Eagles' tough decisions start at quarterback

PHILADELPHIA -- There was a cluster of reporters pressed into Philadelphia's Michael Vick on Monday, with most of them interested where the quarterback plays next, but get real, people. Michael Vick has as much chance of playing somewhere other than Philadelphia next season as Cliff Lee.
I know he's a prospective free agent. I also know what I just saw, and what I saw is someone the Eagles can't live without. So they sign him to a multi-year contract or make him their franchise player or something. What they don't do is let him go.
But that doesn't mean there isn't a question about what the Eagles do with their quarterback next season because there is. Only it's not Michael Vick I'm talking about; it's Kevin Kolb. He's the guy who was supposed to take over the team this season, only to have those plans scuttled when Vick emerged after Kolb was hurt, and he's the quarterback whose future is uncertain.

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Kolb can start for the Eagles, and he did this season -- playing well enough to shred Atlanta, the top seed in the NFC. But he finished the year on the bench, and with the Eagles all but committed to Vick for 2011 the question is not what happens next with Michael Vick but what happens next with Kevin Kolb.
He's under contract for another year, so the Eagles don't have to do anything ... and they may not. In fact, at one point last offseason coach Andy Reid was content to keep three quarterbacks -- Donovan McNabb, Kolb and Vick -- and have them play their way up or down the depth chart. Only that didn't happen because the Eagles got smart and dealt McNabb when his market value was at its peak -- which is where it is with Kolb now.
There are plenty of teams out there that could use a young quarterback with starting experience, with Arizona, San Francisco and Minnesota at the head of the class, and my guess is that some or all of them approach the Eagles about Kolb. They should. He's proven he can play at this level. He's proven he can beat opponents like Atlanta. And he's only 26, so he has a future waiting for him.
Kolb has made it clear he would like to go where he can start, and he also made it clear he would like to stay in Philadelphia. But with Vick an almost certainty to return, the two aren’t likely to happen anytime soon.
And that's where the plot thickens. Because if you watched the Eagles this season you know that while Michael Vick starred for the Eagles, he also absorbed a zillion hits and was forced to the sidelines for three games after suffering a significant chest injury against Washington. That happens when you're as active as Vick and when your pass protection springs as many leaks as the offensive line in Philadelphia.

Kevin Kolb finishes the season on the bench after beginning it as the Eagles' undisputed starter. (Getty Images)

Vick won't change his game, and I can't imagine the Eagles' offensive line becomes the Great Wall of China overnight. So you figure that Vick probably misses a handful of games next season, either with hits he takes in the pocket or hits he takes as a ballcarrier. That means you have a reliable backup on call, and who's more reliable for Philadelphia than Kevin Kolb?
In his first two pro starts he threw for more than 300 yards each. He destroyed Atlanta. He produced pass ratings of 100 or better in three of his first five starts. In the words of Denny Green, he's the quarterback Philadelphia thought he was, and Reid made that clear at Monday's season-ending news conference when he said "I feel very confident he can be a starter in the NFL. I came into the season feeling that way, and I come out of the season feeling that way. I'm glad he's on our team."
He should. First, he's a safety net against an injury to Vick. Second, he's trade bait for draft picks the Eagles can turn into, oh, say, an offensive lineman or cornerback or both. Kevin Kolb gives the Philadelphia Eagles options for the offseason, and Reid's history is that he doesn't make a move until or unless someone makes an offer he can't refuse.
I can't emphasize enough that Philadelphia doesn't have to budge on Kolb, where they must act on Vick before March. But we know where they're headed with him. He's coming off the best season of his career, and he made the Eagles better than we ... or they ... imagined. Plus, he seemed to have found the perfect mentor in offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, with the Eagles' assistant pivotal in making him one of the game's most accurate and effective quarterbacks.
But if you keep Vick can you afford to keep Kolb? Well, of course, the Eagles can, if we're talking strictly money. He's scheduled to earn $1.4 million next season, which is cheap by NFL standards for quarterbacks. But I'm talking about constructing their team, and Kevin Kolb's trade value -- much like McNabb's a year ago -- will never be higher than it is now.
A year ago, there was no end to clubs interested in him, and I can't imagine that changes now. If anything, the interest should increase. But Kolb is not an aging veteran, as McNabb was when the Eagles decided to peddle him. He's a quarterback who could be the foundation for future success here or somewhere else -- and it's up to Philadelphia and Reid to determine where.
If the Eagles hang on to him, they can postpone that decision -- much as San Diego did after the 2004 season when it franchised Drew Brees while it had Philip Rivers sitting on the bench. The Bolts believed in Rivers as much as Reid believes in Kolb. But it had a veteran quarterback it could not sit down, with Brees coming off a season where he was the league's Comeback Player of the Year and led the Chargers to a division championship.
San Diego had a decision to make between Brees and Rivers, and it chose both. General manager A.J. Smith was firm in his belief that you can never have too much talent at the most important position. He also believed that time and circumstances ultimately would make a decision for him ... and he was right. Brees was hurt in the season finale one year later, his contract expired and he moved on to New Orleans -- opening the door for Rivers.
Maybe that happens with Philadelphia. Maybe not. All I know is that the Eagles have a critical decision to make in the coming months about their quarterback, and it's not Michael Vick.

extracted from cbssports.com