All is well in the City of Brotherly Love – for now anyway. And, speaking of brotherly love, Donovan McNabb apparently had a large part in convincing Andy Reid and the Eagles management to sign Vick. This sounds eerily familiar. Do you remember when McNabb last pleaded with the Eagles to bring in a superstar with questionable character? Do you remember how that worked out? The last thing Eagles fans need is for Michael Vick to be the second coming of Terrell Owens. But Vick inherits an entirely different situation in Philadelphia. For one thing, Vick has a lot to prove to the Lincoln Financial faithful. While T.O. came in as a potential savior of the franchise, thus far Eagles fans have largely shown displeasure toward their newest acquisition. Second, Vick appears ready to reconstruct his image both on and off the field and perhaps most importantly has lacked the demonstrative on-field outbursts that made Owens so unpopular.

All logistical concerns aside, what did the Eagles receive when they signed Michael Vick? Assuming that Vick can get himself into football shape, the Eagles just added another weapon to an offense already loaded with talent. If, and this is a big if, Vick comes back and shows some of the electric talent that made him one of the best players in the NFL early in his career, the Eagles offense will be a nightmare for opposing defenses. While Vick will probably see no more than about five to ten touches a game, his value will be felt long before he steps on the playing field. Team defenses prepping for the Eagles will spend hours each week planning for Vick alone. So what is it that makes Vick so dangerous? He and the Eagles can thank the Miami Dolphins for that. The wildcat formation may have just provided Vick a job in the NFL this year. Even in a copycat league, no other team ran the wildcat at the same rate as the Miami Dolphins (9.4% of all plays from scrimmage).

With Michael Vick at the helm, however, the Eagles can add an entirely new element to the formation. As both LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson are versed in the formation and the Eagles have other burners like Jeremy Maclin and Brian Westbrook, Eagles fans may be treated to the spread offense and not the wildcat. This past season the Dolphins ran 91 plays out of the wildcat, 85 of which were designed running plays. In the spread offense, if Michael Vick is able to find his feet (and his arm) the Eagles will effectively have two completely different offensive playbooks for defenses to prepare for. Because unlike the Dolphins run-oriented wildcat offense, Vick’s ability to make plays with both his arm and his feet will keep defenses on their heels. If the Eagles are able to utilize Vick’s arsenal of weapons effectively, they will pass at a much higher rate than the 08-09 Dolphins and the wildcat will have given birth to the spread offense in the NFL.

Without a doubt Michael Vick has a long road ahead of him before he can begin to make a difference for this football team on the field. Questions about his character remain and there are a lot of unhappy people in Philadelphia. But if the Eagles can put the pieces of the puzzle together they have the potential to make the wildcat formation look pedestrian in comparison. One thing is for certain: for Eagles fans, week six has never been so important.

To start off, let me tell you what I would do if I was a team that is considering going after Vick for next season: find another option. I just don’t see how it can be in a team’s interest to get a guy like Vick. Let’s face the facts, Vick was always an average quarterback at best who was glorified for his playing style. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching the man play, it’s incredibly exciting, but he lacked the actual quarterbacking skills to make him effective. So to me, Vick is a high-risk low-reward play. I can’t possibly see him being any better after coming out of prison, and it would definitely be possible that he has gotten worse and will need some adjustment time, so it’s probably not a good move. And sure, he might motivate the fan base somewhat, but he’s also going to cause major controversy, any big-time NFL fans that also happen to be serious animal rights activists (can’t imagine there a ton of these people, but still) would be quite put off.

Even if a team wants to have Vick play for them, the real obstacle lies in the hands of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell/Harvey Dent. You know Goodell is going to want to punish Vick beyond his time spent in the penitentiary, so on or somewhere soon after July 20, when Vick’s sentence is up, we may find out that all of this is moot because he is being suspended further.

Now beyond all that, let’s take a look at who might be interested. The leading candidate right now is the Miami Dolphins after former NFL coach Dennis Green said that Bill Parcells wants to go after him, and being the wily fox that Parcells is, Green thinks he can convince Goodell to let Vick play. With all of the wildcat-type things that the Dolphins did last season, Vick actually seems like a pretty good fit there, so if he’s going to play in the NFL. Another option might be the Vikings, assuming that the Favre stuff falls through. Since they’re looking for a temporary quarterback, if Vick can’t find a big offer, taking a one-year contract and then “proving” he’s still got it would be smart. Other teams could try this too, particularly ones that are going to be “training” young quarterbacks, like the Jets, though to be honest I don’t really see that happening at all. Destination: Miami Dolphins.