On the inevitability of Michael Vick as Oakland Raider

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, May 21, 2009  |  Comments( 11 )

Oakland Raiders
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You read enough headlines from the sports pages these days and it almost feels like it’s already happened: Michael Vick reinstated to the NFL, joins Oakland Raiders for the preseason, penciled in as starting QB, takes "Wildcat" formation to another level. All we need now is some snarky comment from Warren Sapp and Vick-to-Raiders is basically a done deal.

While Vick has been living the Leavenworth life, his portrayal in the media has slowly and not so subtly gone from execrable monster to forgotten nonentity to guy who just “deserves a second chance.” Suddenly, this once-seriously warped dude’s return to the NFL is not only a real possibility, it’s an odds-on favorite to happen: Some sportsbooks are offering 1/5 odds *for* a Vick comeback.

With Vick’s return inevitable, then, the next logical leap for the speculators – and at this point in the non-season, we’re all speculators – would be to guess his destination. In top five list after top five list entitled along lines of “Where will Michael Vick end up?” you read “Oakland Raiders" target="_new">Oakland Raiders” again and again.

Whether blogger X theorizes that Vick is likely to get with on the Detroit Lions (come on), the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys (we dare you, Jerry) or the New England Patriots (eerily plausible), Oakland always gets a mention as a destination for the former jailbird.

And even though head coach Tom Cable publicly stated – well, OK, stated in the Contra-Costa Times – that “I’m not going to go there” when asked about a Vick acquisition, everyone knows who rules the roost with an iron claw in Raiders Land, and everyone knows that Vick in silver and black is all up to Al Davis.

Question No. 3 for the Raider Nation, then, is one few fan bases will ultimately have to ask themselves: “Do we really want to do this?”

Well, do they?

JaMarcus Russell is reportedly enthusiastic about just having Vick back in the league, quoted in the aforementioned (and aforelinked) Times articles that “I can't wait to see him again. It was a good time to sit down and get his body healed. He's in tip-top shape and somebody will give him a chance."

Vick is surely a personal hero of the Raiders’ starting quarterback, and Russell might be beyond enthusiastic to play behind such a master. Plus points there, but aren’t these guys totally different styles of QB? Russell is nowhere near Vick in terms of mobility and is galaxies removed from him in improvisational ability; on the other hand, Russell has the potential to be one of the league’s best gunners with a rocket launcher for an arm. With Vick aboard, the sloppy Raider offensive line remains sloppy and gets lazier: the exact opposite of what Russell needs in order to develop something out of the man before 2013.

Along with Vick, too, will presumably come the media circus, particularly as some bits of the media will be whipping other bits of the media into a frenzy. The obvious anti-Vick argument here says that no way do the Raiders need this sort of distraction this season. (Except ... distraction from what? Playing losing football?) An interesting tact for Davis and the Raiders to pull at that point might be to cut off media coverage of the team while it adapts to the incorporation of Vick. Why not? The more NFL stories you read, the more you believe in a great anti-Raiders mediawide conspiracy (or at least bias), so why should the franchise feed the jackals?

Russell’s admiration of Vick’s skills aside, wouldn’t Vick’s presence make for a step backward in the development of the young offense? In the running game, Darren McFadden provides enough speed so that Vick isn’t needed to romp, while Darrius Heyward-Bey is designed to go deep and only deep – Russell-level deep. Not only are the skill positions filled with players remarkably complementary to Russell’s skills (whoa, how did that happen?), but the former No. 1 overall pick should really learn to *lead* these guys, shouldn’t he?

And besides, that stuff he did? Bad.

Advice on a Michael Vick acquisition: Just say no, Uncle Al.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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CommentsComments: 11  |  Sign Up  View all comments
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No.1
05:50 AM
05/21/2009
This site loses all credibility with garbage like this article. Os pretty much says the Raiders need Vick to distract them from...
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No.2
El Tato		08:09 AM
05/21/2009
Why should we want a 29 years old QB who hasn't played football in 2 years and has a 75.7 career rating?
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No.3
svduran1		08:55 AM
05/21/2009
It's like your not paying attention or asleep at the keyboard. Cable purged the Raiders of all head cases. Are you having the...
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