Why The Falcons Can't (and won't) Get Rid Of Mike Vick
Written By Robert Bonnette
2006 was definitely a rough year for Michael Vick. In just three months time he went from electrifying Pro Bowl quarterback to a video game wonder who wasn’t much good in reality. And that was before the water bottle incident; thanks to that foul up, people from all corners of the media have turned their knives on him and begun to beat the drum for his departure from the Falcons. The flip flop on Vick is remarkable; just two years ago, the stance was that ‘it didn’t matter if his throwing mechanics weren’t all that great, he wins games’. Now that mantra has changed to ‘The Falcons won’t be able to win big if Vick doesn’t become a real passer and not just an athlete playing quarterback. Vick is now chastised as lazy and a diva, even though very little has changed in his on field performance. Vick threw one more pass this year than in 2005, completed ten fewer than he did a year ago, and threw for 52 more yards. He also had five more touchdown passes, the same number of interceptions, and a passer rating that was two points higher than the year before. So for the most part, he was the same guy he was last year. The only difference is that the talking heads were watching him a lot more closely than they ever had, so they found a lot of things that they had not already noticed.
All this newfound attention to detail led a lot of the Vick apologists out there to switch teams and join the Vick haters in criticizing his completion percentage, decision making, throwing mechanics, you name it. And the water bottle incident gave them the ammunition they needed to attack his character. So now in just two years time Vick has gone from being a great guy and the ultimate weapon to a disappointing slacker who needs to get his act together or face being run out of town. Well, I’ve got some news for all those who think we’ll be seeing Vick in another uniform in the near future: don’t count on it. It makes no sense, and here’s why:
This season was not all his fault.
After years of giving Vick a virtual pass because of his winning record and electrifying play, the media turned on him this season. Well, he shouldn’t have gotten all the credit when they had success and he shouldn’t get all the blame when they don’t. Because when you look at the whole picture, he clearly had some help in the Falcons 7-9 finish this season. The Falcons defense was not very good this year; they were ranked near the bottom in several categories including passing yards allowed, interceptions, and total yardage. They gave up 30 points and over 400 yards in a loss to Detroit, which no one else did all season long. They got into a crazy 41-38 shootout with Pittsburgh, which they did win but not without making both Ben Roethlisberger and Charlie Batch look like the second coming of Terry Bradshaw. And they gave up 17 points in 12 minutes to the Cowboys in a 38-28 loss late in the season. To be blunt, these guys weren’t very good. Yes, they had injuries, but also had guys not playing up to their reputations (I’m talking about you, DeAngelo Hall). They let the offense down on several occasions, and how you can pin that on the quarterback is beyond me.
The Falcons performance problems weren’t limited to the defensive side of the ball, either. The wide receivers were beyond awful. The trio of Ashley Lelie, Roddy White, and Michael Jenkins combined for 97 catches, 1,372 yards, and 8 touchdowns. By contract, Marvin Harrison had 95 catches for 1,366 yards and 12 touchdowns all by himself. Altogether nine individual players had more receiving touchdowns than the Falcons than the Falcons top three wideouts combined for. That’s pretty bad. These guys had trouble getting open all season long, and when they did get open they had trouble hanging on to the ball. They dropped passes as if it was they were getting paid to do. The Falcons only have one sure handed wide receiver, Brian Finneran, and he went down to injury during training camp. Word is that Vick got one of those ‘our season is over’ looks on his face when Finneran got hurt; now we all know why. Face it folks, if your defense can’t stop people consistently and your receivers don’t catch the ball, you’re not going to go very far. I don’t care who your quarterback is.<bR<br>
They can’t afford to let him go.
Vick’s contract is enormous; 12 years for $137 million, with nine years left to go. Needless to say, letting Vick go or trading him would be virtually impossible. Either one would cause the remainder of the guaranteed portion of the deal to count all at once against the salary cap, which would absolutely cripple the team. Not only would they lose Vick, they’d have to get rid of some of their more important players just to stay under the salary cap. When you consider that ridding themselves of Vick might also cause them to lose players like Keith Brooking or Patrick Kerney or Warrick Dunn, it pretty much squashes any good that could come out of moving Vick. It would also crush the locker room; getting Vick would likely trigger a ‘let’s get the heck out of dodge’ mentality amongst several players on the team; after all, if they get rid of Vick you know they won’t have any problem coming for you. That’s not exactly the kind of thing that makes guys want to take a little less money to stick around or restructure their contracts to help the team.
And let’s not forget the business side of things, either. Vick sells tickets and moves merchandise, in a city known for being pretty apathetic about its sports teams. If you are Arthur Blank, do you really want to consider getting rid of an asset such as Vick so that you can try to sell a bunch of Matt Schaub jerseys? And as much as Vick has been beat up by African American writers and other media personalities, Blank would get beaten up much worse if he decided that the man who is the face of his team in one of the biggest Black cities in America was no longer good enough to keep around. Just not a good idea altogether. No, Mr. Blank I’m sure knows about making money, and realizes that he’d better squeeze as much money as he can out of Vick because once he’s gone it’s going to be a long time before the next guy comes along who can fire up Atlanta enough to actually sell out games.
