Reid says Kolb will likely start for Eagles against Titans

Kevin Kolb is the Eagles' likely starting quarterback Sunday against the Tennessee Titans, head coach Andy Reid said Monday.

Michael Vick is still dealing with pain, swelling and a limited range of motion from a rib cartilage tear, Reid said. If the Eagles had a game Monday, Vick could not have played.

"There's a pretty good chance Kevin's the guy this week," Reid said.

He added that if Vick "feels like he does [Monday] it will be a reach," for him to play Sunday, Reid said.

That sets up Kolb, who has improved every game he has played this year, for a third consecutive start and for Vick to get two more weeks to heal - this week and then the bye week after Sunday's game.

If Kolb keeps playing at a high level, the situation will also set up a fascinating decision on who starts the Eagles' first game after the bye, a Nov. 7 home date against the Indianapolis Colts. The decision on who starts will have an impact well beyond 2010.

Give Kolb the No. 1 job, and he will get a chance to continue his development and resume his role as the quarterback of the future. But Vick, in the final year of his contract, would likely seek, and receive, a chance to start elsewhere after the season. If Vick resumes his role as starter, on the other hand, the Eagles would seem committed to him, not Kolb, for the long term.

"I try to evaluate everything," Reid said. He has said he enjoys having two quarterbacks playing at a high level, but the situation seems tenable for this season only. "Sometimes you're right. Sometimes you're wrong," Reid said. "But I try to think about it in all different variables and then roll with it."

Reid said he was not considering trade offers for either Kolb or Vick. The NFL's trade deadline is Tuesday.

Reid was evasive Sunday when asked who his long-term starter will be, indicating it would be Vick - but not firmly. Mostly he parried the questions.

On Monday, he praised the 26-year-old Kolb for how he has handled his up-and-down season.

"I can't tell you he was real happy with me when I made that move [to bench him]. . . . I wasn't, like, the most popular guy in his life at that particular time. But you would have never known that when he left my office," Reid said.

Kolb, interviewed Monday on ESPN's SportsCenter, said it was "tough" when he was benched, but expressed faith in Reid's decision-making and in God.

"Sometimes you've got to go down to come back up, and that's my mentality," Kolb said. "You have to stay that way, because if you let it get you down then you won't play well when it is your time."

Asked if he had done enough to earn his starting job back, Kolb said, "Wherever [Reid] goes, that's what we'll believe in."

Reid, already dealing with questions about who will play quarterback, worked to defuse lingering curiosity about why Vick arrived at Sunday's game later than most players and why he was not on the sidelines, even though many inactive Eagles spend game days there.

Vick's absence was notable because he is potentially the team's top quarterback and leader for the rest of the year.

A day after first facing questions on the issue, Reid added a new explanation, saying Vick was getting "treatment" in the locker room. Vick was the emergency third quarterback.

"I really wanted to get him treatment and, at the same time, he could stay loose in there and do that - and if we needed him, we could bring him out of the bullpen," Reid said.

Vick would only have played in an "absolute emergency" and even then would only have handed off, Reid said. He said he had previously had less visible players spend game day in the locker room for treatment.

"I told him exactly what time to be there, and Michael came at exactly that time," Reid said.

And with that, he attempted to move on to the next chapter in the 2010 quarterback saga.