Waiting for the other shoe (Feeley) to drop

Now that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has announced that Michael Vick will become a real, live member of the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 3 of the regular season, the next question rises quickly:

What about AJ Feeley?

You can argue this a hundred different ways -- OK, maybe three different ways -- but it seems to me that this should be the progression: trade Feeley now, not Kevin Kolb, and then either trade Vick at the end of the season or make him your starter in 2010.

Exactly what the Eagles think of Kolb -- really, really think in their hearts -- remains a mystery. The acquisition of Vick does not necessarily mean they don't like him. The Eagles are value players, and Andy Reid loves the gadgetry, and Reid and Lurie and Joe Banner are all on this redemption kick, and it all adds up like this: they got Vick for nothing, he has the potential to be a special weapon, he gives them a feeling that they are doing some social good, and they can turn around after the season and trade him for a pretty good asset if they can get his feet back under him first. In all, that's the way I have seen this from the beginning.

In the meantime, then, you are left with the question: trade Feeley or trade Kolb -- which they not can do and go thin at QB for two weeks, until Vick is activated. I would trade Feeley because there probably is more of a market for Feeley right now. Anybody trading for a quarterback in the first week of September is looking for a veteran, known quantity. That isn't Kolb, it's Feeley. That doesn't mean Kolb can't play. It just means that the only really valid opinion right now in the whole NFL belongs to the Eagles' coaching staff. There isn't any way for anybody else to know about Kolb, either way.

So that should be the progression: trade Feeley, do the Vick thing this year, and then either flip him for a package of draft choices or make him the 2010 starter.  If your intent is to maximize the value of this crazy summer, that's what you do.