A year ago right now, Michael Vick was being considered as a top five overall fantasy football draft pick.

Now, he is not even being considered amongst the top five overall fantasy quarterbacks; his overall current ADP is just a remarkable 45^th overall.

2011 was a step back for the entire Eagles franchise, not just Vick.

Still, he set a career high in passing attempts (423), yards (3,303), and third highest passing TD total (18). Vick’s 76 carries were his lowest season total as a starter, yet his 7.8 ypc was his 2^nd highest.

589 yards from your QB on the ground? That’s 45 YPG, son, as good as many a RB #3.

Sure, w/Vick you’re always going to worry about him missing games. That’s why you grab a QB like Carson Palmer, Ryan Fitzpatrick or Josh Freeman to use in Vick’s week 7 bye or for general use, post-injury, should one occur.

Wake up– Don’t sleep on Mike Vick in 2012.

Paul Eide can be heard dispensing fantasy football advice every Friday AM during the NFL season on Jacksonville’s 930 AM “The Fox” at 8:00 EST. Listen live here. Email Paul at paul@pauleide.com

Mora didn’t handle that very well. It’s a perfectly legitimate question to ask Vick’s former coach if he wonders “what if?” when he sees how Vick is playing this season. Mora got rattled, and then phoned in (literally and figuratively) the answer about whether or not the Philadelphia fans should boo Donovan McNabb.

Don’t do radio interviews if you don’t want to answer questions, Jim.

Over on his Yardbarker blog, Donovan McNabb details how and why the Eagles signed Michael Vick.

I wanted Michael to come to Philadelphia and, in any way he can, help bring a Super Bowl championship to the City. There is no doubt he is a uniquely talented player that can add to our offensive weapons. For him personally, I want to see him continue to grow as a person, spend time with his family and re-establish himself as a leader on and off the field. Due to the nature of what happened and the attention it has received, it may not always be easy for him but he seems up for the challenge. Fortunately, with a tremendous individual like Tony Dungy in his corner, he will have the support he needs.

I just caught a bit of ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” where they were discussing the Vick signing. One of the guests was Gov. Ed Rendell who said that we, as a society, preach over and over to inmates when they go to prison that if they serve their time, we’ll give them another chance. One of the other guests — I didn’t catch his name (sorry) — said that all this talk of redemption is fine, but this was a football decision.

Well, duh, of course it was. The Eagles signed Vick because they thought he could help their team. Rendell is talking about rehabilitation and redemption as a way to justify the signing to those who would like to see Vick go and crawl under a rock and never play football again. These are two separate questions:

1) Why did the Eagles sign Vick?
2) How do they justify it?

I consider myself a dog lover, so I find Vick’s history of animal abuse to be disgusting. That said, he has served his time and seems intent on proving to everyone that he is sorry for what he did and that he’s a changed man. While the Eagles’ decision to sign him may piss off a few animal lovers in Philadelphia, they’ll get over it if he’s averaging 7.0 yards per carry in the Wildcat formation.

I just wonder what Vick says about dog-fighting behind closed doors, when it’s just him and his buddies. I hope he’s sincere, but there’s only a select few that know for sure.

Not surprisingly, Michael Vick isn’t welcomed to stop by Atlanta Falcons headquarters anytime soon. With Vick’s release from federal prison on Wednesday, Atlanta owner Arthur Blank made it clear that his former franchise player will never play for the Falcons again.

“The Falcons maintain Michael’s contractual rights for now, but he will not be playing for us in the future. In the event NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell decides to reinstate Michael to the NFL, we feel his best opportunity to re-engage his football career would be at another club.

“From a personal standpoint, I will continue to be supportive of Michael in any way that would be positive, constructive and helpful.”

Blank made plenty of mistakes during Vick’s playing time in Atlanta. For starters, he and the Falcons coddled Vick too much and turned a blind eye when the quarterback started to make off-field headlines for the wrong reasons. They didn’t want to upset their star player and even went as far to protect him at all costs, which wound up hurting them in the end. I always thought the time Blank pushed Vick onto the field in Dallas in a wheelchair after he broke his leg was way overblown, but the situation did show that Blank got too close to his star.

That said, Vick flat out lied to Blank several times and abused his relationship with the owner. Blank gave Vick a mile and Vick took another 74 more miles. While it’s true Vick made Blank a ton of money, he also cost him millions more after the dog fighting scandal reached its pinnacle. Blank never deserved the humiliation that Vick put him through and I think it’s a testament to who he is as a person that he continues to support his former quarterback on a personal level.

But as the man said – no way will Vick ever be welcomed back by the Falcons. That franchise was put through hell by Vick and Bobby Petrino and now have a great thing building with Thomas Dimitroff, Mike Smith and of course, Matt Ryan. In the end, karma paid Blank a visit and made things even.

Let’s just hope that Blank doesn’t make the same mistakes with Ryan as he did with Vick, because no player should ever be put above the team.