This Week: 0-1-0

Last Week: 8-5-1

Season: 81-70-9

We’re going with gut instincts this week.  That didn’t work too well for Thursday night’s Eagles debacle.  As always, home teams in capitals.

BILLS (-1) over Titans
Buffalo needs to win to save their season (for now) and always plays better at home. Their defense is a major issue but I think they can pull out a close win.

Chiefs (+7) over BEARS
Even though Chicago is at home and I expect them to win a close matchup, I am not ready to spot Caleb Hanie a touchdown over a tough Kansas City that will fight.

DOLPHINS (-3) over Raiders
Miami has been playing inspired football over the past several weeks and it is always tough for a west coast team to travel across the country and play an early game.

STEELERS (-6.5) over Bengals
The Bengals are in the midst of a brutal five-week stretch and while I really like Andy Dalton and the young Bengals team, I don’t think they’ll cover at Heinz Field.

Jets (-3) over REDSKINS
Mark Sanchez has regressed significantly this season but the Jets still have far more talent than the abysmal Redskins. I think we see the “good” Sanchez on Sunday.

Falcons (-1.5) over TEXANS
Houston’s quarterback situation is very unfortunate as T.J. Yates will make his first career NFL start. Although the Texans will try and win by running the football and playing tough defense, I’m going with the Falcons.

Broncos (-1.5) over VIKINGS
Honestly, at this point, how can you pick against Tim Tebow? It makes absolutely no sense but the guy simply finds a way to win. Adrian Peterson is out for the Vikings which will make things even more difficult for Christian Ponder.

PATRIOTS (-20.5!!!!) over Colts
The last time I can remember a line being this high was when the Eagles went into Foxboro to take on the undefeated Patriots in 2007. It seems ridiculous to give this many points but when Dan Orlovsky is starting at quarterback, it might be justified for the winless Colts.

Ravens (-7) over BROWNS
Baltimore has been a team that plays down to the level of their opponent all season. Even though they are on the road, I think the Ravens begin to gear up for the stretch run this week.

49ers (-14) over RAMS
If you had told me the 49ers would be 2 touchdown favorites over St. Louis at the beginning of the season, I wouldn’t have believed you. San Francisco comes into this game with 10 days to prepare and focus on playoff positioning. They’ll come out of today with a big home win.

Cowboys (-4.5) over CARDINALS
Dallas is suddenly in the drivers seat in the NFC East. I don’t think they’ll let a returning Kevin Kolb and the Cardinals stand in their way this week.

Packers (-6.5) over GIANTS
Through 11 games the Packers have only played one game in which they didn’t win by at least a touchdown. After watching New York’s “defense” against Drew Brees and the Giants on Monday night, is there any chance Aaron Rodgers and the Packers don’t win big?

SAINTS (-9) over Lions
Detroit was a great story at the beginning of the season but things are falling apart down the stretch. The Saints potent offensive attack should have success against a Ndamukong Suh-less Lions defense.

Chargers (-3) over JAGUARS
Does anyone really care? One team fired their coach and the other will fire their coach at the end of the year. Considering all of the changes made in Jacksonville this week, I’ll go with the Chargers on the road.

Mike Vick leads the Eagles into the 2011 season. (Image-PhiladelphiaEagles.com)

Quarterback Michael Vick probably circled this game in red ink on his calendar as soon as the NFL schedule was announced. He’ll be leading the Eagles into the Georgia Dome to face his old team, the Atlanta Falcons, for the first time as a starting quarterback since his reintroduction to the NFL as one of its brightest stars in 2010. He played some garbage time snaps in relief of Donovan McNabb during a 2009 game in Atlanta but that appearance was so inconsequential that, in all honesty, I’d forgotten it even happened until someone mentioned it this past week.

There’s no doubt that there will be a lot of emotion on both sides in this game. From Vick’s standpoint, he’ll be playing against the franchise that made him the #1 overall pick in the 2001 NFL Draft and in front of a fanbase that still, in large numbers, supports him. For the Eagles, it’s an opportunity to measure themselves against one of the NFC’s best teams from a year ago. Finally, for the Falcons, it’s their chance to avoid an 0-2 start to the season, which could be a death knell to any championship hopes they had going into the year. According to ESPN Stats & Research, since the NFL postseason expanded to 12 teams in 1990, only 22 of 177 teams who started 0-2 reached the playoffs. That’s a 12.4% clip so you can bet that the Falcons will be desperate for a win in their home opener after getting spanked by the Bears in Chicago last week by a score of 30-12. Part of that struggle came from five turnovers by the Falcons – all fumbles – so the Eagles can’t necessarily count on the Falcons shooting themselves in the foot like that again, especially when they themselves were able to capitalize on numerous mistakes by the St. Louis Rams that helped them to their own 31-13 victory last week.

