Michael Vick and the Philadelphia Eagles: How They Should Utilize Him

Mix it up.

Last year, the Philadelphia Eagles had two of the most athletic quarterbacks in the NFL with Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick.

NFL teams can only dream about having the opportunity to utilize two quarterbacks with their talents.

Yes, Michael Vick was coming off a prison sentence and over a year break from pure NFL competition. However, the truth is, Vick was, and still is one of the most athletic football players in the NFL today.

The wildcat formations that the Eagles tried once or twice a game were not enough to use Vick to his full potential. Especially when the same wildcat formation was used every time the Eagles even tried to "trick" the other teams.

The truth is, no team was ever tricked by Philadelphia's use of Vick because Donovan McNabb and Vick were almost never on the field at the same time.

If one of your athletic quarterbacks is on the bench, and the other is behind center, who is going to get the snap?

I'll let you figure that one out.

This year, the Eagles don't have Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick. So, the dream of these two having an unstoppable wildcat offense had potential to become reality, but the Eagles did fail with that experiment.

Now they have Kevin Kolb and Michael Vick. This is a different situation than last year, but there is still a chance for Vick to return to his days of causing nightmares for opposing defensive coordinators about how to stop him.

He has had the past year of training with the Philadelphia Eagles to return his body and reflexes back to game shape and once again make veteran defenders look like rookies.

It's time for the Eagles to give him 15-20 touches per game.

Kevin Kolb is the accurate passer that the Eagles have longed for. He stands strong and will bring poise to Philadelphia for the rest of his long career.

With Kevin Kolb and Michael Vick in the backfield for the Eagles, teams will have to defend against two completely different styles of quarterback play.

Kevin Kolb: The accurate, cool guy in the pocket; and Michael Vick: The athletic gunslinger that can make plays with his feet or his arm.

Giving the ball to Vick 15-20 times per game will make defenses have to respect Vick, while having to respect the accuracy and poise of Kolb.  Let's hope that the Philadelphia Eagles unleash this deadly duo.

The utilization and presence of Vick will allow for Kolb to be more effective and able to quickly get the ball to the talented receivers such as Desean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Jason Avant, and Brent Celek; without question.

Another aspect of the Eagle's offense which will be improved is the running game.  Philadelphia's running backs like Lesean McCoy, Mike Bell, and one of the biggest steals of this year's NFL Draft, Charles Scott, will have limitless options receiving the ball out of the backfield. 

Lesean McCoy is the lightning that the Eagles love in a pass-catching, outside-the tackle-runner, back. The Bell and Scott combination is the thunder that will run teams into the ground.

The Eagles coaching staff can have a field day preparing all the prolific packages and formations that will have opposing defenses clueless.

Michael Vick is an important piece. 

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