Marty Morhinweg Discusses Michael Vick's New Pledge To Slide

While Michael Vick said yesterday that his newfound desire to slide during runs and avoid taking big hits was all him and not the urging of coaches, Marty Mornhinweg's press conference today seemed to indicate otherwise. In fact, he said plainly that they've been 'drilling' it into Michael that he has to slide.

"Well I want him to get down underneath hits, I want him to get up and out on the sideline, [quarterbacks coach] Doug [Pederson] has drilled that with him time and time again, I want to see that. Now when the juices get flowing - unless it's a game-winner or something like this, a critical point or something like this, and with one other caveat if he thinks he can shake-and-bake and score without getting a hit on him, okay? So we'll see what happens with him in a game. And that needs a little bit of maturity and I certainly think he's maturing here."

But of course the question is, how do you get a guy with Vick's core mentality, which is that he wants to score on every play, wants to do everything he can to get an extra yard, to start thinking of self preservation.

"Well I've always thought he was going to slide, and then there's been a couple times when I'm thinking, ‘Get down,' and then he scores. So that has happened. But we'll see. And he does need to protect himself and for the rest of his career he needs to do that. But look, the rib shot came in the pocket too, so he needs to protect himself there as well."