Eagles HC Chip Kelly realized that in order to win over the players he has in the locker room, he had to hang onto QB Michael Vick and give him a chance to win the team’s starting quarterback job. Most of the guys on the roster consider Vick to be the best quarterback that they have. That may or may not be true, but Vick is the only quarterback on the roster who has ever done anything on the NFL level.
If Kelly had come in and cut Vick, it would have sent a signal to the rest of the squad that he was sacrificing the next couple of years. In order to win their confidence, Kelly had to convince the other players he was trying to win now. Keeping Vick sent that message.
“You want to talk about our players buying in? If I went in the locker room and said this is going to be a really good year for us to get ready for the following year, that’s not going to work,” Kelly said during last month Philly Mag’s Birds 24/7. “No one has a mindset like that. So our decision isn’t based upon what is the future two years down the road, three years down the road. I don’t think that far.”
The general consensus coming out of camp among the beat writers is Nick Foles is ahead in this race. Vick, apparently, is struggling to pick up the system and Foles has been a much better decision maker. Preseason games will likely still play a factor in Kelly's final decision, but whomever wins the job will be nothing better than a late-round QB2 fantasy option until we see more of this offense.
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