National Football League

Michael Vick is not the answer for the Minnesota Vikings

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Michael Vick would not help the Minnesota Vikings get over the loss of Teddy Bridgewater, and signing him would only damage the team’s image.

The Vikings are reportedly looking at acquiring a quarterback in the wake of Teddy Bridgewater’s season-ending injury.

Many names are being put forth as possible candidates to come in and save the Vikings’ season. Some people have even mentioned Michael Vick.

Why would it be a terrible idea to sign the 36-year-old Vick? Let me count the ways.

For one thing, Vick is old. Even if he’s kept himself in good shape, he’s still old.

For another thing, Vick always was injury-prone. He’s going to be more durable at 36 than he was at 30?

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A third thing: Even in his “prime,” he was at best an inconsistent passing threat. His best season came in 2010 when he completed over 62% of his passes. His overall career percentage is a not-great 56.2.

Fourth, he killed dogs and went to jail for it.

Just what the Vikings need to get over the loss of Bridgewater: an aging, erratic, injury-prone quarterback everyone personally hates.

Despite the above points, some will talk themselves into thinking Vick would be a good addition to the Vikings.

One person of normally-considerable intellect, Matt Birk, has even bought into the old “two-headed quarterback” line of reasoning.

To put it simply, Birk thinks if you paired Vick with Shaun Hill you could throw off teams’ preparation and gain a big advantage.

Defensive coordinators all over the league would be losing sleep! Which aging, barely-functional quarterback do I get my defense ready for this week?

The mind boggles.

I don’t need to remind folks that two-headed QB approaches never work in the NFL. Even Matt Birk concedes this point (via Vikings Journal):

We really haven’t seen it done successfully in the NFL and I don’t know why.

I know why: because it’s already hard enough getting an offense to run correctly with one quarterback; doing it with two, switching up packages, blocking schemes and the like from one week to another is basically not doable by mortals.

The people who think the Vikings might sign Vick and create the first championship-caliber two-headed QB monster in history are the same folks who still crap on Bill Musgrave for not running more Wildcat with Joe Webb.

Gimmicks don’t win titles. Solid schemes run by solid players win titles.

And then there’s the other pro-Vick argument, summed up by A.J. Mansour:

When the dual threat of Michael Vick was on the field for the Steelers last year Steelers running back Le’veon Bell topped 100 yards in both games, scored a touchdown in each game all while averaging 5.6 yards per carry.

They’ll be so scared of Vick running that they won’t account for Adrian Peterson!

You know what would be even more terrifying? If they turned Cordarrelle Patterson into a running back and put him in the backfield with Peterson and Vick.

Reality? The Vikings will have to cobble something together using Shaun Hill or some other hopefully-viable veteran they acquire via trade/signing.

There is no magic formula that will result in the Vikings establishing an offense better than the one they would have had with Teddy Bridgewater in there.

Replacing Bridgewater with Vick, a guy who didn’t throw that well even when he was supposedly good and is always hurt anyway, would be a formula for Josh Freeman-level disaster.

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