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DEL.ICIO.USFalcons traded the wrong QB
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
To get to the point, the Falcons traded the wrong quarterback. Of course, that’s an illogical conclusion. They had no alternative. How are they going to dump a $70 million load on some other NFL team? The logical conclusion is that Arthur Blank and his franchise are wed to Michael Vick, and when an athlete’s picture begins to appear more often on the front page than the sports page, it’s a marriage in trouble.
Now, having said all that, you’ll note the modest little line that appears beneath the picture of that grizzled old guy accompanying this column, that what is written here is strictly my opinion. The very notion that the Falcons could have traded Vick rather than Matt Schaub is preposterous. But it was a question of hanging onto the quarterback from Wahoo U. and losing him next winter. Schaub is a commodity. He is a quarterback in the NFL tradition, drop back, find the target, deliver the pass or hand off. Run only when under defensive duress.
One of the platforms in Vick’s defense is dropped passes. The Falcons traded a first-round draft choice for Peerless Price. A bummer. Then used first-round choices to draft Michael Jenkins and Roddy White, and still the passes keep falling. “You don’t see any wide receivers trying to get to Atlanta,” as beat writer Steve Wyche says.
But is it all the fault of the catchers? Vick is inclined to dally about before he decides to run or to pass, while his receivers roam around, never quite sure where they should be, should he decide to pass, or what. So it would seem there’s enough blame to pass around. Look, there’s no doubt that Vick is a bundle of talent, but to this date the investment hasn’t been paying off. Among other things, he has become a public embarrassment, flipping off the fans, his Ron Mexico escapade, or whatever you call it, and now the Infamous Water Bottle Mystery.
Ever strike you strange that he took 65 days to explain that thing, and that the “mystery substance” was jewelry? Did he swallow it? Did somebody heist it? He doesn’t appear to be much disturbed about it, other than to suggest that someone might have been trying to “frame” him. What next, Michael, for heaven’s sake?
It has become he-said, they-said, Rich McKay said. Bobby Petrino said, or rather, it was said that the new coach “brushed it off,” whatever that meant. (Remember, it was one of Petrino’s Louisville players who was stepped on by Vick’s brother in the Gator Bowl, not that that’s either here or there. But what intrigue!)
Whether Vick ever becomes the classic quarterback he was supposed to be, he’s locked in as a Falcon. There are no takers with all his baggage. What McKay did was get the most out of Schaub before he lost him on the open market. The Texans thought enough of him to put David Carr on the market, a No. 1 draft choice.
A lot of fans put money into those No. 7 Vick shirts. You don’t see a lot of Schaub shirts. To suggest that Vick has become a burden rather than an asset is an irritating thought, but for the man picking up the tab for a $109 million payroll this season, this situation has “hit the wall,” as they say.
Blank had no choice. Mine would have been Schaub. My opinion, as it says.
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