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.
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start kk. he seems to be clicking with the offense and gets more and more comfortable with every game. the eyes give it away. first game vs. green bay he looked like a deer in headlights, yesterday he looked calm, relaxed and in control. season is only gonna get tougher with our schedule, but you can't keep changing qb's, tempo and game plans every week. after yesterday, he deserves the start. AR, stick with the ole stand by, pepperonni, xtra sauce— edseagles- Comment removed.
- Kevin Kolb should be the starting QB all season...this is a no brainer...Kolb has started four games which he played from start to finish...and Kolb has thrown for over 300 yards in 3 of those 4 games..also Kolb has won 3 of those 4 games..THIS IS ALL-PRO STUFF..Vick has never done that in his whole career...Reid needs to stop jerking Kolb around and make Kolb the starting QB and he will even get better every week...period— Bill20
- Kevin Kolb should be the starting QB all season...this is a no brainer...Kolb has started four games which he played from start to finish...and Kolb has thrown for over 300 yards in 3 of those 4 games..also Kolb has won 3 of those 4 games..THIS IS ALL-PRO STUFF..Vick has never done that in his whole career...Reid needs to stop jerking Kolb around and make Kolb the starting QB and he will even get better every week...period— Bill20
- Vick will start a few more games, look more like the QB of preseason when he was horrible, and will give way to Kolb who will be the Eagles starter for the next decade. Vick's two games of glory were his last hurrah in the NFL.— BrianNJ
- Kolb played great, but he is just another guy. The only way this team is going places is with Vick. Kolb isn't dynamic enough.— brmorgen81
- Booduh wants to see what the BABYARM can do against the TITANS.— BooDuhBud
- what other excuses will the vick crowd come up with.... first it was he has no arm strength, false, then it was he never played a good team, false, now it is becasue no teams blitz him, again, false.... you just cannot accept the fact that vick has been overhyped because the league needs him to do well....— kramer65
- Titans' D will be a real test for the O-line, Kolb and Morningweg. Looking forward to see how they all respond!— Fozzie27
- Cant wait to see Babyarm get lit up on Sunday!!!— jmoney443
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- Seriously... why can't Eagles fans just be fans of both QBs? Why can't we just root for whoever lines up under center in any given week? I mean, I could understand when it was Mike McMahon and Koy Detmer because neither of those guys gave the Eagles any chance of winning, but obviously both Mike Vick and Kevin Kolb do give you that chance.— knighn
- if offensive line can block kolb will do well...if they can't kafka will be playing until Miachel gets well.......as for you haters....think football...micahel has played well and this last gaem so has kolb....and they will both be on the roster this year.....next year one will be gone...and it is not your decison and your hate does not matter to anyone but yourself........certianly andy doesn't care about you or me.......but drown yourself in hate......it sure makes the games fun right ?????— nuggett
