Marty Mornhinweg spent three seasons as the offensive coordinator of the 49ers, with Steve Young running his offense. Now Mornhinweg has the same title in Philadelphia, with Michael Vick running his offense.
Young is a Hall of Famer and one of the NFL’s all-time great quarterbacks, but Mornhinweg thinks Vick can be better.
“I thought he could be a Steve Young-type player,” Mornhinweg told Philly.com. “Mike’s got a long way to go, but, you know what? I think he can be better than Steve.”
Asking Vick to be a better quarterback than Young is a tall order. Young led the league in touchdown passes four times, in completion percentage five times and in passer rating six times. Vick has never led the league in any of those categories.
However, there are a lot of similarities between Vick and Young. They’re both mobile left-handed quarterbacks playing in similar offensive systems. And Young didn’t become the 49ers’ quarterback until he was 30 years old -- the same age Vick was last year. If Vick can be even close to the kind of player in his 30s that Young was, Mornhinweg is going to be a very happy man.