Michael Vick: “My Ambition is to be one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL in the next couple of years”
October 24, 2009 – 10:05 am by Bunk
Michael Vick has pretty lofty goals for a guy that has thrown five passes and completed just one of them for a grand total of a yard. When Roger Goodell decided to give Michael Vick a second chance in the NFL, the Eagles scooped him up and people touted him as just another weapon being added to an already explosive offense. However, that hasn’t been the case yet for the former first overall pick. There’s no question the time away from the league hurt Vick and nobody really expected him to turn right back into the human highlight reel that he was in Atlanta, but Vick is hardly even seeing the field for Philadelphia.
While he was one of the most dynamic players in the NFL, I never thought Vick was all that good of a quarterback. Don’t get me wrong, he was tons of fun to watch, he was extremely fast, unbelievably athletic, tremendous in the open field and defenses held their breath every time he broke the pocket. Despite the fact that he could make plays with his legs and despite the fact that he had one of the strongest arms in the league, he was entirely too inaccurate for my liking and I never thought he was as good as he was hyped up to be. I think Vick has an uphill battle in front of him to return to the form that he showed in Atlanta a few years ago. However, thanks to the Eagles and Roger Goodell, Vick will get the opportunity to prove me and all the doubters wrong. That is of course if he could get on the field and maybe complete his second pass of the season. One that goes for more than a yard.
Michael Vick joined Coach and Doc on the John Thompson show on ESPN 980 in Washington D.C for his first radio interview since coming to the Eagles to talk about his biggest adjustment coming back to the NFL, what he thinks is his best position in the NFL, what his workout habits were like in prison and how he is developing in Philadelphia.
-Chris Fedor
On the biggest adjustment for him since his return to the NFL:
“The biggest adjustment that I had to make was within myself to get myself back into playing shape. I thought it was going to be easy. I thought I was going to be able to pick up right where I left off. Being in Kansas, not having the type of training that I needed to have, being lazy in a sense because I was down most of the time, I didn’t work out as much as I was supposed to, and it took me month to get back down to 210 pounds. I came into camp at 222 pounds. I just had to work at it and the biggest adjustment was probably getting the weight off my body”
On the position he is most comfortable in:
“It’s definitely quarterback. That’s what I was born to do, I’m natural at it and I know how to play the game. Despite what we’re doing now, my ambition is to be one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL in the next couple of years.”
On how he dealt with prison:
“All I could do was look forward to the day they would release me. It was times that I was there and I was supposed to leave at certain times. I could’ve been out a lot earlier. Somehow they system just didn’t work that out for me. There were a lot of times where I was down. I had to continue to just look forward to my last day. I just wanted to get it all over with and maintain my sanity. My family helped me do that. It was rough, I trained at night, but it wasn’t on a consistent basis.”
On getting comfortable again in the NFL:
“I’m getting back to the comfort level of where I was when I left. I think I’m actually a tad bit better now because of what I’ve been taught through our offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg and how he’s helping me develop as a passer. Before that, when I was in Kansas, I didn’t have a chance to throw the ball in two years. Other than one flag football game we did have early on. Other than that it wasn’t until I got here until I was able to throw and over the course of the summer.”
On his mindset:
“Well, we haven’t discussed the plan and we haven’t put a timetable on it. We just want to play it game-by-game. Just go game-by-game and see what happens, see what comes about of it and just work hard every week in practice and prepare like I’m going to play a full game. That’s just the mindset right now because you never know when you’re opportunity to come about.”
Listen here to Vick on ESPN 980 in Washington D.C
Tags: 980 ESPN, Donovan McNabb, Michael Vick, Michael Vick in the wild cat, Philadelphia Eagles, will michael vick be a starting quarterbac again?
