Right now, I’m heaving a large sigh….
Why?
Because Michael Vick is killing Arthur Blank and the Atlanta Falcons.
I say Arthur Blank because he’s really the one who matters with these incidents. He’s the Home Depot good humanitarian who is the extremely high profile owner of the Atlanta Falcons. He’s the one who pushed Michael Vick in the wheel chair. He’s a great guy. Do a google search on Arthur Blank and you’ll see nothing but good works for the community from a great guy.
Blah, blah, blah, nothing interesting another executive who works for the United Way….yawn, it’s all gravy… At some point it gets nauseating, but Arthur Blank (himself) is not really at that point. The Atlanta Falcons (particularly Michael Vick) have a different diagnosis, don’t they?
Wait, what’s this: Michael Vick and The Atlanta Falcons lose to the Browns and Lions in consecutive weeks where Vick plays extremely badly? Oho, what’s this Michael Vick flipped off the fans? Did Jim Mora Sr. just say that Michael Vick is a coach killer? Did Jim Mora Jr. just say that he wanted to coach Seattle and isn’t he the coach of the Atlanta Falcons? Is that Michael Vick telling sources last year at the Pro Bowl that he’s not comfortable with the offense?
The problem with all these stories (in the last three years) is that they lead to one common question:
Doesn’t Arthur Blank own the Falcons?
The answer to all these questions is “Yes”.
2 Things I didn’t bring up on purpose:
I did not bring up Marcus Vick who will always be associated with Michael cause he’s his brother, the other thing I didn’t bring up is that Michael Vick just got busted at the airport for having some kind of water bottle or substance with a secret compartment.
(On a side note: Have you ever seen a plastic Aquafina water bottle? Where can you have a secret compartment in a plastic Aquafina water bottle? Under the cap? Behind the label but between the plastic and the label? Are you laughing right now? Back to my article)
Because they just don’t really add anything to an already obvious decision that needs to be made:
It really leaves two decisions, one is smart, one is stupid. And in order…
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OPTION #1
Michael Vick needs to be traded away from the Atlanta Falcons, so that Arthur Blank can stop dealing with all the non-sense that accompanies him.
You have to trade him because you can’t take the 22.1 million cap hit that cutting him brings you. They’ve only got 9 million in cap room to begin with and that’s with the cap being increased by approximately 20 million. Enough said, he’s not geting cut.
The good news is that you have the game’s best GM in Rich McKay who can execute trades no matter what the situation and usually can bring valuable things back. There are SEVERAL OPTIONS to trade him too, Michael Vick is a top 20 quarterback when he’s bad and a top 10 quarterback when he’s focused.
If Mc’Kay or Blank feel like picking up the phone, here are the teams that will take him in a minute and what you can ask for:
Oakland Raiders: No.1 pick, WR Randy Moss, WR Jerry Porter, LT Robert Gallery
Detroit Lions: No. 2 pick, WR Roy Williams, K Jason Hanson, LG Jeff Backus
Cleveland Browns: No. 3 pick, WR Braylon Edwards, TE Kellen Winslow Jr., C LeCharles Bentley
Tampa Bay Bucs: No. 4 pick, WR Michael Clayton, DE Simeon Rice
Washington Redskins: No. 6 pick, QB Jason Campbell, WR Santana Moss, LT Chris Samuels
Minnesota Vikings: No. 7 pick, DE Kendichi Udeze, CB Antoine Winfield
Houston Texans: No. 8 pick, WR Eric Moulds, WR Andre Johnson, OLB DeMarco Ryans, DE Mario Williams
Miami Dolphins: No. 9 pick, WR Chris Chambers, WR Marty Booker, TE Randy McMichael
That’s 8 teams (out of 9, the exception is the Arizona Cardinals) that qualify for the need to have Michael Vick. Of those teams the only team without a problem/loud mouth player is the Minnesota Vikings. That’s right, all those coaches have taken problem players on in one way or another.
By the way those teams all have those picks in the later rounds also, which means that if you would rather have multiple picks instead of the players I listed, that option is also available. Take the frickin Salary Cap Room, improve your situation.
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OPTION #2
Keep Michael Vick, pray that him or his brother Marcus don’t do anything else more stupid, and try to build around him.
What does that mean? Does that mean that you draft offensive linemen to try to protect Vick while the defense slowly deteriorates with the loss of DE Patrick Kerney and the constant injuries of DE John Abraham? Does that mean that you draft new receivers? Do you try and sign more defensive guys? Is Bobby Petrino’s offense (now coordinated by Hugh Jackson) going to be so much better than Gregg Knapp’s? Does that mean that we lose backup QB Matt Schaub leaving college-tested-never-played-in-the-NFL QB D.J. Shockley as our backup?
YOU ONLY HAVE 9 MILLION TO SPEND!!!!! Spend wisely
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CONCLUSION
One option leads to more questions and one option leads to solutions.
Seriously
Stop sugar coating it, stop trying to be delusional, stop trying to ignore it Falcons Organization, get on the telephone and do something about it.
Or don’t.
Falcons, Your off-season is in your hands.
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P.S.- Today is my first radio broadcast on 105.5 The Fan (it will probably occur around 5:20 P.M.), I’m not getting paid, but hey it’s something. If you read this article, you pretty much know what I’m going to talk about, but see if you can get the live broadcast over the internet and show some support.