When the Falcons have the ball, expect them to rely heavily on the running game.

The Eagles face tough running Michael Turner on Sunday

The Eagles’ showed a concerning weakness against the run last week with their new Wide Nine defensive line alignment creating running lanes for their questionable linebacking corps to defend against. Hell, even Eagles’ SAM linebacker Jamar Chaney said this past week that he would run the ball at the Eagles’ linebackers if he was calling the plays for Atlanta. As we mentioned in this week’s Stock Report, rookie middle linebacker Casey Matthews was probably the most criticized member of the Eagles this past week after his less than impressive debut against the Rams. There’s no doubt that he needs to get better, but it’s worth noting that after receiving similar criticism for his performance in the second preseason game against Pittsburgh, he bounced back with a strong showing the next week against Cleveland. It’s imperative that Matthews and the linebackers as a whole play stronger against the run and they’ll receive a big test on Sunday night against 247 lb running back Michael Turner of the Falcons. Turner averaged 10.0 yds/carry against the Bears last week, even breaking off a 53 yd run. Rumors of his demise would seem to be exaggerated.

They also have a much stronger passing game than what the Eagles faced in St. Louis with Exton native Matt Ryan at quarterback for his fourth year at the helm of the Falcons’ offense. General manager Thomas Dimitroff did Ryan a huge favor in the offseason when he traded up to get, for my money, the best wide receiver in the 2011 draft, Julio Jones out of Alabama. Jones had a solid debut last week with five catches for 71 yds and, along with All-Pro wide receiver Roddy White, gives the Falcons one of the better receiving tandems in the league. The Eagles’ All-World secondary will certainly be tested in this one.

McCoy erupted for 95 yds on four carries.

For the Eagles, I’d expect Vick to play a huge role on Sunday night. Big players step up in big situations and this would most certainly qualify as that. Being back on his old turf in front of the entire nation will likely bring out the best in him so I’d expect to see an electrifying performance out of #7. LeSean McCoy continued to establish himself as one of the best running backs in the league, taking over in the fourth quarter of the Rams game after being held in check for much of the first three quarters. Atlanta was fairly stout against the run against Chicago, allowing only 88 yards rushing so McCoy should face some resistence from the Atlanta front seven. The Falcons did, however, allow 289 yds through the air so this could be a perfect opportunity to get wide receiver Jeremy Maclin involved after he saw only three targets last week that lead to a pedestrian one catch for 20 yds. The fast track in the Georgia Dome should also be beneficial to speedsters like Vick, Maclin, and wide receiver DeSean Jackson and the Eagles’ quick-strike offense as a whole. They could also receive a boost from the injury to Atlanta defensive tackle Jonathan Babineaux, who tore an MCL against Chicago and expected to miss 3-5 weeks. This could be negated, however, by an apparent lower leg injury suffered by left tackle Jason Peters in Friday’s practice. Peters has been listed as questionable but has traveled to Atlanta with the team. If he can’t go, King Dunlap will likely start in his place. Saying that this would be a downgrade is an understatement, so let’s hope that Peters is in the lineup tomorrow night.

While this will likely be one of the weekend’s better matchups, it ultimately means more to Atlanta than it does to the Eagles. After dropping a stinkbomb in Chicago last week, I wouldn’t bet on a contender like Atlanta doing it again this week. With their home opener on national television against the former face of their franchise and needing a win to avoid an 0-2 start, there’s just too many reasons for the Falcons to win this game for that to not end up being the outcome. From an Eagles perspective, coming home next week to play their home opener after a road split against legit NFC division contenders wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. It’ll be close, but I see this as a win for Atlanta.

