Quite simple:
The next time Michael Vick plays in an NFL regular season game will be in what week, playing for which team?
And my answer…Week 9, Philadelphia Eagles.
Week 1…2010. Houston Texans.
Week 4 Oakland Raiders
SSG Schwartz
I can easily imagine a team trying to land Michael Vick on the cheap, in hopes he might spark some interest at the box office… but I can’t see anyone giving him a shot at the starting QB job this season, let alone handing him the position.
Vick was an exciting athlete, but he wasn’t a very good NFL quarterback. The Falcons were actually a lot better on offense WITHOUT him!
I don’t see a single team where he’d represent a major improvement at quarterback right now.
I’m all for letting the man make a living, and I don’t think he deserves to be suspended any longer. But he was a subpar quarterback to begin with, and he’s not likely to have gotten better in prison. No sane GM would sign him. Perhaps a team with a dumb, loose cannon owner (the Cowboys or Raiders) might.
Canadian Football League.
2010, Detroit.
My money’s on “Never.” Like astorian says, he just wasn’t a particularly good QB (2002 excepted), and at age 29 his unique athleticism is likely to evaporate in the next couple of years.
Fair enough, but please keep in mind, everyone – the question is when he plays, not when he starts.
Week 2 Raiders
Week 10, 2010 season, whoever’s the most desperate.
Never.
What role are you going to give him?
Starting QB? Who’s gonna hand the reins over to this guy, investing millions and making him the face of the franchise?
Backup? Most teams want a studious, hardworking type as their backup; if the starter is young, they want a veteran tutor. Not a lazy fuckup. Moreover, who’s gonna want to deal with all the hoopla and protests and all that – including pissing off some of your own fans – for a backup?
Conversion to other position? Dude’s 30. He’s a QB.
Wildcat? The NCAA produces as many good wildcat candidates every year as any team could want.
The only way he gets in if someone has one or more QBs goes down with injury, and some GM/coach who are BOTH on the hot seat decide that giving Vick the ball and telling him to schoolyard it is better than going with their 3rd QB.
Oh, please, no…
Just to guess, I’ll say week 7, The Eagles. But I think he’s done for.
Time will tell!
Okay… well, then I can see either Jerry Jones or Al Davis signing him, against the advice of the real football men (Jones signed Ryan Leaf, after all).
IF the Raiders sign him… well, the Raiders are going to stink, so he’d get to play some for the Raiders by week 6.
IF the Cowboys sign him… well, the Cowboys should be very good, so they shouldn’t need to play Vick at all at quarterback. But Jerry Jones fancies himself a master strategist, so he’d tell Wade Phillips to start using Vick as a Kordell Stewart/Slash type player.
And if the Cowboys stumble early and fall out of playoff contention, Jerry Jones would tell Wade Phillips (or whoever’s coaching by Week 12) to put in Vick at QB, just to keep the media interested.
He’ll be lucky if he gets to play in the UFL.
Hell. Week of the first big freeze.
The Atlanta Beelzebubs.
Ryan Leaf was a perfectly worthwhile guy to take a flier on; he still had the physical talent, and signing him to be a 3rd QB on a lousy team cost nothing.
Just having Vick on your roster means you get picketed at your home opener, means all your players get asked innumerable awkward questions about it, means ESPN runs features on the decision, means every single telecast has cameras focusing on Mike Vick holding a clipboard … who wants that kind of BS?
Al Davis … maybe. If Russell sucks in 2009 that it’s obvious he isn’t the answer, I can see Davis going for Vick in 2010. He’s probably the only one. Which actually says a lot about Davis.
Just picketed? Maybe it’s just the crowd I hang out with, but if the Steelers were to sign Vick, not a single friend of mine would watch any games until he was gone. Now, maybe some of that is just posturing, but… I think that signing Vick would signal more desperation than Palin being chosen as VP candidate.
If that’s the truth, then the crowd you hang out with would be known as “non-football fans”. If he were to somehow end up on the Giants, I’d be pissed – absolutely outraged that my team would stoop to signing this fucknugget. But you’d damn well better believe I’d watch every game. No one person is bigger than the sport.