I watched almost all the Falcons games last year, unfortunately, and some of the them from the soul-sucking Georgia Dome. There was enough blame to go around for the Falcons last year. Vick was occasionally brilliant and more often awful, but the receivers were almost uniformly terrible. When Vick did throw nice passes the receivers would just let them thunk off their hands.
An incredible talent with possibly the greatest raw talent ever at his position that yielded just about nothing.
At this point I don't think anyone knows what's wrong with Vick. There's the Idiot Theory, of course, which is that he's just too stupid to play QB in the NFL. Some of the things he's done in his personal life have not exactly helped to refute that argument. There's the Ball Rotation/No Touch Theory, which is that if your receivers are crummy, and you get all new receivers and the new ones are crummy too, and you get new receivers again and THOSE are crummy, then at that point you look at the guy throwing the ball. Maybe there's something about the way he throws -- he's a lefty, he throws too hard, something -- that makes it difficult to catch the football. There's the Coaching Theory, which is that nobody can quite figure out what to do with him. This theory gets credence because he was actually doing pretty well when playing for Dan Reeves, before regressing mightily under Jim Mora and the West Coast Offense. (Which makes sense -- if there's one system in which you wouldn't want a guy like Vick, it's a system that demands precision passing and timing from the QB.)
I largely subscribe to the Too Short Theory, which is that he's got all the speed in the world and a fantastic arm, but he just can't see well enough over the line to be effective in the pocket. He's at his best on the run, whether it's throwing the ball or scrambling downfield, and that's just not something that works well in an NFL offense. I also think there's some truth to the Just Not A Leader Theory (probably a subset of the Idiot Theory), which is that he doesn't really have the personality to shoulder a team, take charge of and responsibility for the situation and, well, be a man about it. He wants to just show up and play and go home, and unfortunately that doesn't work when you're Michael Vick.
To be successful he's going to need two things: an offensive wunderkind as a coach who can figure out how to use his obvious talents (and minimize his equally manifest weaknesses), and a couple of receivers who can bail him out by not only making the routine catches, but the occasional great grab of some of his erratic throws. Thus far he hasn't had either.
This year is it for him in Atlanta. I honestly think that the Falcons would have tried to trade him after the water-bottle thing if it wouldn't have absolutely killed their salary cap; supposedly after next year it wouldn't be such a bad hit as to make moving him unthinkable. They've brought Petrino in to be the Offensive Genius to figure out how to use him, and supposedly Vick is going to be given the keys to the car -- he's going to be able to audible more, the press is reporting. If it doesn't work this year, I think the Falcons will officially call the Vick Experiment a failure, cut their losses, and move him. Unfortunately the Raiders will have drafted Jamarcus Russell by then, so will there be any takers?
Bah. I can't believe I've written so much about Mike Vick, of all people, in the middle of March. I REALLY REALLY need football season to start up again already.