Prediction: Falcons 27-24

Game Nuggets:

• Rookie sixth-round linebacker Brian Rolle took some reps with the first team this week in place of WILL linebacker Moise Fokou so this could be a situation that bears watching. Fokou didn’t look bad last week but it seems like anytime Rolle is on the field, he’s making plays. Although he is undersized, observers have been raving about his play ever since he put on an Eagles uniform. Interesting to note that another undersized, late-round defender out of Ohio State (that’s what we Michigan fans call them now) is already a starter for this defense. Could we be seeing another in the very near future?
• Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said this past week that wide receiver Steve Smith has been working his way into a bigger role in the offensive gameplan. Any contribution from Smith at this point would be gravy as he wasn’t expected to contribute until later in the season. He made it onto the field for four snaps against St. Louis but wasn’t targeted.
• Defensive end Phillip Hunt will likely see his first game action this week after defensive end Darryl Tapp suffered a torn pectoral muscle last week. I was a big proponent of Hunt during training camp so I’ll be looking forward to seeing how he looks as a part of Jim Washburn’s rotation on Sunday night.
• Backup quarterback Vince Young is expected to be active this week after being held out of last week’s opener with a hamstring injury. It’s good to know that he’s available as an insurance policy but there’s no way anyone’s prying Vick off the field, particularly given the opponent this week.
• Again, one more quick plug for this week’s Stock Report review of last week’s game against the Rams in case you missed it on Thursday. We’ll be doing this every week so if you need a quick refresher on last week, go ahead and click on over to that.

-JM

Howard Mudd’s offensive line transformation continues with the Eagles just four days away from the start of the regular season.

On Wednesday at practice, the recently acquired Kyle DeVan took over at starting right guard for 1st round pick Danny Watkins.

The 6’2” 295-pound DeVan signed with the Eagles on Monday.  After short stints with the Washington Redskins and New York Jets, DeVan signed with the Indianapolis Colts in 2009. Under the tutelage of Mudd, DeVan started nine regular season games at right guard and remained the starter for the Colts run through the postseason and eventual loss to the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl.

Watkins, the 23rd overall selection in April’s draft, has struggled throughout training camp and the preseason. While it was assumed Watkins would immediately step in and fill the gap at right guard, Watkins has been slow to learn a new position, as well as Howard Mudd’s system.

The 6-foot-3, 310 pounds Watkins spent five years working as a firefighter in his hometown of Kelowna, British Columbia. He began playing football at the age of 22. After learning the game at tiny Butte College in California, he transferred to Baylor where he started at offensive tackle.

The offensive line continues to be a work in progress after allowing 49 sacks last season. Veteran left guard Todd Herremans has recently been moved to right tackle with the recently acquired Evan Mathis stepping in a left guard. Rookie 6th round pick Jason Kelce is slated to start at center.

The starting offensive line for the Eagles to start the season will be:

LT Jason Peters
LG Evan Mathis
C Jason Kelce
RG Kyle DeVan
RT Todd Herremans

Below is the Philadelphia Eagles initial 53-man roster:

Quarterbacks (3):
Michael Vick, Vince Young, Mike Kafka

Running backs (3):
LeSean McCoy, Ronnie Brown, Dion Lewis

Full backs (1)
Owen Schmitt

Wide Receivers (5):
Desean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Jason Avant, Steve Smith, Riley Cooper

Tight Ends (2):
Brent Celek, Clay Harbor

Offensive Lineman (9):
Jason Peters, Evan Mathis, Jason Kelce, Danny Watkins, Todd Herremans, Jamaal Jackson, King Dunlap, Julian Vandervelde, Winston Justice (activated from PUP)

Defensive Lineman (10):
Trent Cole, Cullen Jenkins, Mike Patterson, Jason Babin, Darryl Tapp, Juqua Parker, Antonio Dixon, Trevor Laws, Phillip Hunt, Cedric Thornton
*DE Brandon Graham placed on the physically unable to perform list

Linebackers (6):
Moise Fokou, Casey Matthews, Jamar Chaney, Keenan Clayton, Brian Rolle, Akeem Jordan

Cornerbacks (6):
Nnamdi Asomugha, Asante Samuel, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Curtis Marsh, Trevard Lindley, Brandon Hughes

Safeties (5)
Kurt Coleman, Jarrad Page, Nate Allen, Jaiquawn Jarrett, Colt Anderson

Special Teams (3)
Alex Henery, Chas Henry, Jon Dorenbos

The details have surfaced on QB Michael Vick’s new 6-year $100 million deal.

