Vick's mediocre debut delights Eagles fans

(AP Photo/Michael Perez)

Running on the field amidst a standing ovation, Michael Vick made his debut with the Eagles Thursday night on the second play of a preseason game against the Jaguars. While the crowd at the Linc seemed into his every move, it's hard to say that his debut was a rousing success. Vick was only in on a handful of plays and, while nothing he did was particularly bad, he seemed to do more harm than good for the Eagles offense.

By my count, Vick was on the field for 6 plays. 5 of those plays, Vick was the quarterback; in the 6th he lined up at wide receiver. Donovan McNabb was on the field with Vick on every play except one of the times Vick was the quarterback. In Vick's 6 plays, he completed 4 of 4 passes for a mere 19 yards, rushed for one yard and also ran a very weak route when he lined up at wideout and the Eagles ran the ball towards the other side of the field. Nothing Vick did was mind-blowing, although he showed a lot of zip on the ball on a 13 yard pass to Hank Baskett.

Vick's presence on the field seemed to be detrimental to McNabb, however. McNabb failed to get into any kind of rhythm with the offense, missing more than his usual amount of open receivers. Whether it was because he had to constantly look to the sideline and see if Vick was coming in or the scramble as he went to line up at wide receiver, McNabb just didn't get into the flow of the game until late in the 2nd quarter when Vick's day was done. I know the more the Eagles run this type of offense, the easier it will get for McNabb, but it's going to be hard to teach these new tricks to a veteran quarterback who has done things his way for so long.

In all, Michael Vick's day was pretty uneventful. Once we got used to the idea of Vick in an Eagles uniform and watched what he was actually doing on the field, it wasn't that impressive. Of course, when you realize the man hasn't played football in a few years and it's going to take him a while to get up to game speed, you are willing to give him a pass. I seem to be in the minority about Vick's performance, however, as fans at the Linc applauded loudly every time he got on the field. Some even ridiculously chanted for Vick to get back out there after McNabb threw an interception. Let's hope they just had too much to drink.

The take home lesson from Vick's first game as an Eagle? Vick is going to have to get used to playing again and the Eagles offense is going to have to get used to his sporadic presence on the field. It's a definite work in progress for both Vick and the Eagles.