Reid: "Pretty good chance" Kolb starts Sunday
Andy Reid said "there's a pretty good chance" Kevin Kolb will start Sunday at Tennessee. Michael Vick could not play if the Eagles had a game today.
Reid: "Pretty good chance" Kolb starts Sunday
Jonathan Tamari
Kevin Kolb looks likely to start Sunday at Tennessee. Head coach Andy said it would be a "reach" for Michael Vick to recover enough to play this week.
"There's a pretty good chance Kevin's the guy this week," Reid said.
Vick is still coping with pain and a limited range of motion due to torn cartilage in his ribs.
Vick is "making progress. If he had to play today he wouldn't be able to play," Reid said. "He'd be able to practice a little bit, but he's not obviously full speed yet."
It also sounded almost certain that DeSean Jackson will miss the game against the Titans. Reid said Jackson has "quite a bit" of soreness in his shoulders and neck, and it would be a "real stretch" for him to play Sunday. Jackson could not remember the hit that injured him.
"That wasn't like amnesia. He remembered his touchdowns and the things that happened. He didn't necessarily remember the hit," Reid said. He said the hit that took Jackson and Falcons cornerback Dunta Robinson out of the game was among the worst he has seen.
"This was like a Rocky movie with both guys knocked to the ground."
If Vick is out Sunday, that would buy him two more weeks to recover, because the Eagles have a bye after playing Tennessee. It will also give Kolb a chance to try to continue his strong showing. Reid praised Kolb for his steady attitude through his benching and rise back to a starting role, admitting that Kolb wasn't pleased with his demotion.
"I can't tell you he was real happy with me when I made that move. ... 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 morning on SportsCenter, said it was "tough" when he was benched, especially because he wanted to wash away the bad feelings of his poor play week one. But he expressed faith in Reid's decision-making and in God.
"My whole deal is I just have trust that God puts me in a certain situation for certain reasons. Sometimes you've got to go down to come back up, and that's my mentality and I think 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," Kolb said. "Obviously my time came pretty quickly after going to the bench and I'm glad that I was ready and the team was ready."
Asked if he had done enough to earn his starting job back, Kolb side-stepped the question.
"I’m not getting into that. I think it's Mike and (my) duty to do our best to make the decision as hard as possible and keep trying to play as good as possible," Kolb said. "Wherever (Reid) goes, that's what we'll believe in."
Reid, already dealing with questions about who should play quarterback, worked to defuse any lingering questions about why Vick was allowed to arrive to Sunday's game later than most players. Reid said Vick would only have played in an emergency, and even then would only go in to hand off. Vick was in the locker room, not on the sidelines, because he was getting treatment, Reid said.
"He was there just to get treatment," he said. "I've done that with less popular players in people's eyes. ... That was an absolute emergency, emergency situation."
Reid's assessment of Vick's recovery was decidedly less optimistic than the quarterback's self evaluation last week. Vick told reporters not to count him out of the game against Atlanta.
In other injury news, Reid said defensive tackle Brodrick Bunkley and left tackle Jason Peters probably couldn't play today if they had to, though he was optimistic about wide receiver Riley Cooper.
Reid had high praise for his team after a 31-17 beating of the Falcons, and in particular praised coordinators Marty Mornhinweg and Sean McDermott.
Kolb played great Sunday and Andy knows the better he plays the more he will get in a trade. The same is true for Vick. The Eagles are in a good spot. They can trade either one at the end of the season or keep both. Andy's got a big smile on his face. He's going to draft some big O line gorillas and the Eagles are going to continue to get better and better. It's all good for the Eagles and Andy knows it!— jmb53- You have to go with Kolb. Using Vick the way that they did was a play at building trade value. He was the hot guy at the time- broken plays or not, the guy is dynamic and I'm sure a city like Detroit could use his services at present... So you stay with Kolb now and trade Vick for picks. We will not be with Vick for much longer, so you don't have to hide your dogs or get your Valtrex prescription refilled. Cap'n Arf Arf should be on a broken play bus to somewheretown real soon. Ask your doctor about what Valtrex can do for dogfighting:)— PG
- KK will be the NFL player of the week-book it.....wolf.— wolf 4
- Like the "chubby" guys says - it's a nice problem to have.
- With DeSean out, let Vick line up at WR... could be fun to watch.— CT Flyers fan
- I'll admit that I didn't have faith in Kolb at first. I'm just happy were winning games. This has to be one of the craziest seasons ever! Most of the elite teams look average at best which plays more to our favor. We've never been a great team but we somehow pull through. I honestly think with the way we improve each week, if (a big if) we stay healthy we can go deep into the playoffs with both qb's. I mean, how do teams prepare for 2 qb's?!— Ghostface
Vick is showing his true colors. He is a me me me guy. Kolb is the future, let him play. All the haters of Kolb are all brothers that want Vick, and could really care less about how the Birds do.
There are enough QB reclaimation projects in this league to get someone in here to back up Kolb and get something for Vick while he has some value. I still don't believe that Kolb is the answer, but playing Vick makes no sense. He is not the future of this organization. Trade him to someone who's ready to win now or who's desperate for some wins. Leinart failed, Cutler stinks, Alex Smith is not even mediocre. Someone out there needs Vick. We are done this season, so let's see if Kolb can mature. One way or another we need to know. Another season like this will create apathy for this organization.- there is no choice but to start KK - MVick is probably still not back to form with an injury like that - he will have to work his rythm in practice until he is ready - please get him back for the Skins re-match - I want to see him burn McNabb and the boys— Tom Man
- Kolb is only a stop-gap QB. When Vick is healthy he will be the starting QB. I didn't see Kolb do anything yesterday that Vick couldn't have or hasn't already done. As a matter of FACT if Vick had been given the time Kolb had yesterday, the score would have been 56 -17. He would have thrown for 400 yards and ran for another 100. The Falcons simply didn't come to play yesterday. The 49'ers played better than the Falcon did!— RicWilliams
These Babyarm comments are old. You guys are not Eagles fans. Stick to Fantasy Football, boneheads.— Richard Saunders- Don't you love the way Reid just screws with the press. And the best part is these dumb asses just take the bait, hook, line and sinker.— craig123
Comment removed.- Bill20 and Mel-b that you Mr and Mrs Kolb, both your fools know so little about football, Go take your meds now:
Have a look at philadelphiaeagles.com and for a poll they are running even with spadaro fixing it for his man crush Kevin. see that out of 8622+ people almost 45% still want Vick to start compared to your boy whome only 21% you are speaking for a minority. Kevin gets to start because Kafka is not yet up to speed on the play book, we know why we drafted a QB last year, even knowing that the annointing was coming...also remember that Maclin run 68 yards for that TD, ask you boy to air it out for 40 yards first then he can stand near the Vick pedestal...— jameslaka 
Best stat for Kolb yesterday is that he was like 23 for 29 or something like that. When have we last seen a QB around here with that accuracy? And we dropped a couple.— burholme
