One question that faced the Philadelphia Eagles as they make final preparations for the 2011 season was: “What to do with Michael Vick?” On Monday night, the Eagles answered the lingering question, by inking their franchise quarterback to a long term extension.
After weeks of negotiations with Agent Joel Segal, the Philadelphia Eagles have agreed to terms on a six-year contract extension with franchise quarterback Michael Vick.
The deal signed by Vick on Monday night according to league sources is worth $100 million with $40 million in guarantees. Additionally the contract is not backloaded, which means that there is a legitimate chance that Vick (31) will earn between $16-$17 million per season over the life of the deal.
From a strictly pride perspective, Vick — career starting record of 46-31-1 as a starter — can now take solace in the fact that he is among the top three highest paid quarterbacks in the National Football League. He now is being paid like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning as the Birds have hitched their wagon to the “Michael Vick Experience” for the next six years.
Before his shiny new deal, Vick — career passing numbers 1169-2115, 55.3%, 14609 yards, 93 TDs, and 58 TDs with 4630 yards and 32 TDs rushing — was playing under the team’s franchise player tag with a cap number of $16 million this season. Which gave the Eagles a window until September 20th to extend him to a long term deal or allow him to play out this season on the franchise tag.
In 2010, Vick took over the reins of the Eagles offense in the third quarter of the season opener against the Packers in relief of Kevin Kolb who left the game with a concussion. The 9-year veteran signal caller finished the 2010 season with a career-best 3,018 yards, 21 touchdowns, six interceptions with an additional 676 yards and 9 TDs rushing in only 11 starts (8-3 record). He also made his 4th Pro Bowl after being name the starter for the NFC in the annual league All-Star game.
The former 2001 NFL Draft first overall pick ‘s signing to this massive extension, truly shows his “redemption” after serving an 18-month prison sentence for dog fighting. Vick, who is only 298 yards shy of breaking former Eagles great Randall Cunningham’s NFL QB rushing yards record, will now more than likely end his career as a Philadelphia Eagle.
Which is a mighty long way from the firestorm of reaction that accompanied his signing back in August 2009. Remember Eagles owner Jeffrey Luries saying at the time of Vick’s signing, “This took a lot of soul searching for me. I was asked to approve Michael Vick joining a very proud organization several days ago. Sometimes in life you have to make extremely difficult and soul-searching decisions where there is no right answer”.
Now hopefully, just “maybe” everyone will concentrate on “Michael Vick the football player” and put his troubled past behind him, as clearly the Philadelphia Eagles have done.
Leftovers
D-Jax Next in Line — It is unclear as of yet what the salary cap implications of this Vick’s extension are for the Eagles. But initial thoughts are that team GM Howie Roseman, HC Andy Reid, and Executive Joe Banner now have the cap flexibility to work on a long-term extension with dynamic 4th-year receiver DeSean Jackson and his agent Drew Rosenhaus. Jackson is in the final year of his rookie deal and set to make just $600,000 in 2011. And the speedy receiver already had held out for the early part of training camp in hopes of a new deal.
Matt Lombardo is a reporter and host for 97.3 ESPN in Atlantic City, NJ. Matt can be reached on Twitter @MattLombardoPHL
Lloyd Vance is the Editor for Taking It to the House , who is also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA). Lloyd can be reached on Twitter @lloydvance_nfl
Taking it to the House 
Good post. This is definitely a risky move on the part of the Eagles. Vick is obviously known as one of the least durable QB’s in the league because of his scrambling ways. He takes hard hits and the bigger those hits are the harder a player falls. Vick isn’t a big guy and you wonder if as he gets older can he handle the punishment he takes on a weekly basis. With that being said, you can’t fault the Eagles for giving him that much money. I mean, Larry Fitzgerald did get $50 million guaranteed. In the end though, as a fan, I’m just happy that Michael Vick is playing at a high level once again and I hope that he can stay healthy in the future. Also, could you take a quick peek at my blog because I would love to know what you think http://chrisross91.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/vicktory-for-the-eagles/