is good for 4-5 good games that's why he's the perfect back up.
If he comes in for 4-5 games and gets injured then you are re-relying on Geno and Matt Simms. What if this happens by first round of playoffs?..This is why we all pray for miracle or draft/get another QB. I am NOT trying to be controversial only saying you can't have enough depth at your skill position.
Although I count myself as a firm believer that Vick is the superior Qb, that is the nightmare scenario of having him. Of course the alternative of being less likely to make the playoffs with Smith is not more appealing.
Agree 100%. The same thing that makes him so uniquely dangerous and effective against opposing defenses which is his ability to extend plays by buying time with his legs is what principally makes him so susceptible to injury. How do you teach a guy who has the proven ability to take a broken play and turn it into a big gain (whether it be a pass or run) to just throw it away if the original passing play has exhausted it's natural sequence of progressions so as to minimize the high risk of injury? What we're left with is a conundrum because on one hand, the logical practice that the CS should insist upon Vick following (which would be to throw the ball away or take off and run ONLY if he can safely scoot out of bounds or slide feet first in the open field) if the designed passing play (and the 2nd, 3rd and/or 4th receiving options aren't open) makes him less of an offensive threat. On the other hand, if the CS allows Vick to be Vick, injuries and missed playing time are pretty much a forgone conclusion if you go by his history. My thought is that he should only be given the green light to run IF and only if he has a clear and open running lane that allows him to avoid or at least minimize hard contact, be it running out of bounds or sliding early. Furthermore, I would like the CS to place strict limitations on him with respect to scrambling outside the pocket behind the LOS trying to buy time locating an open receiver on broken plays because this seems to me the general scenario that gets him banged up more often than not. Of course, if a game was on the line or we happened to be in the playoffs, I would relax, if not eliminate, these guidelines. A beneficial consequence of such a restrictive approach might be an improvement of his pre-snap reads and progression reads thereby making him a more effective passer as he was in 2010 when he was so focused and determined to try to be a passer first and a runner 2nd. He did a tremendous job of reading and reacting to blitzes and making the opposing teams pay dearly.
