via: Yahoosports
It’s always something in Philadelphia. One night a red guy runs on the outfield grass, the next day the head coach of the football team drops a bombshell.
Andy Reid gave us something to talk about late Tuesday afternoon, announcing that Michael Vick(notes) is taking over the starting quarterback post for the Eagles. The move was a shocker given that Reid endorsed Kevin Kolb(notes) as the Week 3 starter about 24 hours earlier. It appears Vick will get a chance to take the job and run with it.
Vick’s passing has been shockingly good through his game and a half thus far in 2010: 105.5 rating, 7.9 YPA, 63.8 percent completions. He’s thrown three touchdown passes without a pick and he’s scrambled for 140 yards. The only downside has come in the pocket, where he’s absorbed nine sacks (six last week at Detroit).
He’s set up for success at Jacksonville on Sunday – the Jags have a middling pass rush and a messy secondary. Trickier matchups await after that: Washington, San Francisco, Atlanta, Tennessee. We’ll worry about that later; for all we know, Andy Reid might be calling up one of the Detmer Brothers by the middle of October.
Vick will never be the prototypical quarterback for the West Coast Offense, the scheme the Eagles want to run. But the time away from the game hasn’t hurt his athleticism any, and in the small sample we’ve seen thus far in 2010 he’s making good decisions. The primary receivers in Philly (DeSean Jackson(notes), Jeremy Maclin(notes)) seem comfortable with him. And don’t forget the algebra at play here – those rushing yards are gold in our numbers racket.
Bottom line, Vick looks like a Top 10 QB play for this week, easy. Let’s try not to look too far past that. I’m not going to adjust my general rankings on Jackson or Maclin, but this move probably won’t help Brent Celek(notes) (based on what we’ve seen thus far) and obviously you can drop Kolb in standard leagues.
