Keep in Mind, Vick is younger then David Carr, Joey Harrington, and Carson Palmer. He's only months older then Eli Manning, and this was his first year in a system many say takes 3-4 years to get down. In his first season as starter, he won a wild card game & lost in divisional playoffs. In his second season as starter, he won divisional game & lost in NFC Championship game. He lead them to the playoffs twice to a franchise with a long history of losing & not many postseason apperances.
Comparing Michael Vick to John Elway after both QB's first 38 starts:
Vick's first 38 starts:
Passing: 512 of 944 (54.2%) for 6555 yards (6.94 ypa), 36 TDs, 28 interceptions, 76.6 QB Rating
Rushing: 295 attempts, 2133 yards (7.2 ypa), 12 rushing TD
Elway's first 38 starts:
Passing: 693 of 1296 (53.4%) for 8459 yards (6.53 ypa), 49 TDs, 55 interceptions, 68.8 QB Rating
Rushing: 142 attempts, 668 yards (4.7 ypa), 2 rushing TD
Elway accounted for about 20 more passing yards per game, but he also attempted almost 5 more passes per game. Meanwhile, Vick's completion percentage, yards per attempt, and TD/interception ratio were all better. And obviously that doesn't account at all for the huge edge Vick had rushing. I bet people thought Elway was never going to amount to much, with such horrible QB stats?
Vick vs Mcnabb w/o T.O. & w/ T.O.
These are Mcnabb's passing stats for last year without T.O. :
*completed 57.5% of his passes
*6.73 ypa
*16 td
*11 picks
*79.6 passer rating
Now his passing stats with T.O. :
*completed 64% of his passes
*8.26 ypa
*31 td
*8 picks
*104.7 passer rating
Now look at Vicks stats from this year:
*completed 56.4% of his passes
*7.21 ypa
*14 td
*12 picks
*78.1 passer rating
Vick vs Mcnabb w/o T.O. numbers-wise is more then comparable, Vick had the edge in rushing. Give Vick a true #1 WR & his #'s should increase similar to Mcnabb's #'s w/ T.O. Vick in 2002 passed for 2900 yards, but threw 100 more passes then he did in 2004. If he threw 412 times like he did in 2002 then according to ypa he would've thrown for over 3000 yards. If Vick were to play in the New Orleans game & Played the Full game against Seattle instead of just the 1st quarter (meaningless games then was locked at #2 seed) then he would've most likely had over 1000 yards rushing for the season as well.
Vick will get hurt running? Uh, at 6'0, 215 compared to runningbacks he's pretty large in size. He isn't some delicate flower. He is as big as most RBs in the league right now. The odds say that he will add about 5-7 more pounds (minimum) on his frame in the coming years. That would put him over 220 lbs at 6'0 1/2+ frame. That is not small.
A little comaprison, even if Vick were to defy most medical studies and not grow a bit in muscle or fill out even a smidgen:
Willis McGahee 6'0 228
Corey Dillon 6'1 225
DeShaun Foster 6'0 222
Chris Brown 6'3 219
Ahman Green 6'0 218
VICK 6'0 215
Edge James 6'0 214
Priest 5'9 213
Tatum Bell 5'11 213
Marshall Faulk 5'10 211
C-Martin 5'11 210
Bennett 5'9 209
Ju. Jones 5'9 205
Portis 5'11 205
Westbrook 5'10 205
Tiki Barber 5'10 200
Dunn 5'9 180
So we are talking about a guy just as big as Ahman Green and bigger/faster than Edge or Curtis Martin or Portis or Faulk or Priest, etc. Vick is not that tiny, and all medical evidence indicates he will get a little bigger and stronger as well. World class athletes don't start losing speed until a little bit past age 30, Vick has 6 or more years with incredible speed. Not to mention Vick has probably the strongest arm in the league, he's just a freak of nature. He needs to work on his accuracy & improve his passing skills but it will come with time.
