There's room in Eagles' offense for two QBs

SAY A TOP salesperson takes a vacation. For that matter, say it's the top seller in the company.

It happens all the time, right?

A key component takes a day or two off, maybe stays an extra hour at lunch or perhaps sneaks home after a late lunch; they call it a day early.

The business does not disintegrate.

The same thing when an actor is under the weather, when a band member cannot play; even, believe it or not, when an editor calls out sick.

The show goes on.

In most sports, teams depend on more than one player to determine their fates.

Generally, at least two players can run an NBA offense at any point in a game. The first two NHL lines and the special-teams lineups often are balanced. Major league catchers usually serve as the defensive captains, but middle infielders seldom need any prompting.

However, in the paranoid and constrained world of the NFL, the quarterback's role is beyond sacrosanct.

The responsibilities are considered too delicate for more than one man, as if only one ox can bear the yoke. They must have knowledge of that week's playbook; harmonic movement with blockers; coordination with the running backs; timing with the receivers; communication with the playcaller.

Clearly, a job so complex cannot be shared.

Balderdash.

Vick or Foles?

Why choose?

Not only can it be shared, this season, new Eagles coach Chip Kelly should make them share it.

That would end speculation as to who his favorite is at the quarterback position (the guess here: neither). It might bruise Michael Vick's Franchise Player ego, and it might retard Nick Foles' development.

It also might give the team the best chance to win, this season and beyond.

Kelly has introduced a new offense. It is the third to which Vick has been exposed in his career, though the first two didn't exactly take. It is the second in as many seasons for Foles, Vick's rookie understudy in 2012.

Neither will master all of Kelly's offense by the evening of Sept. 9, when the Eagles begin their season at Washington.

Neither should be asked to master all of it by then. Just some.

Then, divide the playing time as you wish.

Alternate them every series. Sub them in every play.

Don't give Vick the Quick all of the read-option plays, of course. Don't make Foles a statue in the backfield. Mix it up.

Give them 40 snaps apiece in Kelly's pipe-dream Oregon offense. Can you imagine the synapses misfiring in the cobwebby brains of Tom Coughlin in New York and Mike Shanahan in D.C.?

Kelly is adaptable. He can make it work.

For the moment, he also is bulletproof. You hear only muted sneers and snickers when the old-school gridiron experts discuss his scheme, which is based on speed and his desire to run 80 plays per game - unheard of in the NFL.

So is using truly dual quarterbacks.

It is worth a try. It is worth the inevitable derision, and the silly skepticism.

There is, in the NFL, great concern over the height of the passer, the velocity of the pass and the spin direction and spin rate of the football.

Why?

Why all of the consternation over changing the man throwing the ball?

Baseball managers don't change catchers when they bring in the lefty, or switch from the junkball starter to the fireball closer.

If a receiver can snatch a pass thrown from Vick's release level with Vick's velocity and Vick's hissing spiral, then, 60 seconds later, that receiver should be able to catch a higher, softer, clockwise toss from Foles . . . or that receiver should not be in the NFL.

These guys aren't refueling aircraft in-flight.

They are playing catch.

No, it has never really worked in the NFL. The Vick/McNabb experiment in 2009 was ineffective, and the Mark Sanchez/Tim Tebow combo was a debacle last year with the Jets, but in both of those instances Tebow and Vick acted as wildcat quarterbacks and so telegraphed the plays' intents.

If Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie really is interested in importing college football innovations to his franchise - the chief reason for hiring Kelly - then he should insist on a two-quarterback scheme.

LSU coach Les Miles used the system to take him to two national championship games in the past six seasons. Michigan dabbled with it last season.

Kelly has no significant record of running a dual-QB offense, but, well, isn't he an offensive genius?

Kelly will have no hesitation discarding other traditional roles in his offense.

Without question, Kelly will use his battalion of tight ends indiscriminately and with imagination, probably at a cost to Brent Celek.

Without question, Kelly will exploit running back LeSean McCoy's dazzling array of talents and skills, but he will use his other backs, too.

Without question, the role of No. 1 receiver will be blurred by midseason, perhaps as far as three or four names deep . . . and "DeSean" and "Jeremy" might not be one of those names.

Without question, Kelly will have his linemen acting less like automatons and more like athletes. He might even interchange them for a play or for a series as the game progresses.

So, why should there be any question about using more than one passer?

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