On Monday, head coach Chip Kelly outlined the Eagles' decision to restructure Michael Vick's contract, highlighting the importance for competition on the team's roster. General manager Howie Roseman, appearing on local sports radio, echoed Kelly's sentiments and described how the decision was made.
"I think when we started this and we brought coach Kelly in here, we asked him to evaluate the team from a different perspective, from an outsider's perspective because he hasn't been here with us," Roseman told 97.5 The Fanatic. "He sat in a room, he watched the tape and he came out of it liking the quarterback position, liking the talent of the quarterbacks on this roster. That's not only Michael, but Nick (Foles) and the skillset Trent (Edwards) presents as well. He thought a lot of the things he's looking to do offensively, Michael can do. You go then and look at the free agent list and you look at the pool of talent that's available to you and the things that Michael can do for you as a football player and it became a good fit for both sides."
Roseman noted that even though Vick was the No. 1 overall pick back in 2001 the quarterback is still younger than some of his contemporaries inside the NFC East.
"The amazing thing is he is younger than Tony Romo and he is six months older than Eli Manning," Roseman said. "I know when I first realized that at some point here during the season, I hadn't thought of it this way because Mike's been in the league so long, but for a quarterback, and you look at the guys playing in this league, he does have a lot of tread on his tires."
Why, then, did the Eagles only sign Vick to a deal that reportedly is likely only last through the 2013 season? Roseman said that because of the intense nature of the competition at quarterback, both sides are waiting to see how things play out this year.
"In this day in age, you want to figure out that these marriages last because you're talking about a significant amount of money that you have to put into something when you're talking about a long-term deal," Roseman said. "We do want to make sure that this is the right fit on both sides. Mike wants to make sure it's the right fit. It's going to be a competition. We like Nick Foles, coach likes Nick Foles and we want to create competition at every position on our roster, especially at the quarterback spot. You can't have a spot that you want more talent or more depth than the quarterback position, so it's important for us to get good players there. Nobody is going to be guaranteed of a job anywhere. Coach has made that very clear to all of us as a staff, that he wants to create competition, intense competition, and let it battle it out. Nothing's going to be taken for granted and may the best man win.
In Vick and Foles, the Eagles have two starting-caliber quarterbacks to compete for the top job. The added upside is that someone worthy of playing time will then play the role of No. 2 quarterback.
"We do think that it takes two quarterbacks a lot of the time to get through a season," said Roseman. "You want to have at least a couple. Hopefully we'll have more than that too."
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