No excuses for Vick in 2012
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No excuses for Vick in 2012
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
The Eagles and Evan Mathis agreed Saturday to a five-year deal, meaning the offensive line will have all five of its starters back next season.
From 2010 to 2011, only one Eagles lineman, Jason Peters, returned to play the same position. Todd Herremans was also a carryover, but he of course moved from left guard to right tackle.
Peters was an All-Pro. Mathis put together a solid, consistent season after starting only 22 games in his first six years in the league. And Herremans was a nice fit at right tackle.
The jury is still out on the two rookies. Jason Kelce improved as the season went on, but there's still plenty of work to do. And Danny Watkins had more issues in pass protection than any other lineman. He faces an important offseason working with Howard Mudd.
But this unit has a chance to be a real strength next season. Mudd had to implement his system during a shortened offseason. Herremans spent most of training camp practicing at left guard. And Watkins got a late start, spending the first four weeks on the sideline. It's reasonable to expect this group to be much improved in 2012.
Barring injuries, Michael Vick will be protected. He'll also have a running back in LeSean McCoy, who piled up 1,309 yards, averaged 4.8 yards per carry and led the league with 14 runs of 20+ yards. At wide receiver, Vick will have a happy DeSean Jackson and a healthy Jeremy Maclin. That was not the case last year when Jackson was being paid $600,000, and Maclin was dealing with a virus that took months to diagnose.
He'll also have a tight end in Brent Celek, who averaged nearly 70 yards per game in the final 10.
There's no lockout to worry about. Only some new limitations on how closely coaches are allowed to work with players prior to May 1. Vick will get his first full offseason as a starting quarterback since 2006.
All those factors mean there are no excuses for him not to deliver the best season of his NFL career. The pieces are in place around him. Vick got a new contract in 2011, and he turns 32 in June. His completion percentage went from 62.6 in 2010 to 59.8 in 2011, and his yards per attempt fell from 8.1 to 7.8. Not huge dips in production, but dips nonetheless.
The interception issues have been well-documented. In 2010, he was picked off once every 62 attempts. In 2011, it was once every 30.2 attempts.
Football Outsiders did a great job of digging deeper into those numbers, using a metric called adjusted interception rate. They took into account interceptions that were dropped by defensive players, interceptions that were the result of drops or tips by wide receivers and interceptions on Hail Marys or desperation throws late in the fourth quarter.
They found that defensive players dropped six potential interceptions against Vick. He had one Hail Mary pick and another ball that was the receiver's fault. That brought Vick's adjusted interception total up to 18 and his adjusted interception rate (interceptions divided by pass attempts) up to 4.3 percent.
Here's how Vick's rate compared to some of the league's top quarterbacks:
| QB | INT RATE |
| Aaron Rodgers | 0.8% |
| Tom Brady | 2.5% |
| Drew Brees | 2.6% |
| Eli Manning | 2.9% |
| Michael Vick | 4.3% |
Of the 34 quarterback who attempted at least 200 passes, Vick finished 26th in adjusted interception rate.
Is it all on Vick? Of course not. Jackson, Celek and McCoy combined for 19 drops last season, according to STATS.com. Four of Jackson's drops came on balls that traveled 20 yards or more from the line of scrimmage, per Pro Football Focus. Catches would have significantly impacted Vick's yards per attempt number.
We all know the defense has question marks. And on special teams, the Eagles got nothing from their return game.
The offense, meanwhile, ranked eighth, according to Football Outsiders' numbers. And the Birds averaged 24.8 points per game, which also ranked eighth.
But with the moves the Eagles have made in re-signing Mathis and extending Jackson, the pressure is on Vick to take the next step in his development and help carry this offense into one of the league's elite.
If it doesn't happen for him in 2012, chances are it's never going to happen.
