Vick's playing percentage while preparing for Packers

ONE GAME Michael Vick hasn't been good at is "injury exaggeration."

Most NFL coaches will let you believe a hang nail is a broken arm up until the league mandates they give credible injury updates each week.

In a coach's mind, letting a team worry about whether or not they have to prepare for a certain player counts as an advantage in gamesmanship.

But Vick has been a straight shooter about his bruised and battered body.

Ask him what hurts and he'll tell.

Ask him how he feels, and he'll let you know.

So on Monday, when Vick said on The Tony Mercurio Show on ESPN 94.1 in Virginia Beach that his injured leg has "probably went from 50 percent to 75 percent," you can believe him.

What the Eagles have to hope is that before Sunday that percent jumps up to between 85 to 95 percent.

Vick saying, "I'll be 100 percent by the time the game starts," is a bit too optimistic.

After the NFL's 16-game meat grinder, no player enters the playoffs "100 percent" healthy.

Vick is going to start on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers. The question is at what level he will be able to perform from a health standpoint.

If we can assume he will not be 100 percent, will being 95 percent be enough for Vick to be the incredible difference-maker he has been all season?

Considering this is the playoffs and the Eagles are going against a formidable Green Bay Packers team that beat them in the season opener, will Vick have to be at 97.892 percent efficiency or can he get by at 87.4 percent.

The truth is that we're not going to find out until Sunday when the Packers unleash a defense that is ranked fifth overall in the NFL.

Led by defensive player-of-the-year favorite Clay Matthews with 13 1/2 sacks, the Packers are tied for second behind the Steelers in bringing down quarterbacks.

"Those guys fly around the ball and are always in good position," Vick said of the Packers' defense. "You just have to be ready for what they're going to do. They give you a lot of different looks and try to confuse you."

Given the nature of the opposing defense and the porous nature of the Eagles' offensive line, this is not a good week for Vick to be having issues with his all-important legs.

"With any leg injury, the most important thing is your mobility," Vick said. "Being a quarterback you have to take drops, push up in the pocket; you have to be able to scramble if you need to.

"You have to do it all with your legs. And if you can't do it, it sets you back and puts you in a bad position. If you can't do that, you can't be effective, and that's the most important position on the field."

So what's going to equate to Vick being "effective" enough?

Rest and recovery were the most important reasons coach Andy Reid sat Vick down for the meaningless regular-season finale with Dallas. But he's really going to need to be back on the field at practice starting this morning.

Except for the 8 1/2–minute outburst down the stretch against the Giants, this Eagles offense has been a bit out of sync for close to a month.

There are definitely kinks that need to be ironed out before facing Green Bay.

"We took advantage [of the week off]," Vick said. "[Today] we'll get back into the work week.

"I like being out there practicing even if I'm hurting a little bit, to go out there and be sure I get the good looks that I need so once I get those looks in the game it won't surprise me."

Again, since we know Vick won't be 100 percent, the issue is how close does he have to be to it for the Eagles to win?

"It's all about getting healthy and going out and playing," Vick said. "Regardless of what the situation is, I want to make sure that I'm there for my team and give it the best opportunity.

"One thing I won't do is hurt the team, but I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to go out there and play in good condition."

We won't know what "good condition" means until Sunday. *

Send e-mail to

smallwj@phillynews.com.

For recent columns, go to

http://go.philly.com/smallwood.