Andy Reid Backs Michael Vick, Ends Talk Of QB Controversy

Andy Reid caused a bit of a stir on Monday when he offered what many took as a tepid endorsement of his starting quarterback.

"Right now we're with Michael," said Reid. "That's what we're doing. We'll evaluate it as we go."

Reid would later state on his radio show that night that "Michael Vick is our QB, period."

At his usual Wednesday press conference, Reid said his original words were misinterpreted as a tepid endorsement.

"Well, it was the way that it was interpreted," Reid said. "That's not what I had in mind. [Eagles director of football media services] Derek [Boyko] explained to me how it was interpreted and so, I've talked to Mike, made sure I mentioned it on my radio show. You guys are very good at what you do, so I [want to] make sure we clarify it. Bad semantics there."

To be fair, cliches like "we'll evaluate that" and "we've got to do better" there are typical Andy Reid responses to any question. He'd probably say that if you asked him what the weather was like. Still, Andy has been doing this a long time and he knows that there's nothing that gets people more frothed up than a good old QB controversy. So he said again today,

"Michael is our starting quarterback."

Andy was also asked whether Vick needed to do a better job making pre-snap reads? He said that was part of it, but spread the blame around for the turnovers and mistakes so far this year.

"Well, there's more to it than that. We've got to protect too. We've got to make sure we're calling the right plays and putting him in a good position. I mean, there are a lot of things that go into that, so we've addressed that and we've all got to get better at our job and Michael, you asked about Michael, Michael included. He understands that. We all need to do better and that's what we're going to take care of this week."

For his part, Vick says he spoke to Reid and isn't concerned about his job.

"We talked about it. We spoke about it but it wasn't anything serious. We're in a position where we have to look forward to this week. We have to get ready for this game [and] that's what is most important. Any outside distractions can become a deterrent to this team so we're just trying to move forward and get ready for the next game."

He says his number one concern is the number of turnovers.

"I'm very concerned about the turnovers. Being the competitor that I am, I understand that you have to protect the football. I cut back on the interceptions last week and had two fumbles but it's something that I know I can get corrected."