Eagles’ Freak Show Gets Freakier As Reid Flip Flops

Added on Sep 22, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

The developing trainwreck in Philadelphia just got..uh…’wreck-ier’ as head coach Andy Reid flip flopped on his commitment to starter Kevin Kolb in the span of 24 hours. As a NFL ‘rubbernecker’ the entire situation in Philly is downright bizarre and honestly I don’t have a clue what’s going on. All I know is that its not going to end well for this team, at least in the 2010 season.

So let’s backtrack a bit–Kevin Kolb gets his bell rung in the opening game loss to the Green Bay Packers. Michael Vick comes in and rallies the team in relief and has them driving for a potential game winning TD when he’s stopped on 4th and 1 with the clock winding down. After suggesting to the media that Kevin Kolb isn’t ruled out for week 2 despite a concussion Andy Reid eventually relents and starts Vick against Detroit. Vick plays well, but the sum total of the game is a narrow victory over one of the worst teams in the league.

Early this week, Reid tries to derail the developing ‘quarterback controversy’ by confirming that Kolb will start this Sunday at Jacksonville. I prematurely closed the book on the ‘Michael Vick era’ in Philly since 24 hours later Reid made the announcement that Vick would start after all. The latest development today is that the Eagles’ have received phone calls from other teams interested in acquiring Kolb and at the very least they’re not dismissing these inquiries out of hand.

Until now, Andy Reid at the very least can be given credit for understanding that once you make a decision to drastically overhaul your team it’s essential to commit to the process and see it through. While I’m still not 100% clear on why the Eagles felt such an urgent need to get rid of Donovan McNabb, the notion that they wanted to ‘get younger’ across the board is at least a valid concept. Before this week, Reid seemed to get the reality that if you commit to ‘getting younger’ you have to see it through and part of that blueprint is the need for Kolb to grow into his role as an NFL starter.

So Reid’s flip flop on the starting quarterback calls into question his judgement and leadership and retroactively makes the rush to jettison McNabb even more inexplicable. Instead of ‘getting younger’ and committing to their quarterback of the future, the Eagles have replaced a 33 year old quarterback with a solid character and sterling reputation with a 30 year old quarterback fresh out of the ‘gray bar motel’ because he derives pleasure from torturing and killing defenseless creatures. Not that he was much of a character guy or team leader *before* all of that (qv: pot at the Atlanta airport, Ron Mexico, ‘everyone knows how I like to get down’, etc.).

From a football standpoint, it also calls into question whether anyone really *does* have a ‘plan’ for the Eagles. Even Vick’s biggest supporters concede that he’s a unique quarterback and not someone you can ‘plug in’ to an offense built for a traditional NFL signal caller. The way you win with a guy like Vick is to roll the dice and build the offense around him like they did in Atlanta. Even if you buy the questionable notion of a quarterback moving into his 30′s living and dying with his sheer athleticism being a good longterm investment, he’s not in an offense and/or surrounded with personnel that makes him better.

Some have suggested that Reid was swayed by public opinion or was overruled by someone higher up in the organization though he flatly denies both claims. His rationale is tough to buy–the primary argument is that Vick is ‘playing at such a high level’ that the only right thing to do for the greater good of the Eagles’ franchise is to let him start:

“There’s not a thing that changed with Kevin Kolb. This was all about Michael Vick and the way he has played the game. It’s that simple. He has played as outstanding as any quarterback in the league to this point.”

“He exceeded even my expectation. Kevin Kolb has a bright, bright future. My feelings about Kevin haven’t changed one bit. But Michael has surprised all of us with his play.”

An Associated Press story on the move went even further with their assessment of Vick’s play (emphasis added):

Vick gives the Eagles (1-1) a better chance to win in a division that lacks a dominant team. A three-time Pro Bowl pick with Atlanta, Vick is playing at an even higher level now, even though he missed two years and saw limited action last season.

I’ve never been a huge Vick fan, but the notion that he’s somehow revolutionizing the game with his recent play leaves me scratching my head. Credit where credit is due–he’s played well in six quarters of action but its been in circumstances that leave my assessment far short of concluding that he’s playing at the highest level of his career. He came in and surprised a complacent Packers’ defense that thought they had the game in the bag and had prepared for a traditional drop back quarterback in Kolb. He followed that up with a strong performance against Detroit–once again, credit for some improved decision making on Vick’s part but not throwing an interception against the #32 ranked total defense and passing defense from last year isn’t a particularly monumental accomplishment. Detroit only had 9 interceptions all of last year and while they’ve upgraded their defensive front the secondary is still very weak. And despite the fact that he was facing a bad defense, Vick was sacked 6 times against Detroit.

The funny thing is that I’d listen to the case that Vick should be starting at this point. Concussions are nothing to fool around with, so keeping Kolb out of action for a few more weeks isn’t the worst idea. The fact that he’s relying on a horrible offensive line for his survival makes it even sillier to rush him back into action. For all of his faults as a football player, Vick’s elusiveness and experience make him better qualified to deal with a porous offensive line. If the OL allowed Vick to get sacked 6 times by a defense that was #29 in the NFL in that category a year ago, a mobile quarterback becomes a matter of survival and not a gameplan decision.

What I’m not buying is how Reid has handled the entire process–back on September 13 he made this statement that could go down as his version of George Bush’s infamous ‘read my lips…no new taxes’ line:

“Let me say it again. I know I’m using poor English. Kevin Kolb is the No. 1 quarterback.”

You can make a case that Michael Vick gives the Eagles the best chance of winning now, but on a team that has been making every personnel decision for the last six months with an eye toward ‘getting younger’ and developing for the future that’s not necessarily the right move. It remains to be seen how Vick fares against some serious NFL defenses or, for that matter, if it even matters with the Eagles defense not holding up their end of the deal. I don’t see the Eagles finishing above .500 this year even if you buy the argument that Vick is playing at a higher level than he ever has.

The bigger concern is Reid’s control of the football decision making, his players’ trust and confidence in him and his ability to make the tough decisions to build a team that can contend for championships a season or two down the road and not just win a game here and there now. To be a successful NFL coach you need to be willing and able to make decisions that makes the team better in the long term even if that requires taking your lumps in the short term. Reid may have demonstrated this week that he’s not a coach that is able to do that.