Surry Commonwealth prosecutor Gerald Poindexter says he has evidence that links Michael Vick directly to dog fighting, or more specifically, has two informants who can. Whoop-dee-doo. Wait about an hour and Poindexter – who is about as fickle as a cat – will say he doesn’t have any evidence and note the investigation is still ongoing. If I hear any real news, I’ll post it, but for now, lets move on to something else, shall we?
One of the more popular statements being thrown out by radio host, newspaper columnist and bloggers everywhere, is that the Falcons traded the wrong quarterback when they dealt backup Matt Schaub to the Houston Texans in March. Considering Vick’s recent dog days, it’s easy to say Atlanta was complete fools in trading a talented prospect like Schaub.
Lets take a closer look, however:
-Schaub was set to become a free agent after the 2007 season and therefore was no guarantee he would re-sign with the Falcons. After playing second fiddle to Vick for four years, why would he want to re-sign?
-No matter how good Schaub has looked in preseason and in spot duty, he’s never won a game in which he’s started. He’s a talented prospect, but the jury is still out on if Schaub can win in this league.
–Vick’s contract is absurd until he becomes a free agent in 2014, so even if Atlanta wanted to trade him, there’s no guarantee any team would have took on his salary. Therefore, trading or outright releasing him would have put the Falcons in cap hell and make it hard to re-sign Schaub to a big contract anyway. And don’t believe the Raiders were “highly interested” because that was just Internet-fodder.
-The Falcons were 7-9 last year and had a ton of pre-draft holes. Depth was an issue at virtually all posistions and they needed starters on the defensive line, secondary and left guard.
-To go along with the above pivot point, the Falcons landed DE Jamaal Anderson and G Justin Blalock – two potential rookie starters – thanks to the swap with Houston, plus they still have a second round pick coming in ’08.
-There’s no way the Falcons could have foreseen all of this controversy with dog fighting, even with Vick’s “Watergate” incident and flipping off the Georgia Dome patrons. Sorry, but dog fighting is on another level than having a trick water bottle in an airport.
So, did the Falcons trade the wrong quarterback? I think there’s a valid argument either way, especially when you consider Vick’s off field issues and on field consistency problems, but it’s not as clear cut as people are making it out to be. If anything, the Falcons are more foolish for the absurd contract they gave Vick in ’04 than for dealing Schaub.
