Steelers Make A Bad Football Decision By Signing Michael Vick

The Pittsburgh Steelers have signed Michael Vick as a backup to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and for possible use in ‘gadget’ plays. Not surprisingly, there’s plenty of unhappy fans of the black and gold who don’t approve of the decision. And with good reason–Vick is a man of highly dubious character. While you can make a compelling case against his signing for this reason alone it obfuscates a bigger issue–the Steelers made a horrible football decision by signing Michael Vick.

Michael Vick was at one point a great athlete but he’s never been even a good NFL quarterback. In fact, he’s never even tried to learn the ‘job’ of playing quarterback at the highest level of football. Instead, he’s always relied on his athleticism. Unfortunately, this is a strategy that has never worked in the NFL. There’s been plenty of great athletes to come into the NFL but the ones that become successful quarterbacks–names like Steve McNair, Randall Cunningham and most recently Cam Newton–quickly figure out that no matter how fast they can run it doesn’t make the job any less complex.

For some reason, however, Vick and his skills are still mythologized by many fans and pundits. It’s not nearly as bad as during the early days of the Philadelphia Eagles ‘dream team’ when Vick’s presence alone made them the football betting favorite at this sportsbook to win the Super Bowl. There’s still a strong subset that considers Vick a much better quarterback than he really is despite the absence of statistical validation.

Here’s the reality of Michael Vick: His record as a NFL starter is 8 games over .500 for his entire career. Of bigger concern his record since his 30th birthday is 21-22 with a mediocre at best quarterback rating. Since his 30th birthday Vick has passed for 60 TDs and thrown 33 interceptions. This TD/INT ratio of roughly 1.8 would rank him somewhere in the high 20s in 2015. Vick has never played in the Super Bowl and has a career playoff record of 2-3 with 5 TDs and 4 INTs In the past decade, he’s played in one playoff game and lost.

Vick has also proven to be a terrible team leader who gets visibly frustrated when things aren’t going his way. He’s also injury prone and as a famously terrible on field decision maker with an instinct to run at the first sign of trouble he’s exposed to an even greater risk of injury. Vick isn’t the type of player that makes a team better, instead he makes them worse. During his four year stint with the Eagles with plenty of talent around him his record as a starter got worse every year. In 2013, he was replaced as the Eagles’ starter by Nick Foles. The Eagles went 10-7 that year–2-4 with Vick at quarterback, 8-3 with Nick Foles under center.

Bottom line–the Steelers have signed a lifetime loser with no leadership skills. A 35 year old quarterback with no ‘game’ other than his athleticism. A player that has always considered himself as ‘the man’ with no track record of success in a backup role.