No, he'll be 31, next year. I do not see alot of NFL teams give out such a big contract to a player that old. Eli, Big Ben, and others are still in their 20s. Alot of teams are weary of having a QB over 40 on their roster, I think alot of teams and franchises get to point where they are starting to look for or start to plan to go in another direction, once a QB hits 32-34. It happened in Green Bay (Rodgers is drafted, a day came few seasons later, Favre was stalling about retirement, and team decided they wanted to go with Aaron Rodgers), San Francisco trade away possibly the greatest QB ever (Joe Montana to the Chiefs), Philadelphia (just did it with McNabb, having Vick and Kolb waiting the wings), New England (dumped injury prone, though still a very good, pro bowl caliber QB in Drew Bledsoe for 2nd year Tom Brady, though he did just win Super Bowl), and funny thing is all those teams were still winning after those QBs left. All of those teams are (or at the time were) top tear franchises (near it) or becoming one. Opposite happened in Denver, where Dan Reeves drafted Tommy Maddox, Elway did not like that one bit, luckily. Maddox was a bust at the time, Reeves was out, and Elway helped Denver to 2 Super Bowls in his last two seasons. Still, can you be mad at Dan Reeves for trying to draft a QB who might eventually take over the reins for Elway (who was 32) to retirement or injury (that causes retirement). Then, you have other side, the teams who throw big money at QBs who have not proven that much or teams who are just not very good at trying to acquire QBs. One example, are the Lions, I remember they were high on Scott Mitchell, 12-8 and 136 ypg with 3-4 record. THat's not exactly QB of the future. Their best QB is the guy playing for them now, Matt Stafford. And, that's only because they had the first pick that year. If he were rated slightly lower, they probably would've take another player. Then, there's Derek Anderson (29 tds and 19 ints, with 10-5 record) and Matt Cassel. Vick doesn't really fit in this category, because he has had pro bowl seasons and even taking his teams to the playoffs more than once (even to the NFC Title Game). In 2006, he actually was in top 10 in passing touchdowns (with names like Hasselbeck; Rivers; and Brady). Even in the seasons where Atlanta did not make the playoffs, they weren't terrible or horrible, 8-8 or 7-9 and actually were competitive against good teams. Even at his worst, defenses still had to plan the entire gameplan around slowing down Vick. Not as good passer, then as now, but very much a dangerous runner and had an arm that was good enough to create those big plays that could break the game open. Even though, he may not have had the best talent around him, more times than not when the Falcons won it was because of Vick, when they lost he could take some blames (along with the defense and receivers). Fast Forward to 2010, Vick is more mature (then probably 2006), little more humbled, actually watching more film now, and most of all surrounded by an all around better team. Better coaches (Reid and Morhinweg), better culture (Philadelphia had and still probably has higher expectations than Atlanta did at the time - also everything is probably not riding on his shoulders, like it was in Atlanta), better receivers (Jackson, Maclin, Avant, and Celek) - Crumpler was good tight end, but White did come until Vick's last two season, yet still that season White had 506 yards, even though he was not a full time starter (only started 5 games) Miami Dolphins, they've past on Drew Brees (in 2006), they could've gotten a similar deal to what Texans did with Atlanta (with Matt Schaub) Matt Ryan (2008) for a tackle, probably could've gotten Jay Cutler a few seasons ago, and didn't I could see something in the neighborhood of 5 to 6 year deal of maybe 65-70 million. Maybe 10 guaranteed.
I agree, especially the 49ers, why is that team married to Alex Smith. The Yorks were married to him, Nolan was, and so is Singletary. If 49ers go on a winning streak with Smith, they should keep him in there. I thought few seasons ago, they had a better chance with Shaun Hill than do Alex Smith. You forgot the Cardinals and *cough* Vikings. If Kolb is not available and Vick is, those teams should go after him.
Somebody made a good point today when talking about Vick. If you think about it, he was out of football for 2 years and played sparingly a year ago so say 2.5 years. That's 2.5 years where he had no contact, injury issues, etc. but he is playing like this and that's 2.5 years without wear and tear on his body. He may be good for another 6 or 7 seasons.
If Vick can learn to slide then yes I can see him playing maybe 6 or 7 more years. But as of right now I dont see it he just takes too many hit when he takes off running. I hope I'm wrong but I think hes going to get hurt again this year.
Vick has a lot of things working against him for his next contract, other than the obvious labor situation. 1) Injury prone by the way he plays 2) One more single mistake and he is automatically banned from the league *for life* 3) He's now over 30 (LilPun made a good point about his "football milage", but I doubt that will play a factor in his negotiated salary) 4) The teams that need a QB right now don't seem like the "big spender" types... other than the Eagles themselves It will be interesting to see how it goes down.
Saw Michael Irvin on NFL Network last night say that Vick deserves to be the highest paid player in the league, over Peyton Manning.
KC Joyner's take on Michael Vick's season thus far: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/22005/football-scientist-vicks-getting-lucky As you've probably figured out by now, I'm not a huge metrics guy when it comes to covering the NFL. That said, I've always admired the work of KC Joyner, a.k.a. the Football Scientist. In his latest column for our ESPN Insiders, Joyner suggests that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick's numbers have been somewhat misleading during this remarkable season. In fact, Joyner has looked at metrics and game video that indicate Vick should've thrown eight interceptions by now instead of none. If you buy into KC's research, Vick's passer rating should look more like Matt Schaub's and Josh Freeman's. I'm not allowed to share the entire column with everyone, but I'm circumvented the rules to bring you a small yet unforgettable excerpt: The game-video analysis shows him as having made 12 bad decisions in 202 dropbacks (The dropbacks in this case include plays that were nullified by penalties but do not include spiked passes or sacks.)," writes Joyner. "That equates to a 5.9 percent bad-decision rate. That means one out of every 17 passes Vick has thrown this season have been unnecessarily risk-laden. To put that total into perspective, consider that Chicago Bears fans were almost ready to run Jay Cutler out of town last season in large part because of his risk-taking, and he posted a bad-decision rate of 3.4 percent. Vick's current rate is nearly 75 percent higher. Joyner has gone where no other NFL writer's willing go in suggesting that Vick's success might be based more on good fortune than his brilliant play. And to compare Vick to the ridiculous Jay Cutler will make it tough for KC to return to Philadelphia in the near future. Vick's on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week (jinx alert!), and he's become perhaps the most compelling story of the 2010 season. But here comes Joyner poking holes in Superman's game. He goes on to talk about Vick's durability issues, saying the quarterback's efficiency took a steep dive after he started getting hit by Giants defenders in the second half of Sunday's game. The Bears are second in the league in interceptions, so it will be interesting to see if the odds/metrics finally catch up with Vick. I'll see if Joyner will give out an e-mail address in case any Eagles fans would like to contact him and have a friendly discussion. And let's make sure Vick sees this blog entry. He's been tweeting a ton this week, so I bet he'll have a response for Joyner. Have a wonderful evening.
Mr. plutoblue, Matt Stafford the best QB in Lions history, your football history sucks, especially since one of the greatest QBs ever was so good he lead the Lions to 3 NFL World Championship. Bobby Layne
