There are many people who believe using Michael Vick in wildcat packages would stunt the growth of Geno Smith as an NFL quarterback. The New York Jets may end up using Vick as a wrinkle in their offense, as Vick hinted at when speaking with reporters recently.
Donovan McNabb thinks that would be a horrendous idea.
“The Jets tried this whole garbage with Tim Tebow and Mark Sanchez and it got them nowhere,” McNabb told the NY Daily News on Tuesday. “In the situation now, I think it takes away from what Geno Smith can do. It’s a maturity process for him to try to develop into an NFL quarterback. Now you’re taking him off the field or splitting him wide to bring in a 34-year-old quarterback? To do what? I understand the ‘wow’ effect, but it’s not a good thing for either quarterback.”
Obviously, the Tebow experiment was a massive failure. We don’t know if he made a Jets offense that has been horrible for years any worse, but he certainly didn’t help. Not only that, but McNabb is convinced that is not how Vick wants to be used anyway.
“Mike wants to be the starter,” McNabb said. “He doesn’t want to go in there and be the Tim Tebow of the 2012 Jets. Nobody wants that.”
Vick realizes at this point that he probably isn’t going to start unless Smith screws up badly, so it makes sense that he would be open to a wildcat package rather than being a clipboard holder.
Of course, McNabb has somewhat of a biased opinion toward the wildcat offense. When Vick was a member of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2009 and McNabb was coming off a career year, then-offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg (now with the Jets) and head coach Andy Reid ran some wildcat plays with Vick. That infuriated McNabb.
“I didn’t agree with the whole deal,” he said. “I think it messes up the flow of any offense. … I thought most of the trick plays that we ran, we could have done in our normal base offense. Of course, I wanted Mike to have an opportunity to get out on the field … (but) when you have an established quarterback (like me) … no one would have asked Peyton Manning or Tom Brady to do that.”
Did Donovan just compare himself to Tom Brady and Peyton Manning? Anyway, I agree with McNabb. I think the wildcat offense is useless at the professional level. Can it lead to a few big plays? Sure, but it leads to too many free negative plays and isn’t all that hard for speedy NFL players to defend. If Smith struggles badly, Vick should just start. Otherwise, one of them should remain on the bench.
