Sly Dog: Andy Reid Is Playing the NFL, Kevin Kolb and Michael Vick Like Puppets

Kevin Kolb and Michael Vick have fallen into their places perfectly.

Andy Reid has developed his reputation for knowing quarterbacks so well that an endorsement for Kolb has other teams thinking that’s all they need to hear. But wait a second. What is Reid most known for?

Ask Brain Dawkins, Donavon McNabb and Jeremiah Trotter. Reid is good at replacing players as soon as they turn 30. What does this have to do with Kolb and Vick? Vick is 30. Kolb was the future of the franchise, until he lost his job to Vick last season.

Trading Kolb and keeping Vick goes against everything that Reid has shown us about himself, it goes against the way he handles the business side of this sport, it goes against keeping a young and fresh team.

What does this mean for teams interested in Kolb? Buyer beware. If Reid is going to keep the older player over the young gun that is all teams need to know.

I was confused by the Kolb trade situation, vexed even. Why is Reid going with the older player? If he truly believes what he says, which is that Kolb is a championship quarterback…why get rid of him over the expiring star?

McNabb and Dawkins may be in the Hall of Fame one day, and both were still playing well, but it did not stop Reid from throwing them out.

It wasn’t until Jim Mora mentioned on the NFL Network that the Philadelphia Eagles are a possibility for Jake Locker, then it clicked.

Now the point of this article isn’t to predict or argue if the Eagles are looking to draft Locker. It’s to make sense of what Reid is doing. And it suddenly makes sense!

Vick is the stop-gap, Vick is going to have two to three more good years before he slows down. Just enough time to perfectly develop a new quarterback to take over the franchise once Vick is shown the door.

Kolb has been sentenced as unworthy, Reid has no belief in him whatsoever and is looking to get a first-round draft pick from a team that he can bamboozle.

Final word. Kolb is just like McNabb, he is going to get Reid draft picks and fail wherever he is sent to. And Vick is the stop-gap in Philly, a pretty good stop-gap.

Locker, Christian Ponder, or even Ryan Mallet (Reid loves problem children) will be drafted somewhere early and then slowly developed to take over after Vick.

Andy Reid is the smartest coach in the NFL without a Super Bowl ring.