In a surprise to no one who has seen the Philadelphia Eagles this preseason, Michael Vick officially was named the team’s starting quarterback by first-year coach Chip Kelly over Nick Foles.
Vick, least of all, was surprised.
“I think I proved I could be consistent every day and be a leader on this team,” Vick said. “I’m going to take the same approach, the same mindset. I know how hard I worked over the last four months. It would be a shame if I let up. It would be selfish, to myself and my teammates.”
As a bonus for Vick, literally, his $3.5 million base salary will be guaranteed if he is the Week 1 starter, and his $500,000 roster bonus will be assured after the season begins, a league source told ESPN.
Not only that, but Vick could earn up to another $1.5 million in incentives such as: $500,00 for playing 50 percent of snaps; $700,000 if he plays 60 percent of the plays; $1 million for 70 percent; $1.2 million for 80 percent; and $1.5 million for taking 90 percent of the snaps.
Vick has run Kelly’s so-called go-go offense with great efficiency, completing 13 of 15 passes (86.7 percent) for 199 yards, one touchdown and one interception — which came on a Hail Mary at the end of a half.
“We’ve evaluated the situation and Michael Vick is going to start for us against the Washington Redskins,” Kelly said. “He’ll get the predominant amount of reps today in practice and he’ll play, hopefully, our plan is for him to play two quarters in Jacksonville.
“What we do is dependent on who the quarterback is,” Kelly added. “Part of getting a guy in place a couple weeks before the first game is finding out what he’s real comfortable doing and really getting some feedback from him. Maybe in some situations the quarterbacks aren’t going to tell you what they like and don’t like when there is an evaluation going on. They may think the evaluation is part of them liking or not liking something.”
Although he said he believed he earned the job, “Anytime you get called into the coach’s office, you get butterflies,” Vick said.
“Mike and I had a great battle,” Foles said. “Nothing is going to change between me and Mike. We’re going to continue to push each other.”
“They both played at a high level,” Kelly said. “I just think that Mike played at a higher level.”
