The Philadelphia Eagles have to make a choice between Michael Vick or Nick Foles. Since the Eagles hired Chip Kelly, Vick may find new life under his system, yet Foles is much younger and much less injury prone thus far. But since Foles isn’t Kelly’s type of quarterback and struggled under Andy Reid’s more traditional system, he might not be the best fit either.
As such, Kelly may decide to pick neither quarterback, according to Comcast SportsNet’s Geoff Mosher on Jan. 29. He reported that Kelly is eying former Oregon quarterback and current Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad member Dennis Dixon, and could sign him after the Super Bowl. Mosher also alleges that Kelly is set on “having his man by next week” which can open the door further for Dixon.
Vick could be released next week before the Eagles owe him $3 million, but they can still withhold it from him if he gets signed by another team for low money. Foles is under contract and is “probably sticking around” according to Mosher, unless he becomes trade bait. With all of that to consider, along with Kelly’s past experience coaching Dixon in 2007 at Oregon, Vick and Foles might well become expendable soon.
Of course, with free agency and the draft approaching, Kelly doesn’t need to decide quickly. There may be no rush to dump both Vick and Foles, and go right for Dixon, if the Eagles can find a better option. Alex Smith can become available in a trade or free agency, while Philadelphia could consider drafting West Virginia’s Geno Smith as well.
In any case, the Eagles probably don’t need to sign Dixon right away, since he may not be in demand for other teams. If Philadelphia was interested in rushing into things this offseason, it would have signed another new coach before Kelly was finally ready to leave Oregon. As such, taking a completely different approach to finding Vick and Foles’ replacement could backfire.
There’s still time for the Eagles to restructure Vick’s contract and judge if he’s really earned one more chance. There’s also time to find out if Kelly can restructure his system for Foles, or vice versa. It might still turn out that both of them need to leave Philadelphia -- yet getting rid of them to make room for Dixon would raise more questions than answers.
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