For full details on Vick’s new contract check out Andrew Brandt’s outstanding analysis.

Although it was announced as a 6-year $100 million contract, Vick’s deal is essentially a 5-year $80 million deal.  If the quarterback plays in at least 35-percent of the snaps for the Eagles in one of the first five years of the new deal, the 6th year worth $20 million is voided.  There is essentially no way that Vick gets the 6th year of the deal.

Additionally the guaranteed money in Vick’s deal is actually $35.5 million, not the $40 million that was initially reported.  If Vick wins a Super Bowl by the 2012 season, he gets an additional $3 million guaranteed.

The Eagles can easily get out of the contract after the 2013 season which essentially makes it a 3-year deal worth between $48-49 million.

Below is a year-to-year breakdown of the contract. Values can fluctuate based on incentives in the contract:

2011: $20 million (fully guaranteed; salary cap hit of $14.4 million)
2012: $12.5 million (fully guaranteed)
2013: $16.5 million ($3 million guaranteed; fully guaranteed after 2nd day of 2013 league year)
2014: $15.5 million ($12.5 million base; $3 million roster bonus in March)
2015: $16.5 million ($14.5 million base; $2 million roster bonus in March)
2015: $20 million (voids if Vick plays >35% of snaps in at least one season of contract)

August 29 – The Philadelphia Eagles have officially made Michael Vick the face of the franchise.

The team announced on Monday evening that it has agreed to terms on a 6-year $100 million extension with the Virginia Tech product.

The move makes Vick the first player in NFL history to ink two separate deals worth at least $100 million.

Vick was a revelation during the 2010 season. He was voted the AP Comeback Player of the Year after leading the Eagles to a 10-6 record and NFC East title.  He set career highs in yards passing (3,018), touchdowns passing (21), touchdowns rushing (9), completion percentage (62.6) and passer rating (100.2).

Vick’s 2011 cap figure decreases from $16.2 million to $14.4 million. The $1.8 million freed up in cap space could be used to help extend WR Desean Jackson to a new deal.

Vick’s extension seemed inevitable after the team placed the franchise tag on him back in February and traded former starter Kevin Kolb to the Arizona Cardinals for CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a 2012 2nd round pick.

The new deal makes Vick one of the highest paid players in the entire NFL and brings his career full circle.

The Eagles signed Vick to a 2-year $6.8 million contract back in August of 2009.  Vick earned $1.2 million during the 2009 season and made $5.2 million this past year.

Vick lost over $130 million in contractual money from the Atlanta Falcons and endorsements after being incarcerated  due to his involvement in dog fighting.  He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August of 2009 and owes $22 million to creditors while remaining on a strict financial plan.

Vick is expected to net approximately $1.88 million of the $16 million he is set to make during the 2011 season.

However the new deal signals that Vick is officially back and the Eagles believe he is the man best set to lead the franchise to their first Super Bowl title.

August 27 – Two days after the Eagles offensive line struggled against the Cleveland Browns coach Howard Mudd has drastically changed the first-team unit.

The biggest move at practice on Friday was veteran Todd Herremans moving from left guard to starting right tackle.

Herremans, who was a left tackle during his collegiate career at Saginaw Valley State, will take over at right tackle due to injuries to incumbent starter Winston Justice and back surgery to recently signed OT Ryan Harris.

The 2005 4th round pick has played just five games at tackle during his seven year career including four games during his rookie season.

The move to tackle could also benefit Herremans financially. If he plays 80 percent of the Eagles offensive snaps at tackle during the next two seasons his base salary will increase from $2.6 million to $4.85 million.

Herremans current contract is set to expire after the 2013 season.

With Herremans shifting over to right tackle, recently signed offensive lineman Evan Mathis will be the new starter at left guard.

Mathis played in 12 games for the Bengals last year, with no starts. In 2009 he started seven games in Cincinnati.

The 6-5, 302-pound Mathis has played in 58 career games in seven NFL seasons.

After being a four-year starter at Alabama, Mathis was a third round draft choice of the Panthers in 2005.

Additionally the team announced that rookie 6th round draft pick Jason Kelce will be the Eagles starting center.

Kelce, who struggled in pass blocking during Thursday night’s game against the Browns, has been taken the majority of the first team reps over the past several weeks.

