The Andy Reid-Michael Vick Connection

National Football Post

QUOTE: “There are no second acts in American lives.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

I had a thought. About two weeks ago, Jason La Canfora, my friend and colleague at NFL Network, reported that Andy Reid and the Eagles would be talking contract extension since Reid’s current deal expires after the 2010 season.

All this was before the Michael Vick signing last week, and before the Jeffrey Lurie press conference, where the owner looked tormented over his decision and admitted that he was not in favor of the move—in the beginning.

So this was my thought: Does Andy Reid’s ability to get his contract extended lie in the hands and behavior of Michael Vick?

If the Vick experiment fails off the field, does it mean that Andy doesn’t get a contract extension? Or do the Eagles just want to wait until after the season to determine their success and the direction of labor progress with the players?

I promise, this is my last Vick column, but there are a couple of points to clean up before we all move along. The first one is the Reid contract.

And the second is this notion about how Donovan McNabb and Vick will be on the field at the same time running gadget plays all over the place, rekindling memories of when we were kids playing in the streets.

Let’s deal with Vick the gadget player first. Vick is a quarterback, McNabb is a quarterback, and for both of them to be effective, they each need to play quarterback.

This is not to imply that there may not be times when Vick and McNabb are on the field together, but after the first week of this, everyone will get the hang of things, and the novelty and effectiveness will wear off.

So what will happen?

For me, it seems that Reid will have to put in 8-12 plays a week in the Eagles’ regular offense, whether it’s in the form of two minute offense or the wildcat, with Vick under center and McNabb on the sideline.

Vick would be like a sixth man in basketball—and Reid would have to sell the idea to McNabb that he needs a little rest—but once the defensive line is tired of chasing Vick around for eight plays, McNabb goes back in the game against a tired defensive line to work his passing magic.

Makes sense to me, and if I were McNabb I would love it. Think of Vick as a change-of-pace player, similar to what you see in basketball—someone who changes the tempo of the game and gives the defense another wrinkle to prepare and practice for.

Vick must run the Eagles’ offense with a Vick “flair.” He should not have plays designed specifically for him because unique plays don’t give the offense a dependable option. Vick’s plays must be rooted in the Eagles’ core offense.

As for Reid, does Lurie give this man a contract extension before he has a better handle on where the Vick experiment is headed? Does he commit more years and more money to Reid, a coach who has won more than 100 games and brought the Eagles back to their glory days?

Does he extend Reid’s general manager authority since Reid is essentially making every personnel decision in the organization?

Or does he do the same thing with Reid that he’s doing with Vick, which is to pay as he goes, and not commit until after more time has passed, gaining a better sense of what direction this experiment might go?

My sense is that the Eagles will sit tight and wait until after the season to get a sense of exactly what they’re dealing with on two fronts—the success of the team and the success of the Vick experiment.

Waiting is the right move. There are too many variables right now to make a huge commitment to Reid for the future, especially since he has two more years left on his current deal.

The move to not extend doesn’t imply that the team isn’t happy with his work; it just implies that they’re honoring their commitment to Reid. The lack of an extension now doesn’t imply they won’t eventually extend—it just means not right now.

There are a zillion questions about this 2009 Eagles team. The one prevailing thought I had the other day as I listened to Lurie talk about Vick was that he can separate his decision-making ability.

He has a broader thought process about how each move intertwines with the other, and therefore, based on that ability as the leader of the Eagles, he will do the prudent thing and just wait.

It’s taken me a long time in life to learn that waiting is never a bad option.

Follow me on Twitter: michaelombardi

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