Who Says Michael Vick Can't Throw?

I used to be a huge Michael Vick fan, along with many others. He was a dynamic force in the league and was one of its top players.

His unique abilities at the QB position could single-handedly change the course of the game in one snap—not many QBs can do that by themselves.

I was sad, disappointed, shocked, and baffled when the dogfighting news broke a few years back, but knew the day would come when he would play again. 

Despite being good enough to be the highest paid player in the league at one point, 10 years, $130 million on his contract, there were some knocks on his throwing abilities.

No, I have not watched every Falcons game he ever played—mostly the ones against the Seahawks (losses of course, do work)—but glancing at his stats recently, I became puzzled at why people knock his passing so much.

He was in a run-first scheme, and was a run-first QB, but his passing stat line is not horrendous: 71 TDs, 52 INTs, 11,505 yards, and a 76.7 QBR. 

I decided to compare this stat line to various QBs around the league.

First I will list whichever of the top 32 QB's, that have a worse career QB rating:

Derek Anderson: 43 TDs, 35 INTs, 6,195 yards, 75.1 QBR

Eli Manning: 98 TDs, 74 INTs, 14,623 yards, 76.1 QBR

Tarvaris Jackson: 20 TDs, 18 INTs, 3,442 yards, 76.5 QBR

Kyle Orton: 30 TDs, 27 INTs, 5,319 yards, 71.1 QBR

Kellen Clemens: 5 TDs, 11 INTs, 1,555 yards, 59.3 QBR

Kerry Collins: 186 TDs, 179 INTs, 37,393 yards, 73.8 QBR

Not the most impressive list, but it does include four Pro Bowl trips (DA, EM, KC), a Super Bowl winning QB (Manning), and a guy who just led his team to the NFL's best record in 2008 in Kerry Collins.

That's six starters (one potential, two likely starters in DA, TJ) directly off the top who have an inferior rating to Vick, almost 20 percent of the league.

Now lets take a look at the QBs whose TD/INT ratio is worse then Vick's 71-52 (1.4 ratio).

Trent Edwards: 18 TDs, 18 INTs, (1 ratio)

Joe Flacco: 14 TDs, 12 INTs, (1.16 ratio)

Matt Schuab: 30 TDs, 25 INTs, (1.2 ratio)

JaMarcus Russell: 15 TDs, 12 INTs, (1.25 ratio)

Byron Leftwich: 54 TDs, 38 INTs, (1.39 ratio)

Marc Bulger: 117 TDs, 87 INTs, (1.34 ratio)

There's six more, so despite the knocks on his passing game, he has put up better numbers then 13 current starting QBs in the league, without his legs in the factor.

So that makes him average, not horrible as a lot of people claim, but when I was looking up these stats I noticed that his 1.4 ratio is close to some fairly prominent names.

Ben Roethlisberger: 101 TDs, 61 INTs, (1.46 ratio)

Jason Campbell: 35 TDs, 23 INTs, (1.50 ratio)

Jay Cutler: 54 TDs, 37 INTs, (1.45 ratio)

Daunte Culpepper: 146 TDs, 100 INTs, (1.46 ratio)

Matt Ryan: 16 TDs, 11 INTs, (1.45 ratio), he replaced Vick in Atlanta

Jake Delhomme: 115 TDs, 76 INTs, (1.50 ratio)

That's a combined 19 starting QBs currently in the league who Vick is either better than, or can compare with in terms of his pertinent passing production. Around 60 percent.

That's not including his record-setting rushing numbers, an intangible teams would have been salivating over if he had actually managed to hit the open market in a clean, non-dog fighting manner.

The one thing I cannot defend is his completion percentage, which if I did the research, would probably be around the middle, but he still scored at as good a ratio as 2/3 of all QB's in solely the passing game.

Could you imagine the contract? $13 million per year average with Atlanta, and he would have received a substantial raise on the open market. We might have seen a ridiculous $20 million per season offer.

So before you knock Vick for his "lack of passing skills", remember that he stacks up to 2/3 of the current QBs in the league, without his legs.