The 6’3” 280-pound offensive lineman was named to the 2009 and 2010 Big East 2nd teams.

After playing two years as a guard at Cincinnati Kelce moved over to center for his senior campaign.

He has continued to impress at center and coach Howard Mudd has decided he’s ready to take over the reigns of the starting unit.

Traditionally, the fourth NFL preseason contest is the most inconsequential game of the entire season. Starters are placed in shrink wrap to be ready for the season opener and a host of players who are either scraping for the final spot on the roster or who are never to be heard from again see the most significant playing time. To that end, trying to find storylines to follow for tonight’s game didn’t seem as important as perhaps taking a look at what the Eagles’ roster might look like after Friday’s 2:00 PM ET cutdown deadline. Here’s one man’s opinion:

QB (3): Michael Vick/Vince Young/Mike Kafka
Thoughts: This was the easiest position to predict since, well, there are only three QBs currently on the roster, but that doesn’t mean that it’s without intrigue. Vick just signed his monster extension earlier this week, marking him as the face of the franchise for the foreseeable future. There’s no doubt that the coaching staff is grooming Young to be a multi-game starter should Vick sustain an injury that would keep him out for a while but if there’s a Kevin Kolb-esque moment where Vick gets hurt in the opener? I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Kafka got the call ahead of Young, particularly with the change this year in the third QB rule. He’s just more ready to step in right now.

RB (4): LeSean McCoy/Ronnie Brown/Dion Lewis/Owen Schmitt
Thoughts: Another fairly straightforward position. McCoy is a stud and Brown might be one of the best backup RBs in the league. I have Lewis making it ahead of Eldra Buckley due to Buckley’s lack of any discernable upside and Lewis’s displaying a toughness that belies his diminutive size during the first three preseason games. I will miss Buckley’s crazy Twitter feed, though. Schmitt is safe, Eagles’ draft pick, Stanley Havili, should find his way to the Eagles’ practice squad.

WR (6): DeSean Jackson/Jeremy Maclin/Jason Avant/Riley Cooper/Steve Smith/Chad Hall
Thoughts: The Eagles boast one of the deepest WR corps in the league, albeit one with a few question marks due to health, which is why Hall is on the list as the sixth WR. I’m not a huge fan of Hall as a player but with Maclin coming off of his mysterious virus and Smith recovering from offseason knee surgery, it would behoove the Eagles to have some insurance at the position, at least initially. With the fact that Smith has been practicing and thus cannot be placed on the PUP list, it would seem to suggest that the Eagles expect him to contribute earlier than most thought so I wouldn’t be shocked to see Hall gone by the end of the year. It will also be interesting to see whether a healthy Smith pushes Avant as the slot receiver by season’s end and whether Jackson’s extension gets done sooner rather than later.

TE (2): Brent Celek/Clay Harbor
Thoughts: Everyone’s looking for a bounce back year from Celek and Vick himself has mentioned trying to get Celek involved in the offense in a similar way to how he used Alge Crumpler during his days in Atlanta. Harbor seems to have taken a step forward and may be able to contribute more in two-TE sets this season. I would have liked to have found a way to get Donald Lee onto the roster, but injuries at other positions necessitated keeping higher numbers than normal.

OL (10): Jason Peters/Evan Mathis/Jason Kelce/Danny Watkins/Todd Herremans/Jamaal Jackson/Julian Vandervelde/Reggie Wells/King Dunlap/Winston Justice
Thoughts: Here’s where things start to get interesting. This past week’s offensive line shakeup saw Herremans moved from his longtime LG position to RT and Mathis installed next to Peters at LG. This seems to be an upgrade over the projected line at the beginning of training camp but don’t forget that Herremans hasn’t played tackle in years and the Eagles have now weakened the strength of the line, which had been the left side. Kelce seems to have won the starting center job, but as Sheil Kapadia of the excellent Moving The Chains blog on Philly.com noted this week, you have to wonder why Jackson has lost this battle at this time. There’s no doubt that the coaching staff sees Kelce as the future starter at center but there are concerns with his play and Jackson’s probably a better center right now, plus with the hefty investment in Vick it would stand to reason that they’d want to give him the best protection possible. This isn’t a knock against Kelce as he seems like he’s on his way to being a good pro even if he’s not ready right now, but going into the season with two rookies starting on the offensive line following a truncated offseason doesn’t seem to be the wisest move. The backups are varying degrees of “meh,” and David Harris’s back condition probably rendered him from underrated free agent signing to unemployed in the space of a few weeks.

