How To Salvage The Falcons

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past week, you are probably well aware that Michael Vick has been indicted on federal charges stemming from the ongoing investigation concerning dog fighting on his property in Virginia. So given the current situation, what do the Falcons do from here? This is a two part question, and quite a complicated one at that.

First off the Falcons need to determine how to best free themselves of Vick, both from a PR standpoint as well as a business standpoint. (Make no bones about it, Vick is done in Atlanta) While some talking idiots heads (Read; Bayless, Skip) have proposed that the Falcons should cut Vick outright, that action would be asinine. Cutting Vick would only punish the Falcons while still giving Vick millions of dollars in guaranteed money. The Falcons would find themselves with huge cap hits in the next few years for cutting Vick, the kind of cap hell that could theoretically find them fielding a team for two or three seasons that would have to be heavily compromised of undrafted free agents. (Yes, cutting Vick outright would be that bad for their cap)

So if the Falcons can't cut him now, do they just play him? Simply put; no. The most important thing for the Falcons right now is to realize that Vick is done for this season one way or another. An NFL quarterback cannot be expected to prepare for a game during a week when he is distracted by court proceedings, or even worse, actually flying to a different state for a court appearance and missing practices. You may have heard some pundits say that "Hey, Kobe Bryant did it when he was accused of rape, so Vick can too". These pundits are idiots. Have you watched an NBA game? How much game to game preparation do you think Kobe Bryant needs between a Tuesday game against Utah and a Thursday game against Denver? The answer is nothing compared to the type of game-planning that goes into preparing an NFL QB for the myriad of defensive schemes that he has to face from week to week. Missing a week of practice and preparation would be fatal to Vick's (or any QB's) performance in a given week. Now factor in the reality that Bobby Petrino is installing a brand new offensive scheme in Atlanta this year, and you can see that putting an unprepared and distracted Vick on the field this season is a disaster waiting to happen for the Falcons from a football standpoint.

So if you can't cut him for cap reasons and you can't play him for football reasons, what on earth do you do if you are the Falcons? The cold-hearted answer is that they have to suspend him and wait for a charge to stick to Vick in order to void his contract and save themselves from salary cap hell. Forget the "leave of absence" crap that is being floated around; Vick lied to both Arthur Blank and Roger Goodell, and that fact alone is enough for the Falcons to suspend Vick. If they don't want to suspend him, fine. Put him on the inactive list and leave him at home each week. Having Vick at games and even practices is going to lead to a media circus that will engulf the entire Falcons team. Blank must step in before that is allowed to happen.

Now for the second part of the Falcons' dilemma; what do they do at QB? The really sad thing is that the Falcons would have been totally fine if they had not chosen to trade Matt Schaub to the Texans. Now they find themselves with Joey Harrington and DJ Shockley as their QB alternatives in year 1 A.V. (After Vick) I for one, think that Harrington will be a fine place holder for a year or two. He really wasn't that bad last year in Miami, and the truth is that Atlanta has an extremely good running game even without Vick in the lineup. Warrick Dunn and Jerious Norwood are one of the better RB tandems in the league, and by leaning on them many of Harrington's deficiencies would be hidden.

The Falcons do have another option for this year, and his name is Daunte Culpepper . For some reason however, the Falcons have been giving signals that they are not interested in the free agent QB. I personally don't see that much downside in bringing in a former Pro Bowl QB on the cheap to compete with Harrington. Perhaps the Falcons have some misgivings about Culpepper's knee, but for whatever reason the Falcons seem to be against bringing in Culpepper.

So what about year 2 A.V. and beyond? The Falcons are actually in an extremely good position to rebound at the QB position. There was a reason that Joey Harrington was selected #3 overall; the man does have some talent. Between Harrington and Shockley the Falcons will at least be serviceable at the QB spot for the next two seasons. Neither Harrington or Shockley though, are the long term answer for the Falcons at QB. That man may well be one of the pair of extremely talented Louisville QBs (Read; Petrino Disciples) that will be available in the next two NFL Drafts. That is right, two. Everyone knows that Brian Brohm will be the top QB in next year's draft, but not everyone is aware that Brohm's backup Hunter Cantwell is also very highly regarded by NFL scouts. Mel Kiper Jr. even goes so far as ranking Cantwell as the #1 Jr. QB in the entire nation.

Now imagine this; Vick sits out this year one way or another, and Joey Harrington starts this season. Then the Falcons will have two drafts where they can try to draft a QB (Brohm or Cantwell) that is both extremely talented as well as very familiar with the offensive system of the Falcons' new coach. If the Falcons miss on both QBs, then they could finally go out and try to find someone in free agency. No matter what though, the future for Atlanta may not be quite as bleak as some people may think.