If Michael Vick is unable to play Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Nick Foles would make his first start of the season. Foles' teammates don't expect the offense to miss a beat.
Michael Vick's availability for Sunday's game is still up in the air despite practicing in a limited capacity Tuesday following his hamstring injury against the Giants.
Vick said after Tuesday's practice that he was able to move around and throw the ball but sat out the 11-on-11 and seven-on-seven drills in order to rest his ailing hamstring. Officially the Eagles starting quarterback has a hamstring pull.
If Vick is unable to suit up Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, second-year signal caller Nick Foles will make his seventh career start on the heels of leading the Eagles to victory in relief of Vick in week five.
“It’s kind of disheartening when you can’t be out there and playing,” Vick said. “But the good thing is we’ve got a good backup who will be able to step in and do a great job with this team, and we’ve got a lot of players who believe in themselves and each other. So that’ll take us a long way.”
Vick and head coach Chip Kelly have two more practices – on Wednesday and Thursday – to decide whether or not to suit up the 33-year old or turn to Foles for his first start of the season. Tampa Bay of course is the site of Foles' first and only victory during his rookie season. The Buccaneers certainly present a challenge for the Eagles offense regardless of who is under center, allowing just 17.8 points per game.
Regardless of who is at quarterback on Sunday, it doesn't seem to phase the Birds.
"We just try to keep everything the same as much as possible and go out there and do what we need to do," DeSean Jackson said Tuesday. "Foles knows exactly what he needs to do to be a good quarterback in this league. Not only that, he understands how to be successful in this offense. I think he has a good feel for it, he knows he has to go out there and play hard and things will come to him."
Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur pointed out that he has no intention of altering the game plan around who is starting at quarterback Sunday.
"The way we're going to approach game planning doesn't change," Shurmur said Tuesday. "It's just really our opponent changes. We're going to play one of the top defenses in the league. They're different in style than the Giants. The Giants were probably bigger and more physical inside."
"This is a fast defense that runs around, and so it's going to be important for us to be able to block movement. And then just every week we've got to do a good job of beating man‑to‑man coverage outside."
Kelly has said that he would wait until as late as Sunday to rule Vick out, but it doesn't appear that much will change in the Eagles offense whether he plays or not.
Matt Lombardo is the Editor-In-Chief of Eagledelphia and also an on-air personality on 97.5 FM The Fanatic in Philadelphia. Join the conversation and follow Matt on Twitter.
