NFL

Reported 4-Game Suspension Would Add to Michael Vick's Problems

Posted Jul 23, 2009 8:32PM By JJ Cooper (RSS feed)

Filed Under: NFL Rumors, NFL Quarterbacks

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Michael VickIf the reports that Michael Vick is facing a four-game suspension play out, his already difficult job of convincing a team to sign him just got tougher.

Throw aside the concerns about the public relations hit a team would take for signing Vick. Just on purely football grounds, it's tough to sign him with the knowledge he'll miss four games. If Vick was a wide receiver, a running back or a defensive back it wouldn't be that big a deal. He'd sit out the four games, then work his way back as a backup who could eventually challenge for a starting job.

But as a quarterback, things are a whole lot tougher.

Several teams only carry two quarterbacks on their active roster, while those that carry three usually have a pretty firm pecking order: you have the starting quarterback, the veteran backup and the young developmental QB. A four-game suspension wipes out any chance Vick had of being a team's starter coming out of training camp, and he's obviously not going to be an inexpensive No. 3 QB either.

So his best bet if he wants to sign right now is to land with a team as a veteran backup. If he is suspended for four games, a team signing him won't have to worry about finding a roster spot for him until after the suspension is over. But during those four weeks, he will also not be allowed to participate in practice or team meetings. So when he comes back, the team will have to either clear a roster spot for him to carry an extra quarterback in the short term (until the team believes Vick is ready to be the primary backup) or cut whoever was filling in as the backup and hope Vick can get up to speed extremely quickly.

It's not an impossible scenario, but it seems to be an even better fit for Vick to wait and see what team has a quarterback injury. By the end of Week Four last year the Chiefs had already seen two of their top three quarterbacks go down and were talking to Daunte Culpepper, the Patriots knew they would be without Tom Brady for the rest of the year and the Lions had quarterbacks running out of the back of the end zone. It wasn't too many weeks later that Carson Palmer was done and the Bengals were throwing Ryan Fitzpatrick to the wolves every week. If Vick wants an assured paycheck, it's probably best to latch on with some team quickly. But if he wants to find a team that will give him a chance to show he can still play, it might be best to wait a little while.

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