Tag: Michael Vick

Wade Phillips calls Lamar Jackson ‘this era’s Michael Vick’

Wade Phillips wasn’t afraid to compare Lamar Jackson to Michael Vick.

During his heyday with the Atlanta Falcons, Michael Vick gave opposing defensive coordinators and head coaches headaches as they tried to devise a plan to contain him. He was as electric as any player to play the quarterback position, bringing a terrifying combination of speed and arm strength to the field.

There hasn’t been a player quite like him since, but Lamar Jackson is staking his claim as the next version of Vick.

Ahead of Monday night’s matchup with the Ravens, Jalen Ramsey likened Jackson to Vick on Instagram this week, and Wade Phillips didn’t disagree with the comparison. Phillips was asked how the two quarterbacks are similar, and he seems to believe Jackson has a slight edge.

“Pretty similar in a lot of ways. Both of them are great runners. Mike was similar in that he didn’t throw many interceptions and he had that flick of the wrist that he could throw the ball downfield. But Lamar is this era’s Michael Vick, maybe plus – Michael Vick-plus.”

That’s some high praise for a coach who was around Vick for several seasons. Phillips was the Falcons’ defensive coordinator in 2002 and interim head coach in 2003 when Vick was there, so he knows a lot about what it was like trying to stop No. 7.

Vick rushed for 777 yards in 2002 en route to a Pro Bowl selection, emerging as one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in all of football in just his second season.

Jackson is not only on his way to the Pro Bowl in Year 2, as well, but he’s also the front runner to be named NFL MVP. In Phillips’ mind, Jackson is clearly the best player in the league through 11 weeks.

“Lamar Jackson, everyone’s saying it and rightfully so, he’s certainly the MVP so far this year and is having a great year,” he said.

The Rams will get their first taste of Jackson next week when the Ravens visit on Monday night, and Phillips isn’t necessarily excited about facing that offense.

“Gives me a headache,” Phillips joked. “But it’s a great challenge. It’s something that competitors – and I think our guys are – it’s something for them to step up and play well against, and that’s what our challenge is.

“If I didn’t already, they’d give me white hair playing against teams like this. But I’m already there.”

Watch: Younghoe Koo talks about debut, wearing Vick’s jersey number

Week 10 was a bit of an adjustment for Falcons fans. Not only did the team play uncharacteristically well, there was another player wearing former QB Michael Vick’s infamous No. 7 jersey.

Week 10 was a bit of an adjustment for Falcons fans. Not only did the team play uncharacteristically well, there was another player wearing former QB Michael Vick’s infamous No. 7 jersey.

That player was kicker Younghoe Koo, whose 6-for-6 debut against the Saints earned him NFC Special Teams Player of the Week.

Koo was asked about winning the award, and just how bizarre it is to be wearing Vick’s former number. Watch what he had to say below, as tweeted by ESPN’s Vaughn McClure:

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MythBusters: Yes, Lamar Jackson is a pocket passer

Just because Lamar Jackson is fast, doesn’t mean he can’t throw from the pocket. Doug Farrar takes one analyst to task for this assumption.

It’s a common assumption when evaluating running quarterbacks that those quarterbacks are better on broken or designed plays in which they leave the pocket and go “schoolyard,” making things up as they go along. Sometimes it’s true, but other times, it’s an automatic label that doesn’t hold water.

Lamar Jackson is one of the most dynamic running quarterbacks in NFL history. He’s on pace to break Michael Vick’s single-season record of 1,039 rushing yards by a quarterback, set in 2006. And there’s no doubt that what Jackson does when he tucks and runs is explosive, spectacular and highlight-worthy. This 47-yard touchdown run on Sunday in Baltimore’s 49-13 thwacking of the Bengals is one of the better examples.

But to assume Jackson can’t throw from the pocket just because he can scald defenses with his feet is something we should be past when we look at quarterbacks of Jackson’s type. Whether it’s Vick later in his career or Randall Cunningham later in his career, or any number of quarterbacks in the modern day who are competing for the 2019 Most Valuable Player award, we are clearly in an era where quarterbacks of a certain stripe can actually do more than one thing to bring value to their teams.

But there was a reach back to the old days in the CBS broadcast of the game. Color announcer Rich Gannon, generally one of the more astute members of his profession, had this to say with 12:18 left in the first quarter, right after Jackson led his team downfield with more than one nice throw from the pocket, and finished it off with a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mark Andrews:

“The Ravens do such a good job changing the launch point for Lamar Jackson. He rarely throws the ball from the pocket. They get him out on the edges, they cut the field in half, and he throws the ball so well and so accurately on the move.”

To be clear, this wasn’t Gannon slamming Jackson in any way. But when we look at the stats, we see that the “he rarely throws the ball from the pocket” statement is quite incorrect. Per Sports Info Solutions, Jackson has attempted 240 passes from the pocket this season, completing 134 for 1,611 yards, 10 touchdowns and five interceptions, and a passer rating of 95.9. This season, Jackson has more attempts from the pocket than Kirk Cousins, Mitchell Trubisky or Josh Allen.

Furthermore, Jackson isn’t one of the league’s more prolific out-of-pocket passers, probably because when he’s out of the pocket, he’s most likely running. Here’s a short list of the quarterbacks who have more passing attempt outside the pocket than Jackson’s 34: Aaron Rodgers, Kirk Cousins, Gardner Minshew, Carson Wentz, Josh Allen, Derek Carr, Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford.

So maybe we shouldn’t assume what we have always assumed. The intention here is not to go after Gannon specifically — if we’re going to go after anyone for their Lamar Jackson takes over time, it would always be Bill Polian — but it is a kind request for announcers and analysts to watch what Lamar Jackson is doing, and to understand and communicate that it’s not at all like the historical stereotype.

Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar has also covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”