With Eagles quarterback Kevin Kolb firmly attached to the trading block and the Eagles in need of a No. 2 option behind Mike Vick if/when Kolb is sent packing, there’s a belief in some circles that the Eagles will add a veteran to back up Vick.
Second-year quarterback Mike Kafka thinks that won’t be necessary. Especially since coach Andy Reid recently said that Kafka may already be ready to handle the job.
“I always have confidence in myself. But if Coach says that, it’s great,” Kafka recently told Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I’m willing and waiting to take that next step to be that guy.”
Vick agrees. “If Kevin’s not back, then I think the backup role is a role that Mike Kafka embraces,” Vick told McLane. “I think he’s ready for it. I think he’s prepared himself well, and I think that will all translate on the field when it’s all said and done.”
With Reid proving time and again that he knows how to coach up quarterbacks, there’s no reason to believe Kafka can’t handle the job. And with Vick still prone to put himself in harm’s way by pulling down the ball and heading down the field, Kafka will need to be ready at any moment to come in and play, if he and Vick top the depth chart in 2011.