Will Eagles go with Young or Kafka if Vick can't play?

VINCE YOUNG'S only pass of 2011 was an absolutely awful interception, Oct. 16 at Washington. It was one of three regular-season snaps Young has taken since joining the Eagles.

So Eagles Nation is unexcited about the prospect of Young starting Sunday night at the Giants. Actually, there is a long list of things Eagles Nation is unexcited about right now, sitting at 3-6 with a talented, dysfunctional team. Feel free to just throw that one on the pile.

You don't have to strain to infer that the coaching staff is unexcited, as well; it sure seems as if Andy Reid is crossing his fingers and lighting a candle for Michael Vick, if only to read Vick's rib X-rays in a more forgiving light.

"He's still sore," Reid said yesterday, when asked about Vick. "These next few days will tell, so we'll see, but he is sore today."

Reid said "we'll see," or some variation thereof, eight times during his news conference, when asked about Vick, the injury, and whether Young or Mike Kafka will get most of the practice reps, with Vick sidelined. Part of that is Reid's natural reticence to give away anything he might be able to keep secret from the Giants a few seconds longer. But part of it seems to be that Reid is really, really hoping to somehow get Vick taped up and ambulatory.

"We'll see what happens, you know, just see how the week goes," Reid said. "I'll let you know later in the week what we're going to do. See how Michael does."

"Mike Vick is a strong, strong quarterback," Young said. "You never know with him."

Kafka said he and Young split first-team reps 50-50 yesterday. Neither Kafka nor Young routinely gets first-team practice reps; this would have been their most extensive such work since the preseason. Young came in for one play in Sunday's loss to the Cardinals; Kafka was inactive.

With previous rib injuries, Reid has said a player can't play until there is a certain amount of "stickiness" or adhesion. Asked where Vick stood there, Reid said: "They're all a bit different in different places. At times, the player will feel the rubbing going on with the [unattached] ribs. Michael doesn't have that right now. We'll just see. We take it day by day, and we'll see how it all works out."

Young said it has been tough these past few months, not playing, but he is "getting better and better each day" through studying, though his ability to learn the offense by running it in practice has been limited. "Overall, [quarterbacks coach] Doug Pederson and Mike [Vick] and Mike Kafka do a great job of making sure I know the plays and saying them and things like that," Young said.

Young was asked whether it is tough hearing people doubt his ability to lead the team, based on those three snaps. Young said that he had no comment on that, and that his observation about how tough it has been concerned not getting to play, after having been the third overall pick in the 2006 draft and making two Pro Bowls with the Tennessee Titans.

Asked whether he expects to start Sunday, Young said reporters would have to "take that up with Andy . . . I'm just getting myself ready, so if I do have to play, I will be ready."

Young said that the Birds' offense "is definitely wordy, a very, very detailed offense," and that even when you're just watching the starter run it in practice, Reid sometimes appears at your shoulder and asks you about the play.

"He's an athletic guy," running back Ronnie Brown said of Young. Brown and Young, stars elsewhere, have run a lot of second-team plays together this fall. "He's obviously won some games in this league [Young is 30-17 as a starter, 2-0 against the Giants]. He has some experience. His ability to make plays with his legs is big, as well as [his ability to make] throws. I think he's confident guy, as well."

Brown agreed that Young "hasn't really had a chance" to run the Eagles' offense. "This week is going to be big, as far as his preparation," Brown said.

Tight end Clay Harbor said: "It takes a while to learn the offense for a tight end . . . when you're a quarterback, you've got to know everything. It takes a while. I think he's definitely progressed . . . just hearing his playcalls, it's much different. Before he might stumble on a couple of things, terminologywise. Right now he's right on, he's got everything down perfectly."

Of course, Reid could decide to go to Kafka instead of Young if Vick can't play; Kafka completed 11 of 16 passes for 107 yards in the Atlanta game and the first meeting with the Giants, Vick having left both games with injuries. But Young was very new to the offense then and recovering from a preseason hamstring injury.

"As a guy in my position, you have to be able to get better off of mental reps, get better off of scout team reps . . . learning and getting better never stops," said Kafka, a fourth-round draft pick in 2010.

Vick was unavailable to reporters yesterday. Reid was questioned on when the QB's injury occurred - Reid said Monday it happened on the second snap of the game, when Daryl Washington hit Vick helmet-first, unblocked. But fans have speculated that a hit on the final series, to Vick's lower back, the play that led to Young taking a snap, seemed a more likely trigger for broken ribs. Running back LeSean McCoy seemed to go along with that interpretation during a radio interview this week.

Yesterday, McCoy said he doesn't know when Vick was injured. Left guard Evan Mathis, asked by a fan on Twitter whether Mathis was ready to return from a sprained toe, tweeted back jokingly that he would have to check with "Dr. McCoy."

Reid reiterated that Vick told the Eagles about his ribs after the game. Reid was asked whether Vick knew his ribs were broken early in the game.

"He doesn't have X-ray vision," Reid replied. "He was sore, I guess. I'm not sure anybody knew. He didn't tell anybody. He just played."

Questioned more closely on whether the injury could have occurred on the later hit, Reid said: "Whatever you want to write, you write. I told you the second play of the game; what more do you want him to do? This isn't the game of Clue, you know, I'm telling you, the second play of the game."