Herm Edwards: Too Early To Panic On Michael Vick

Former Eagles player and ex Jets & Chiefs coach Herm Edwards wrote a piece on ESPN Insider today taking a look at Michael Vick's week one performance.

First, he gave a lot of credit to the Browns' gameplan.

There's no way to sugarcoat it: Vick didn't look good on Sunday. The Browns did a great job mixing coverages against him, giving him different looks and bringing pressure in his face, especially on third down. They made a concerted effort to flush him out of the pocket to his right side, not his left. And Joe Haden played an outstanding game against DeSean Jackson.

Joe Haden allowed 4 catches for 77 yards against Jackson, not bad, but hardly "outstanding." He was also burnt badly by Jeremy Maclin for the Eagles' first TD. But his point about the Browns pressure and forcing Vick to his right is spot on.

He also pointed out what we did yesterday, which is that the Browns' brainstrust has an uncommon familiarity with Vick and the Eagles offense in general. Defense coordinator Dick Jauron was on the Eagles staff last year and head coach Pat Shurmur was Reid's QB coach for 6 years.

Edwards did have an alarming stat on how Vick handled pressure after the jump.

His main point was that Vick looked like a guy who only had 12 preseason snaps and this was most evident in the way he handled pressure.

He forced the ball into tight, or nonexistent, windows when he didn't need to. He wasn't used to the speed of the game. And he didn't handle pressure well. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Vick was 1-for-16 for 35 yards and an interception on passes in which he was under duress and he was hit on 19 dropbacks.

Finally, Edwards had some high praise for the Eagles LB corps and pointed out that the snap counts reveal a consistency at the top of the rotation that the Eagles haven't had in a while.

The Eagles also appear to have a much-improved linebacking core. Trading for DeMeco Ryans may have been their best move of the offseason. He played on 60 of 62 defensive snaps, had five tackles and was the anchor in the middle of the defense they didn't have last season. Rookie Mychal Kendricks played on 55 of 62 defensive snaps, also had five solo tackles and didn't look out of place. Perhaps most telling, Brian Rolle, Jamar Chaney and Casey Matthews (the primary linebackers outside of Moise Fokou last season), played a grand total of three snaps.