DL (10): Trent Cole/Cullen Jenkins/Antonio Dixon/Jason Babin/Darryl Tapp/Phillip Hunt/Mike Patterson/Derek Landri/Anthony Hargrove/Daniel Te’o-Nesheim/Brandon Graham (PUP)
Thoughts: Defensive line coach Jim Washburn’s new Wide Nine system has routinely used eight linemen seeing significant snaps, so this was one of the deeper positions to try to cut down. At defensive end, Cole and Babin will see the majority of the time and there are some younger players in Tapp, Hunt, and Te’o-Nesheim who have a chance to blossom in Washburn’s system. Because of this, Juqua Parker and his $4.3MM cap figure are a casualty. By cutting Parker and keeping both Hunt and Te’o-Nesheim, it gives the Eagles roughly half of the season to evaluate which one of the two is the better option going forward, with the other likely being cut to make room for Graham when/if he’s ready to be activated from the PUP list. At defensive tackle, Jenkins and Dixon seem to be the cream of the crop particularly when considering Patterson’s health concerns. It’s because of those concerns that I’m keeping both Landri (who’s impressed in flashes during the preseason) and Hargrove.

LB (6): Casey Matthews/Jamar Chaney/Moise Fokou/Keenan Clayton/Brian Rolle/Akeem Jordan
Thoughts: This might be the most concerning unit on the whole team. Just look at those six – the one with the most experience is Jordan and he was a bubble guy when putting this list together. Matthews is the one with all of the eyes focused on him and, to his credit, he played much better at MIKE in the Cleveland game than he had in either of the first two preseason contests. Chaney looks like he’s on his way to being a star at the SAM position, and Fokou has shown flashes himself at WILL. I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if Clayton is pushing him for his starting spot at some point this season. Rolle is a bit of a surprise but he acquitted himself well in nickel situations against Cleveland last week and many observers have had a lot of positive things to say about his play despite his less-than-ideal size for the position.

CB (5): Nnamdi Asomugha/Asante Samuel/Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie/Trevard Lindley/Curtis Marsh
Thoughts: The top three here are no-brainers. If the Eagles don’t have the best nickel defense in the league this year, it’ll be an upset. It’s likely that this is Samuel’s last year in Philadelphia because Asomugha and DRC are clearly the future of the position for this team, but having the trio of Asomugha/Samuel/DRC together for one year will be something special to watch. Because those three are so good, it makes keeping a Joselio Hanson around much less important so expect to see him and his $2.4MM cap figure traded by this time tomorrow. Both Lindley and Marsh have youth and inexperience, but Marsh has impressed many during camp and may be ahead of Lindley on the depth chart in short order. Would have liked to have found room for Brandon Hughes but the question marks at LB necessitated keeping a sixth there.

S (4): Nate Allen/Kurt Coleman/Jaiquawn Jarrett/Jarrad Page
Thoughts: Most expected Allen and Jarrett to be the starters at safety this year but there’s a very real possibility that Page and Coleman could be the starters next week against St. Louis. The great thing here is that the two best guys will play. Allen is clearly the best of the bunch but may not be completely healthy following his December knee injury. All have their positives and negatives but two of the best position battles on the team might be right here.

Specialists (3): Alex Henery/Chas Henry/Jon Dorenbos
Thoughts: It’s kind of surprising that the Eagles would go with rookies at both kicking positions but both PK Henery and P Henry were the best at their respective positions in the NCAA last year so it’s not like the Eagles are looking to cash in lottery tickets at either spot, however, their development will be a crucial element of the team’s success this year.

- JM

August 4 — According to several reports, Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Mike Patterson has been diagnosed with arteriovenous malformation, AVM.

AVM is a tangle of blood vessels in the skull.

It normally requires surgery or raditation.

Patterson remains in Lehigh Valley Hospital.

According to his agent, the veteran defensive tackle will seek additional opinions on his diagnosis.

“Mr. A.! Mr. A.! Play tag with us! Tag! You’re it!”

How the word “tag” has become one of my least favorite combination of consonant-vowel-consonant in the English language is easy to explain: Second graders love having a teacher who wears sneakers on Jeans day and will play tag with them. So until Sunday night, the word “tag” was ruined for me.

