When the Eagles signed Mike Vick last August, we believe that their primary goal was to determine, via exclusive access to Vick during practices and meetings, whether he could be the successor to Donovan McNabb. At that time, the jury was still out regarding Kevin Kolb, who looked like anything but the future starter in November 2008, when he entered a game against the Ravens after McNabb was benched.
After Kolb proved in back-to-back starts arising from a Week One broken rib suffered by McNabb that the 2007 second-rounder can get it done, reports emerged that Vick would be one and done in Philly. The timing wasn’t coincidental, in our view. We believed that the Eagles had seen enough to know that, if McNabb were to leave after the 2009 season, Kolb would get the nod moving forward.
Thus, Philly’s original plan likely was to trade both McNabb and Vick. Now, amid reports that the Eagles are keeping Vick, the man who first reported that Vick would leave Philly after a single season reports that Vick remains available. Per Paul Domowitch of the Philadelphia Daily News, the Eagles still hope to trade the man whose arrival last August was nearly as jarring as Donovan’s departure.
Domowitch points out that, if the Eagles can’t trade Vick, they would still bring in a veteran quarterback to assume Kolb’s role from 2009 -- game day No. 3 but replacement for the starter if the starter gets hurt. If accurate, this means that the Eagles don’t think much of Vick, who would again be relegated to Wildcat duty only.
Domowitch also mentions Marc Bulger as the veteran who could serve as the backup to Kolb, with or without Vick on the roster. Whether Bulger would be interested will depend on his options with other teams.