Has Donovan McNabb dug his own grave?

From the start I wasn’t thrilled with the signing of Michael Vick. I knew that despite any upside that a tremendous athlete like Vick could offer the team, there would be a hefty price to pay in the form of horrendous PR and non-stop distractions. So far, I think that prediction has been fairly accurate.

After the initial shock set in, it seemed like everyone’s biggest question was how and why the signing of Michael Vick started at the suggestion of Donovan McNabb. It just didn’t make sense. Nearly a month later, it still doesn’t. But we now have confirmation that it was indeed McNabb who proposed the signing in the first place. Here is an excerpt from his August 16 blog post.

In mid-July before training camp started, I asked Coach Reid if we would be interested in having Michael join the Eagles and explained why I thought it would be good for both Michael and the team (Andy and I have an understanding that we will never discuss the details of our private exchanges). There was another time during camp where the subject was brought up again by me. It was not until Kevin Kolb was injured last Monday that I was given any indication that something might happen with Michael.

Why though, would McNabb seemingly put his own career on the line to help out Vick? First of all, this puts four quarterbacks on the roster, and the Eagles front office has kept any decision on keeping all four just as silent as the process of signing Vick was. But not only is the number of quarterbacks a big question, but also the anticipation of what message would be heard from the impatient voice of the Philadelphia faithful.

It is still a viable question. What happens if Donovan McNabb has a poor drive? If he has a stretch where he goes 5-for-10 with an interception, won’t the Lincoln Financial Field crowd be chanting for Vick? If his reception upon entering last week’s pre-season game is any indication, the answer is probably yes.

Now although I didn’t agree with the Vick signing in the first place, I must admit that since the day he signed, he’s done almost everything right. For the most part he has kept his mouth shut, done what he’s been asked to do, and worked his tail rear end off in conditioning for NFL play. His legs don’t seem to be there quite yet, but his arm sure does. In last Thursday’s pre-season game he was 4-for-4 for 19 yards. Granted two of those “passes” were shovel passes or glorified hand-offs, his bullet pass to Hank Baskett was impressive, especially after seeing Donovan alternate his incomplete passes either a foot over the head of the intended receiver, or at their feet.

Could Donovan McNabb be regretting the decision to lobby for Michael Vick? (UPI/John Anderson)

As long as these two quarterbacks are on the roster, the fans and the media will create a controversy for the starter’s job, even if the Eagles don’t consider that to be the case. The most recent development in this confusing mystery is that last Thursday a frustrated McNabb paced the sidelines motioning to cut off the Vick experiment. At that point Vick had been on the field for six plays and had seen his last action of the night, although we didn’t know that for sure at the time. The perplexed look on Vick’s face as McNabb lobbied to the coaching staff to flip the switch to “off,” was pretty representative of everyone who was watching the game.

It was clear that Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb had two different agendas. Reid, like most of the fans and media, wanted to see what Vick could do without a red jersey on, while McNabb wanted to see what his offense, including the makeshift front line could accomplish against Jacksonville’s first-team defense.

This brings us back to the original question. Why would McNabb have brought Vick here in the first place if he had such a problem with Vick seeing action? What position did he think Vick was going to play here? If this early on McNabb admits that trying Vick out is a deterrent to the development of the offense and is a distraction, what are we all in for in the regular season? Is the sensitive quarterback going to stamp his feet and throw a fit on the sidelines if Vick is actually successful in the regular season, in what is anticipated to be limited action once he is eligible?

The Eagles most likely have plays for Vick that no one will see in the pre-season. Reid has made it clear that he does not want to reveal how he will use Vick until he’s ready to unleash that weapon when games count. So if the six plays we saw last week weren’t even how the Eagles truly intend to use Vick and it created a big distraction, it seems like those distractions will get worse before they get better when Vick is cleared to play in the regular season. Due to injury this team has some huge question marks already. A quarterback controversy, or a feud between McNabb and the Eagles’ decision to play Vick will only make matters worse.