Are The Eagles Making A Mistake Letting Michael Vick Walk?

Dec 15, 2013; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick (7) against the Minnesota Vikings at Mall of America Field at H.H.H. Metrodome. The Vikings defeated the Eagles 48-30. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

Tomorrow at 4PM ET, Eagles quarterback Michael Vick is set to hit the free agent market as it was reported late last week by CBS Sports that the Eagles would not bring him back. Teams like the Jets, Vikings, and Raiders have been thrown around as teams who could be interested in signing Vick, but you have to wonder if the Eagles are making a mistake letting the quarterback walk. Should they be going the extra mile to bring back Vick to backup quarterback Nick Foles?

Vick would obviously like to start once again next season and feels like he can be a starting quarterback in this league. He would like turn his career around as his last couple of years in Philadelphia have been shaky at best.

The Eagles already have a starting quarterback in place with quarterback Nick Foles, but what if he were to go down. Can the Eagles really expect Matt Barkley to go in and succeed? Vick certainly has a history of injuries, but what about Foles? Foles got hurt in week seven against the Cowboys last season with a concussion forcing Vick to play against the Giants, and previously fractured his hand in 2012. Whether or not we can label him as injury prone or not is uncertain, but he if something is certain, its that he is developing a record.

With the backup quarterback position becoming more and more important in the NFL, it might be a good idea for the Eagles to go the extra mile to bring back Vick, who knows Chip Kelly’s system and can continue to help develop Barkley.

The Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, and St. Louis Rams all learned the importance of having a solid backup quarterback after all of their starting quarterbacks went down with injuries last season. The Bears luckily had Josh McCown in place, who could now earn a big pay day, the Rams had Kellen Clemens, who at least knew the offensive system, but as for the Packers, they struggled with Matt Flynn and Scott Tolzien and still somehow made the playoffs.

The NFL is a quarterback driven league, and if you don’t have a backup quarterback who can come in and make plays, you are as good as dead if your starter goes down. Not very often do you get a Tom Brady or Kurt Warner who comes out of nowhere and shocks the world.

With that said, the Eagles may want to consider paying Vick, a quarterback who knows the system, a little more just to be safe in the case that Foles does get hurt. They may be glad they did later down the road.

The Eagles may be making a mistake letting Vick walk, but only time will tell. The Eagles are giving Vick his wish as he wants to start, and that’s not going to happen in Philadelphia after the season that Foles had throwing for 27 touchdowns and two interceptions.

The Eagles could also draft another quarterback late in the draft, but that wouldn’t make sense as they just drafted Barkley last year. It has also been reported by Jason La Canfora that the Eagles are going to look at the veteran quarterbacks available on the market.

Vick’s time in Philadelphia is most likely over which could come as a relief to many Eagles fans, but that doesn’t mean the Eagles shouldn’t be trying harder to bring him back. The Michael Vick experiment was good while it lasted, but that’s may be just what it was, an experiment.