On Sunday, the Eagles made it a source of good news for this jaded elementary teacher when sources said the team will use its franchise tag on Mike Vick. And why not?

The soon to be 31 year old quarterback began the year as the backup to Philadelphia’s quarterback of the future, but things changed in the blink of an eye. When Kevin Kolb suffered a concussion in week one against the Green Bay Packers, Vick stepped in and performed like a man possessed. In the matter of a week’s time, Kolb went from being the most interesting part to the 2011 season to the name that fills in this sentence: “Where will ____________ be traded?”

Vick performed to a much higher standard than most people, including myself, expected. I loved watching his freakish athleticism, cannon arm, and newly found pinpoint accuracy during his starts. His abilities allowed for him to compile numbers that had him in MVP talks until the last couple weeks of the season. He rushed 100 times for 676 yards, getting in the endzone 9 times by foot. His passing numbers may have even been more impressive since he completed 233 of his 372 passes for 3,018 yards and 21 TD throws. These numbers made him the 4th rated quarterback (100.2) in football, only behind Tom Brady (111.0), Philip Rivers (101.8), and Aaron Rodgers (101.2). If you ask me, that is fantastic company to have.

Questions are sure to be asked about why the Eagles are choosing this path, instead of signing Vick long term. Let me clarify that tagging Vick will not eliminate chances of signing him long term. As a matter of fact, it helps them figure out the rest of their payroll beyond this point. They have plenty of needs to tend to before they can worry about extending Vick. They have let DeSean Jackson know that he is the number one on their list of players to extend. I expect him to be making somewhere near the $10-$12 million a year. The Eagles also have glaring holes all over the defensive side of the football and on the blindside (right guard/tackle) of Vick’s offensive line. Since there are no standout free agents on the offensive line, I would expect the Eagles to go cheaper and draft there, leaving free agency to improve their corner, linebacker, and defensive line issues.

How much money will they have though?

For those of you unfamiliar with how tagging an NFL player works, let me see if I can help. When a franchise places its one tag on a player, said player’s salary is then determined by averaging the top 5 salaries at the player’s position. I have seen different numbers being thrown about for how much this tag will cost the Eagles: $17 million, $20 million, and $25 million. I went and researched quarterback salaries and no one comes near $25 million (Manning and Brady, barely combine to make that much), so I am figuring that number can be squashed. I would figure Vick will make between $17-$20 million this coming season due to the tag. This will leave the Eagles with between $30-$40 million to work with in free agency and Jackson.

What will become of Kolb? For the Kolb lovers out there, close this article now. It will explode for you in about two lines. For the Kolb haters, keep reading because I am about to make your day. I truly believe that the Eagles’ “2010 Quarterback of the Future” is going to be someone else’s “2011 Quarterback of the Future.” There are plenty of teams that have needs at the position, and some looking for a cheap resolution instead of the free agent route, where quarterbacks like Carson Palmer, David Gerrard, Matt Hasselback, and Donovan McNabb (ironic how he will have a direct effect on Kolb’s trade value) will be looking for nice pay days. I think the most sensible destinations for Kolb would be San Francisco, Arizona, or Carolina.

What will the Eagles get of value in a trade for Kolb? Well, it depends on where he lands. I think if the Eagles are talking to the 49ers or the Cardinals and they want the number one pick they think Kolb is worth, they will need to add their own 1st rounder and swap the picks. However, if they work hard enough on the Panthers and their frugal owner, Jerry Richardson, they may be able to steal the first round pick and maybe another one as well. It will take some serious convincing by Philadelphia’s front office that Kolb is the franchise quarterback they think he is. Kolb is not owed a ton of money and he showed flashes in spared playing time throughout the 2010 season, so the Eagles can play their hand in the situation. However, if they cannot even get an early 2nd round pick for Kolb, I say they put him in their back pockets and walk away.

I will put it this way. The Eagles have their explosive offense set up now. They can move their former future to help solidify their line and still have plenty of cash to spend on building a defense that needs a new look more than Charlie Sheen needs rehab (too soon?). The expectations will be as high as they usually are in a city that loves its football. They may be even higher following the addition of Cliff Lee across the street, and even higher if the Flyers continue their own dominance.

So, Eagles, on behalf of the City of Brotherly Love…Tag! You’re it!

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