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The new excuse is going to be that he now has "no excuses"...that kind of pressure from the Philly fans will be the reason Vick maintains his mediocre stats.— 2ndNlong- Lol.. How desperate do you have to be to gather hatred for a player that you dig up "woulda coulda shoulda" stats from somebody else's plate and present them as facts to a bunch of ravenous fans. Then leave out the woulda coulda shoulda stats like uninspired routes ran by a reciever being lowballed by the team. An offensive line that started one undersized rookie and another who was studying his fireman book instead of the eagles playbook. The art of bending perception was perfected by Philadelphia media and its so obvious now you can set back and laugh at whats in a person's intentions.— Zeru
- Yeah, no excuses for Vick next year, he needs to play well and play a full season. But I haven't heard him make any excuses -- he shows up to play and puts it all on the line. Defenses respect him, that's why they try so hard to take him out of a game. If he gets a little better protection (and he should) and the play-calling from Marty can recognize the pressure that teams bring from the outset, this offense will continue to march it up and down. Then it's really just a matter of executing a little better and getting a few bounces. This team will contend if Vick can avoid the freak injury.— auntesther
- The line they are bringing this year.. Is the same line Reid had to roll to the left and the right because they couldnt block anybody straight up. The pocket was either rolling to the left after a snap or rolling to the right. lol. Yeah Vick has no excuse now. He's has plenty of time to get good life insurance.— Zeru
- Vick is the most dangerous quarterback in the NFL. Not the greatest...but the most dangerous. The last guy a defense wants to see in the game, with the game on the line, is Vick. The Eagles has lots of problems last year that had nothing to do with the play of Vick. Per game statistics only matter when the game is over. He's always one left hook from knocking the other guy out.— Ron
- Hey all of you fervent Vick lovers...you know who you are. Step up or I will need to name you. Please tell the rest of us EXACTLY why QBs that run, Qbs that are said to be elusive, Qbs that prefer not to stay in the pocket...tell us why they don't win superbowls, explain this please. Is it just almost 50 years of coincidence? One possible exception Steve Young. Now step up and explain without playing the cop out race card.— Taser
- You cite Young, but Montana was known to move the chains with his legs, and Roethlisberger, in both SB wins, scrambled for many first downs and was fairly ineffective throwing the ball (especially in his first game). The fact is, that most good QBs are forced to improvise to get the job done (Staubach also comes readily to mind), but some QB's that have had recent success are pure pocket passers (Manning, Brady) who, for the most part have all day to throw and are all-time great passers. Why didn't Marino ever win a SB bowl? What about Fouts, Tarkenton? It's very difficult to win a Super-bowl, there have been very few of these hybrid scramblers that you talk about relative to the league, and it takes more than just a QB to win, it takes a great team playing well at the right time. There's really no formula except perhaps winning enough games in the regular season to play at home during the playoffs. Or, in the case of the Giants, mailing the regular season in, getting healthy and hot at the right time, and getting all the bounces in the big game. — auntesther
- You and Reid gave Vick the "poor defense" excuse in 2010, although Vick only scored 14 points against the Vikings and 16 against the Packers. You just have given him umpteen excuses for last year and even Reid realized after the season was over that it was the offense's fault we kept losing in the fourth quarter, not scoring but one field goal. Why would we think you won't make 25 more excuses for Vick in 2012? Maybe next time you will blame the ball boy or the cheerleaders for the league leading 36 turnover, the 18 interceptions and giving the oppossing team 6 and 7 extra drives a game as Vick did. You are a poor excuse for a reporter.— mario1239
- You say all of this stuff about Vick but no one talks about the 10 point lead the team had going into the 4th quarter in Atlanta and blowing it that is 1 game, the 23 to 3 lead over the 49ers that was 2nd game, and the lead against the Giants 3rd game. So that was all Vickk's fault. I doubt it the defense was never going to hold a lead and stop anyone from scoring no matter how many points the Eagles scored. 3 games which would have made them 12-4 with home field advantage. Lets just say everyone has to do their part to win putting all the weight on one person is not appropriate or right. It is a team game and if the team does not play well we already know what happens. The Eagles marched up and down the field on every team except the Patrioits and Seattle. Vick did not play in those games but they blamed him for the loses as if he did. We forget Eli set a record for turnovers in 1 year and nobody was call ing for his head or wanting a new QB, if Vick's name was different and his skin was different we would not be hearing this mess now. Kolb had a horrible season and yet there are people that come on here and want him to take Vick's place that just blows my mind. Whatever happens the whole team better play better since it is a TEAM game.— Blessed8251
- I will say this, Im glad that the Eagles are taking care of their own players, this time around, however if the FatMan is still on the side lines, then the Birds will end up the same as last year— Lesj
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