Written By Robert Bonnette
2006 was definitely a rough year for Michael Vick. In just three months time he went from electrifying Pro Bowl quarterback to a video game wonder who wasn’t much good in reality. And that was before the water bottle incident; thanks to that foul up, people from all corners of the media have turned their knives on him and begun to beat the drum for his departure from the Falcons. The flip flop on Vick is remarkable; just two years ago, the stance was that ‘it didn’t matter if his throwing mechanics weren’t all that great, he wins games’. Now that mantra has changed to ‘The Falcons won’t be able to win big if Vick doesn’t become a real passer and not just an athlete playing quarterback. Vick is now chastised as lazy and a diva, even though very little has changed in his on field performance. Vick threw one more pass this year than in 2005, completed ten fewer than he did a year ago, and threw for 52 more yards. He also had five more touchdown passes, the same number of interceptions, and a passer rating that was two points higher than the year before. So for the most part, he was the same guy he was last year. The only difference is that the talking heads were watching him a lot more closely than they ever had, so they found a lot of things that they had not already noticed.
All this newfound attention to detail led a lot of the Vick apologists out there to switch teams and join the Vick haters in criticizing his completion percentage, decision making, throwing mechanics, you name it. And the water bottle incident gave them the ammunition they needed to attack his character. So now in just two years time Vick has gone from being a great guy and the ultimate weapon to a disappointing slacker who needs to get his act together or face being run out of town. Well, I’ve got some news for all those who think we’ll be seeing Vick in another uniform in the near future: don’t count on it. It makes no sense, and here’s why:
This season was not all his fault.
After years of giving Vick a virtual pass because of his winning record and electrifying play, the media turned on him this season. Well, he shouldn’t have gotten all the credit when they had success and he shouldn’t get all the blame when they don’t. Because when you look at the whole picture, he clearly had some help in the Falcons 7-9 finish this season. The Falcons defense was not very good this year; they were ranked near the bottom in several categories including passing yards allowed, interceptions, and total yardage. They gave up 30 points and over 400 yards in a loss to Detroit, which no one else did all season long. They got into a crazy 41-38 shootout with Pittsburgh, which they did win but not without making both Ben Roethlisberger and Charlie Batch look like the second coming of Terry Bradshaw. And they gave up 17 points in 12 minutes to the Cowboys in a 38-28 loss late in the season. To be blunt, these guys weren’t very good. Yes, they had injuries, but also had guys not playing up to their reputations (I’m talking about you, DeAngelo Hall). They let the offense down on several occasions, and how you can pin that on the quarterback is beyond me.
The Falcons performance problems weren’t limited to the defensive side of the ball, either. The wide receivers were beyond awful. The trio of Ashley Lelie, Roddy White, and Michael Jenkins combined for 97 catches, 1,372 yards, and 8 touchdowns. By contract, Marvin Harrison had 95 catches for 1,366 yards and 12 touchdowns all by himself. Altogether nine individual players had more receiving touchdowns than the Falcons than the Falcons top three wideouts combined for. That’s pretty bad. These guys had trouble getting open all season long, and when they did get open they had trouble hanging on to the ball. They dropped passes as if it was they were getting paid to do. The Falcons only have one sure handed wide receiver, Brian Finneran, and he went down to injury during training camp. Word is that Vick got one of those ‘our season is over’ looks on his face when Finneran got hurt; now we all know why. Face it folks, if your defense can’t stop people consistently and your receivers don’t catch the ball, you’re not going to go very far. I don’t care who your quarterback is.<bR<br>
They can’t afford to let him go.
Vick’s contract is enormous; 12 years for $137 million, with nine years left to go. Needless to say, letting Vick go or trading him would be virtually impossible. Either one would cause the remainder of the guaranteed portion of the deal to count all at once against the salary cap, which would absolutely cripple the team. Not only would they lose Vick, they’d have to get rid of some of their more important players just to stay under the salary cap. When you consider that ridding themselves of Vick might also cause them to lose players like Keith Brooking or Patrick Kerney or Warrick Dunn, it pretty much squashes any good that could come out of moving Vick. It would also crush the locker room; getting Vick would likely trigger a ‘let’s get the heck out of dodge’ mentality amongst several players on the team; after all, if they get rid of Vick you know they won’t have any problem coming for you. That’s not exactly the kind of thing that makes guys want to take a little less money to stick around or restructure their contracts to help the team.
And let’s not forget the business side of things, either. Vick sells tickets and moves merchandise, in a city known for being pretty apathetic about its sports teams. If you are Arthur Blank, do you really want to consider getting rid of an asset such as Vick so that you can try to sell a bunch of Matt Schaub jerseys? And as much as Vick has been beat up by African American writers and other media personalities, Blank would get beaten up much worse if he decided that the man who is the face of his team in one of the biggest Black cities in America was no longer good enough to keep around. Just not a good idea altogether. No, Mr. Blank I’m sure knows about making money, and realizes that he’d better squeeze as much money as he can out of Vick because once he’s gone it’s going to be a long time before the next guy comes along who can fire up Atlanta enough to actually sell out games.
