The Philadelphia Eagles are moving the ball up and down the field. Michael Vick isn’t completing a high percentage of his passes, but the Eagles also have one of the top offensive units in the NFL. Still, the Eagles are just 1-3 after a quarter of the season. Clearly, the Eagles have some problems, and Michael Vick may be one of them.
Under the Andy Reid regime, the Eagles thrived until they made the switch from Donovan McNabb to Michael Vick. That was the beginning of the end for Reid in Philadelphia. Now, with the Eagles struggling, it appears that Chip Kelly’s seat may be heating up. The difference, at least from my seat in the stands, is that Michael Vick isn’t the biggest problem for Kelly.
The Eagles knew Chip Kelly’s offense would be hit or miss when the team hired him out of Oregon. Now, with his offense producing yards instead of wins, there’s a possibility that Kelly’s seat may begin to get warm if losses continue to mount.
If it comes down to Vick or Kelly, it would be crazy to believe the Eagles would stick with Vick over Kelly. Granted, Kelly would have to throw Vick under the bus for the Eagles to move on from Vick in the immediate future, but with Vick in the last year of his contract, the Eagles may be in the early stages of planning for life beyond Michael Vick. That doesn’t necessarily mean the team would need to draft a quarterback to replace Vick.
Nick Foles is considerably less athletic than Michael Vick, but by the same token, he also has considerably more time left in his career to learn an innovative system such as Chip Kelly’s system. If the Eagles continue to lose, pressure may mount for the Eagles to make the switch to Foles, even if Philadelphia’s struggles aren’t necessarily Vick’s fault.
With three quarters of a season left on Michael Vick’s contract, the aging quarterback has a twelve-game job interview with the Eagles. If Chip Kelly begins to sense his job may be at stake, switching to Foles could buy Kelly some time, but it would also mean the end of the Michael Vick era in Philadelphia.
