Though Eagles coach Andy Reid reportedly was “likely” to bench quarterback Mike Vick, Reid ultimately didn’t. According to Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports, Vick believed that some assistant coaches wanted the change to be made from Vick to Nick Foles.
On Saturday, both Reid and Vick denied that account.
“I don’t know where that would come from,” Reid told reporters. “That’s not the case. Everybody is on board with Michael.”
“Is on board” is different from “was on board.” It could be that the assistant coaches weren’t on board, but that they were told they’d better get on board, or they’d be getting off board, permanently.
Vick was a bit stronger in his denial. “That’s absolutely false,” Vick said, via comments distributed by the team. “Coach [Reid] and I never had that conversation. Everything we talked about in that room was personal; it was man-to-man. But that never came up.”
More importantly, Vick said he doesn’t care if they think he should be benched.
“Not at all,” Vick said. “My coaches do a great job of getting me prepared; putting me in the best position possible and I’ve got nothing but the upmost [sic] respect for them and they know that without me even having to say that on camera.”
All of it is talk unless and until the Eagles start winning games. If they do, the talk will die down -- until they start losing again. If they don’t, it will likely end up being a lot more than talk.