Holy Sh*t, Michael Vick is Coachable!

Yesterday was one of the wackiest NFL days I have ever seen. Several overtime games, a massive Minnesota Viking comeback led by Favre, the continued meltdown of the Cowboys, the Browns punishing the Patriots, and even not one, but two substitute kickers for extra points (props to Wes Welker and Ndamukong Suh). Perhaps one of the most interesting of the story lines to me though was the fact that Michael Vick may have outplayed Peyton Manning yesterday. Being from Atlanta and a pretty huge Falcons fan, I witnessed firsthand the rise and then demise of #7 Michael Vick. I have seen just about as many Vick snaps as anyone. Not to upset too many people, but the truth is that Michael Vick is probably the best thing that ever happened to the Atlanta Falcons. Before people's heads explode, hear me out. Vick brought a lot of excitement and more importantly fans and revenue to the Falcons that the organization had never experienced before. I realized that Vick ended up being an epic disaster, but think about what we have gained since. Not only did Vick make Atlanta a lot of money, his demise started the chain reaction of all the good things that we are enjoying now. If Vick had stayed in Atlanta, we might still have Bobby Petrino as our coach and Rich McKay as our GM. Now we have Thomas Dimitrov, Mike Smith, and Matt Ryan. Most importantly though, we have stability and consistency. Arthur Blank finally realized the need for this after the Vick fiasco. Watching Vick play possibly his best game ever yesterday though made me think, what if Vick had had that stability, especially in the coaching position. Clearly, Andy Reid is a great coach. Hell, he out-coached the Falcons just a couple of weekends ago, but the difference in Michael Vick yesterday and what I saw in Atlanta for years is amazing. Vick was always kind of lightning in a bottle to me. He was really exciting at times and at other times he was terrible. Although, I found him very interesting and fun to watch, I never really thought that he was going to be able to lead the Falcons to consistent greatness or a Superbowl win. He just wasn't stable or smart enough on the field. Most people thought that it was just the price you pay with Michael Vick... it went against his strengths to try to keep him in an organized system. Clearly, that is not the case. Andy Reid and the Eagles have a pretty complicated and intricate offense and Vick is excelling. He can be taught! This makes me think about how bad of a coach Jim Mora, Jr. really was. Not only did he not help Michael Vick grow as a quarterback, he also didn't help him grow as a person. It kind of makes you think, if Dan Reeves had stayed in Atlanta or if his replacement had been of a higher quality than Mora, what would have happened to Vick. There is no doubt that Vick's attitude probably changed since spending some time in prison and I am sure that it has had an effect on his play as well, but I think that we are all kidding ourselves if we ignore the coaching that is going on. I am totally happy with how things have turned out with the Falcons. We are a much better team than we were 4 years ago and we have a bright future. With that said, I wish Vick the best of luck. It's a pretty great comeback story.