Double take: Missing on Vick
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Eagles
Double take: Missing on Vick
Jeff McLane, Inquirer Staff Writer
As a reporter who prides himself on anticipating a story, it was quite a blow to miss on the scoop of the year so far.
I was not alone in overlooking Michael Vick's ability to overtake Kevin Kolb and turn into the second coming of Steve Young. In fact, I'm not even sure Vick knew he was capable of reaching such heights.
How was Vick underestimated? There was good reason. While he came into spring minicamp in phenomenal shape, Vick was still rusty from his two-season layoff from football. And that continued throughout the preseason.
Kolb was up and down, but you could see why the Eagles were willing to hand over the franchise to the Texan. When you asked someone knowledgeable about quarterbacks to assess Kolb, the appraisal was nearly always positive.
In these eyes there was no chance Vick would supplant Kolb. But that is exactly what happened.
Was it an innocent oversight or was there some unconscious bias at play? These questions must be asked. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers.
The great white hope, but i kid.— palmyra21- would somebody please call off the dogs— stoky
McLane, trust me. No one cares about whether you saw Vick's resurgence coming. Even if you did, you wouldn't have written about it because none of your colleagues saw it coming and you guys all write as a herd of sheep. Just write about what you see happening and stop wasting our time with useless mea culpas.- BS, Given the speed of Jackson and Maclin on the outside and the strength of Kolb's arm, how in the hell wasn't it apparent during camp and the many OTAs, that Kolb wouldn't be able to reach either on the deep patterns?
You Philly Reporters swore what you were seeing in Kolb was the real thing, he was a "Starting NFL Quarterback" It turned out you aren't talent evaluators and simply repeated popular opinion. Kolb is 2 years away today, from where Sam Bradford is now. There are throws Sanchez in New York is making that Kolb can not attempt. I would trade Kolb for Feely today. Can anyone imagine this season without Mike Vick? After the Cowboys game last year we were hoping for 8 wins, 7 would be ok... but 8 would assure the Eagles of not having a loosing season. Where was the last loosing season around here?— Dexter 
disagree w/ ya Dexter, as Jeff pointed out in this entry, true NFL talent evaluators rate Kevin Kolb as a starting QB in this league. hell, the guy is better than half the QB's in the league now. I mean he has won 2 NFC player of the eek awards in 5 starts, and the Eagles did beat the team w/ the top record in the NFC w/ Kolb as their QB. it's clear to see why some fans don't like Kolb, probably for the same reasons why some fans don't like Vick. (some people can't past their own agenda)...anyhoo, Kolb will go on to have a good career in the NFL as starting QB in the NFL, the proof is in the pudding. it just so happens he is playing on a team that has a guy who is capable of reinventing the QB position. and as Kolb stated in the past, AR is gonna do what's best for the team in order to win...— bboybeballin- player of the...eek? (that's quite an accomplishment...I'm guessin')— bboybeballin
- Many of us wish the Monster were missing from the eagles!— bucky95
- don't feel bad jeff I don't think anybody expected much insight out of the beat reporters.— notch44
- notch44, that was cold. besides Jeff, you were the first beat writer to break the news of the McNabb trade to the Rams for Oshiomogho Atogwe and a 1st rounder...oh wait, er, um nevermind.
(just playin')— bboybeballin 
I can't believe you didn't call this one either. I also can't belive you wrote 13 uninteresting sentences and call that a professional article, or blog, whatever. I followed this link from the front page of the Philly website nad this is my reward? You get a check for this?- I wasted a click coming to this... whatever it is. If it wasn't for the poster people out here, among whom there is camaraderie, I'd resent having wasted the time entirely. Mr. Blog person... please try to have an unwritten thought until the gathering of such creates a real article. We like your stuff in general, but not this.— landt
- If only you would've listened to the Booduh :)~— BooDuhBud
- You consideed this to be journalism?....Seriously?— TBear
- It was probably racism buried deep in the psych. You just missed his conversion to God and didn't see Kolb knocked into next week is all. Happens to the best of em.— greenflyer
- McLane, I haven't seen anything for you to pride yourself about, so don't worry about it.— escapedcamden4monterey
