In an announcement that comes as a surprise to no one that actually watched their first two preseason games, the Philadelphia Eagles have named Michael Vick as their starting quarterback for the 2013 NFL season. Head Coach Chip Kelly apparently has seen enough of the “open competition” to anoint a starter for week 1 against the Washington Redskins.
In two preseason games against the New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers, Vick completed 13 of 15 passes for 199 yards and 1 TD.
Philadelphia sports writers, as well as the fans, have been pressuring the team for weeks to give an answer on the starting quarterback question. Every single press conference Q&A period had started off with that very question. This morning, unprompted, Chip Kelly led off his press conference with the announcement that Michael Vick is the Eagles’ starting QB for week 1 and for the 2013 NFL season.
Now that this question has been answered, the next one is “Where does Michael Vick go from here?” If you look at Vick’s career, he is a player who has played his very best football in a contract year or when he has some other circumstance motivating him. Now that he has won the job, and is playing under a new contract already, does he still crank it up or has he already accomplished what he was shooting for this season in winning the QB competition.
You could make a case that he could get amped up for the week 1 match-up against the Washington Redskins and Robert Griffin III. They will be hyping up the MV7 vs. RG3 grudge match from now until that Monday night (should both players be healthy enough to play). He will want to show RG3 up like he did LeSean McCoy who kept calling him “old man” and smoked him in a foot race.
The only way to find out how Vick will play in week 2 and beyond is to watch… and see if he stays healthy and can play an entire season. Something he hasn’t done since 2006 in Atlanta, the only season in his career where he played all 16 games.
