The buck stops with Vick

Atlanta Falcons coach Bobby Petrino runs a spread offense, so it's only natural that he would prefer to have an accurate dropback passer barking out the signals at the line, reading the defense and making the prescribed throws.

Luckily, he's got one. But his name is not Michael Vick. It's Matt Schaub.

At some point this coming season, Petrino is going to realize this. He probably does now. Unfortunately for him, he has no choice but to start Vick. Vick is the franchise player, after all. The Falcons begin and end with their enigmatic dual-threat quarterback.

Petrino has already said he will tailor his offense to fit Vick. But haven't we heard this before? Since Vick entered in the NFL in 2001, the playbook has always been blamed for his shortcomings on the field. The West Coast offense was too rigid. It didn't allow him to freelance enough. It didn't make use of his best assets.
Perhaps Vick is to blame for the fact that he has never been able to complete more than 57 percent of his passes in a single season. Maybe he should accept responsibility for why the Falcons were so inconsistent on offense this past season.

But he won't.

Vick will continue to fault others. He did with Jim Mora Jr. And it wouldn't be a surprise if he threw Petrino under the bus as well if the Falcons have a slow start in 2007.

However, Vick would be unwise to do so. He will run out of excuses if he doesn't get it done in Petrino's offense. The argument that he's been confined by the system loses its effectiveness when the schemes change, the quarterback remain the same and the results are no different.

As much as it was easy to blame the Titanic's plunge into the Atlantic Ocean on the ship's ill-conceived design, most of the fault must be placed on the captain who failed to steer it away from an iceberg. The same goes for Vick. The system can have deficiencies, but he is the one who carries out the plays. He makes decisions, too. He has control.

Seven years ago, it would have been hard to imagine writing anything like this. Back then, no one thought Vick's talent would be the source of so many problems. In fact, many thought his versatility and wide range of skills would place him among the vanguard of NFL quarterbacks almost immediately. Ironically, it's probably had the opposite effect. It has hindered his development — so much so that an offense now has to be molded to fit his needs. If he was really so good, couldn't he adapt to the playbook he was given?

The answer should be obvious. But in Atlanta nothing is clear. It's why somebody like Schaub, who seems better suited to handle Petrino's offense after completeing 66 percent of his passes in 2006, will likely be carrying a clipboard again this year while Vick puts up less-than-impressive numbers.

By now, people should realize that maybe the problems in Atlanta start not with the system. They begin with the quarterback.

Photo Sources: scout.com., nfl.com