There is no way to be a successful quarterback in the NFL without one specific intangible: confidence. Those who are afraid to have the ball in their hands with 1:30 left in a tie game will never find themselves at the top of the position. Uncertainty is not an option — there isn’t enough time. If you doubt yourself at the NFL level, the ball ends up in the hands of an opposing player and you cost your team seven points in the amount of time it takes to put your socks on in the morning.
Fortunately for the Eagles, Michael Vick is at no shortage of confidence. After inking a monstrous contract and getting his life back on track, Vick can now fully set his sights on bringing a Lombardi Trophy to Philadelphia. When Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports asked No. 7 about the Eagles offense of the future, Vick painted a picture of an unstoppable force.
“I’ve been hearing that for years,” Vick said when asked about teams designing their defensive playbook around stopping him. “You can’t design a defense to stop me, especially not on this team. We have so many weapons, and some teams have tried to make that their primary focus. That’s when we run up the score.”
In one sense, Vick is right. He is arguably the most dynamic quarterback to ever play the game. There have been plenty of NFL quarterbacks who can throw and others who use their legs. Never has there been as effective a two-dimensional signal caller as Vick. His skill set combined with that of DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy should give the Eagles plenty of weapons every time their offense takes the field.
On the flip side, some teams will have an easier time stopping Vick with more time to prepare and more post-prison film to study. While he has the ability to make a play with his legs or his arm at any given moment, Vick has yet to develop into a top-tier pocket passer. His accuracy leaves something to be desired and he still has a tendency to try to force the issue, resulting in critical turnovers.
Returning to the original point, Vick’s confidence is something Eagles fans should be pleased about. Without the “you can’t stop me mentality” there is no Michael Vick. As for whether or not teams can figure out how to stop the Eagles offense, time will tell. How does the old cliche go? There’s a reason they play the games?
