The Philadelphia Eagles' Right Choice: Mike Vick or Kevin Kolb?

The Situation

The Philadelphia Eagles season officially kicked off Sunday and already the team finds itself as a top storyline on every sports radio and television network across the country.

The team traded away Donovan McNabb, the face of the franchise for the last decade, earlier in the off-season. The organization said they were preparing for the future and planned to utilize the young talent on the team. How did that work out? After one week, two words are threatening the future of the organization: quarterback controversy.

When McNabb was traded, the front office assured everybody that Kevin Kolb was the most accurate quarterback they had ever seen. They said he had been groomed and now it was his time to shine. Unfortunately, his performance was awfully dull after the first half of the Eagles week one game against the Packers.

Kolb managed to complete only five out of 10 passes for a pathetic 24 yards. He had no touchdowns and threw two passes which should have been interceptions that Packer defenders dropped. He was also sacked two times. The second sack by Clay Matthews caused him to sustain a concussion that would ultimately lead to his removal from the game.

At the start of the fourth quarter the Eagles trailed 27-10. Mike Vick was thrown into the game and nearly lead an Eagles comeback, but the team would eventually fall short for a 27-20 loss. Vick ended the game with 278 total yards and a passing touchdown. It is also important to point out that the majority of this yardage was obtained in the second half alone.

Needless to say, the controversy has begun.

One month ago, NFL Network analyst Deion Sanders was interviewed on Philadelphia's 97.5 FM. When asked about Kolb he said, "He's filling in for McNabb. And secondly, Mike Vick is behind this man. You know in your cars it says, 'Objects in mirror are closer than they appear'? The first bad pass he throws, those wonderful, valedictorian-type fans … those wonderful fans are going to be chanting, 'Vick, Vick, Vick' on the second play of the game if he throws an errant, bad pass."

Well good job Eagles fans. This is a man who many of you have hated for years, and you just made him look like a genius.

So now what does the Eagle's organization do? Fans are calling for Vick, but Kolb was supposed to be the future. A case can be made for both and each have their share of positives and negatives.

Mike Vick

Mike Vick is the pretty girl at the party that everybody wants to dance with, but nobody wants to date. She may look good, but she lacks the attributes that would make her a good partner.

Mike Vick may put on a fantastic show. He'll make moves that will be on Sportscenter the next morning, but at the end of the day he is still inconsistent, inaccurate, and aging. If you want something fun, fast, and furious but short term, then Vick is the answer. He could easily lead this team to the playoffs, and could even potentially make a run for the Superbowl.

Best case scenario is Vick leads the Eagles to the playoffs and scores the game winning touchdown in the Superbowl on a 80 yard run with 30 seconds left in the game. Is it possible? Well, anything is possible. Is it probable? Not at all. If Vick starts, the Eagles will get a solid performance out of him and probably a playoff berth.

But then what? He gets traded away or released in the off-season and suddenly the Eagles are left with nothing.

It comes down to the question of what is more important, the present or the future. If you think that the team needs to win now then Vick needs to start. He will win more games and he has proved he is the better football player at this point in his career.

If you think that the team needs to look at the future, then the last thing needed is an even more inconsistent version of Donovan McNabb.

Kevin Kolb

Kolb played one half against the Packers and was able to sustain very little offense.

The majority of Philadelphia seems to be blaming him for everything. But why is he to blame and not the coaching staff? It doesn't matter if the quarterback is Kolb, Vick, Brady, Manning, or even Randall Cunningham. It is nearly impossible for a quarterback to sustain any sort of momentum when he is being pulled out of the game every other play because the coaches want to run the wildcat.

When Kolb is put into the game in third and long situations that weren't his own doing how can fans throw stones at him when he fails to convert? Kolb shouldn't have been put into the bad situations he found himself in during the entire first half of that game.

Last season Kolb showed fantastic upside in his two starts against the Chiefs and Saints. This is only Kolb's third start; there will be growing pains. Nobody expected Kolb to lead the Eagles to the Superbowl this year, it was supposed to be a process.

If Kolb is given his opportunity the the Eagles could be poised for a Superbowl three years down the road. If Vick is given the start, where will the Eagles be three years from now? Probably nowhere, which means that the team's young talent (DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, LeSean McCoy, Brent Celek) will have all gone to waste.

This season the Philadelphia Eagles may go 6-10 with Kevin Kolb. With Mike Vick they may go 9-7 and have an early loss in the playoffs. Either way chances are this team is not winning the Superbowl. The team needs to focus on the future.

Time for a little fun trivia. In his first four starts, what quarterback completed 55% of his passes along with 3 touchdowns and 11 interceptions?

Think about it. Think. Got it? Did you guess Peyton Manning? That's right, Manning, in his first four games, looked much worse than Kolb has.

That's not to say Kolb is going to be Manning. He probably won't be, but he needs to be given a chance. You can't judge a quarterback's career after his first few starts.

The Answer

There isn't one. No matter who is chosen there will be backlash from the Philadelphia fan base.

People will be mad if Kolb starts, and people will be mad if Vick starts. The organization has dug its own hole on this one. There is only one possible solution that will work. Kolb remains as the starter and comes out throwing for 400 yards and 5 touchdowns in his next game.

Suddenly the fans will shut up and give the man a chance. However, it's probably safe to say this won't happen, so let the controversy continue.