Eagles quarterback Mike Vick had a hard time staying healthy in Andy Reid’s offense. Vick could have an even harder time staying healthy in Chip Kelly’s offense.
That was Chargers linebacker Dwight Freeney’s biggest takeaway after facing the Eagles on Sunday.
“The problem is with that offense, to be honest with you, is the quarterback position and the pounding the quarterback
takes with that and it’s not college anymore,” Freeney tells Erik Kuselias in an interview to be aired Thursday on NBCSN’s Pro Football Talk. “And it’s going to be very interesting to see if a team can actually have a starting quarterback or backup quarterback last through the whole entire year with this type of athlete -- not a college athlete -- you’re talking about a guy who may be 300 pounds, running a 4.8-whatever it is, hitting your quarterback every time he carries out a fake, whether he has the ball or not. Will the quarterback to be able to last the whole year? That’s the question.”
In Freeney’s opinion, the answer to that question will be no.
“They don’t really stress protection,” Freeney said. “They stress more or less, you know what, we’re going to confuse, this, that and the other.”
And they’re always going to move fast. Very fast. So fast that a nine-play drive that tied Sunday’s game against the Chargers late took only 80 seconds off the clock -- and left 111 for the Chargers to drive down the field and win it.
But it’s still not as fast as Kelly would like. If the Eagles can cram in more plays, and if Vick and receiver DeSean Jackson can connect on a few more long throws, the man who threw for 428 yards on 58 snaps against San Diego could throw for over 600 yards.
If he can remain in one piece.