Michael Vick says he can start, but will anyone sign him?
At a charity golf tournament this past weekend, Michael Vick was asked if he can still be a starter in the NFL.
“Absolutely,” he said, according to the Washington Times. “Yeah, I do.”
The only problem is that it’s June and nobody has even signed him to be a backup.
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Forget the starter talk; it’s an uncomfortable question and Vick can only answer it one way. But Vick can’t feel too good about still not being with a team in early June, with his 35th birthday coming up on June 26. Especially at quarterback, it’s not a position that ideally you’d like to plug in a guy you just signed. The position is a little more complicated than that. So it’s fair to wonder if maybe this is it for one of the league’s most fascinating players.
The Seattle Seahawks seemed to be a possible destination, but then the Seahawks re-signed Tarvaris Jackson this week. And any other team you can name could have signed Vick at any point this offseason, brought him in to learn the offense and got him some work in OTAs, but declined. Vick’s mediocre play last season, and the couple seasons before that, can’t be helping.
Vick spent last season with the New York Jets, after spending the five previous years with the Philadelphia Eagles. Of course he has had one of the most interesting careers in recent NFL history: the amazing plays, the extreme highs and lows with the Atlanta Falcons, the prison time for his involvement in dog fighting, the re-emergence and nearly an MVP award with the Eagles, and then the steady descent into the world of a backup. Vick played in 10 games last year, starting three, and had a rating of just 68.3.
Vick said last weekend that in some ways he’s probably a better quarterback now than he was during his athletic prime.
“I’m probably not as good an athlete as I was back then, but I make up for it mentally,” Vick said, according to the Washington Times. “So now, it’s the total package. I’m still strong, still fast, still quick. Those are my intangibles, and I’ve got to continue to use them.”
Vick isn’t the same guy he was years ago, when he was one of the game’s must-watch players, but it’s still a little surprising he’s unemployed. A lot of teams have shaky quarterback situations. However, at this point Vick might be waiting on an injury or someone to have a really bad preseason performance to get another NFL job. His name will be thrown out there by the media every time a team has a crisis at quarterback, at least until he’s signed. Or maybe that call doesn’t come at all.
It’s hard to imagine one of the NFL’s most talked-about careers is going to simply end this quietly. But for now, Vick sits and waits for a call, without any clear options to play again.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
