The value of Vick: the true worth of Michael Vick—an unconventional quarterback who can't be measured by conventional numbers—is that without him the Falcons are mediocre, but with him they can beat anyone

Dan Pompei

Is a quarterback who wins the game worth $130 million, even if his statistics are average?

The first step in determining Michael Vick's value is to write some of his statistics on a piece of paper: 2,313 passing yards, which ranked 26th in the NFL; a 78.1 passer rating, which tied for 21st; a 56.4 completion rate, which ranked 27th; 16 fumbles, most in the NFL; and one sack for every eight dropbacks, worst in the NFL.

The second step in evaluating Vick is wadding up the paper. Or shredding it. Or, if you want to live dangerously, putting a flame to it.

These are the numbers that matter: The Falcons are 24-12-1 in the regular season with Vick as their starting quarterback and 3-11 without him. The other numbers are irrelevant. Statistics describe Vick no better than words describe the birth of a child.

Vick has it right--he pays no attention to numbers. He has no envy for Peyton Manning's records. Several times this season, one of the Atlanta coaches gingerly approached Vick on the sideline to let him know the plan was to stick with the run. Urn, it's OK with you, Mike, isn't it? Whatever it takes to defeat the opponent, Vick replies. And he means it. "I just want to win football games," he says. "As long as I'm in the playoffs every year, I'm good. Everything's all right with me."

Without their quarterback, the Falcons are an average team. With him, they are capable of beating anyone. It is no coincidence that in the four losses he started this season, Vick had a 47.4 passer rating.

No one will argue Vick is more valuable than Manning, save for Vick's agent, Joel Segal, and Detroit News football writer Mike O'Hara, the only voter who tabbed Vick in the AP's most valuable player balloting. Even Falcons owner Arthur Blank and general manager Rich McKay, the men who signed Vick to a 10-year contract extension, and Vick himself acknowledge Manning is the most valuable. Vick's $130 million deal, signed last month, is the richest in NFL history, based on total value. Based on guaranteed money and average yearly salary, it is second to Manning's deal.

However, it is safe to say no team is more dependent on one player than the Falcons are on Vick. Says Falcons safety Keion Carpenter, "He is the team."

See, Vick isn't just a quarterback. To his teammates, he is a fountain of hope. To fans, he's the reason to make sure the trip to the bathroom is over by the time the Falcons get the ball back. To sports marketers, he's a thrill ride in an amusement park. To Georgia, he is a modern-day Red Grange, the man who made pro football relevant.

As a passer, Vick is a dazzling runner. But his passing has improved in his four years in the NFL. Part of the philosophy of investing in Vick was realizing he is like a growth fund. There will be regular dividends, but the real payoff is years away.

Vick became a more serious professional in the last year, showing more enthusiasm for the off-season program and paying attention to details he would have glossed over in the past. On the eve of a game, Vick doesn't watch TV and chat away on the phone anymore. Now you can find him studying his game plan until midnight or 1 in the morning. "It's to the point where I say, 'OK, enough, we've got to go to sleep--can you cut the light?" says Carpenter, his roommate on the road.

Since the offseason, Falcons offensive coordinator Greg Knapp has been preaching it will take Vick three seasons before he really takes off in the West Coast offense. "Mike's completion percentage will go up because his knowledge of the offense will be better, and once you get the knowledge of the offense, you don't worry about the offense; you see what's on the other side of the ball," Knapp says.

Early in the season, when he was still learning the protections as well as the passing schemes, Vick was inconsistent against the blitz. About one third of the way through the season, Falcons coaches began devoting extra meeting time to the blitz. Recently, Vick has handled extra pass rushers well--which is significant given the Falcons' NFC championship game opponent is the Eagles.

The last time Vick and the Eagles met, two years ago, Philadelphia defensive coordinator Jim Johnson used an ambitious pressure package. Vick was held to 30 rushing yards, sacked three times and intercepted twice in a 20-6 loss in the divisional round of the playoffs. Johnson brushes that off as "ancient history," and it is. But Johnson's blitzing history is likely to repeat itself. "We've won a lot of games over the past four years and have gotten to four straight NFC championship games by blitzing and causing turnovers and coming up with sacks," Johnson says. "So, we're not going to depart from what's gotten us here. Not when it's worked so well for us."

You should have seen how quickly left tackle Kevin Shaffer sprinted to help Vick up after he had been sacked by Rams defensive end Leonard Little last Saturday night. The Falcons can't afford for Vick to be injured. "If Michael gets hurt, God forbid, you can see a large piece of that investment going down the drain," Blank says. "It's not just the financial loss, it's the loss to the team, the greater community of Atlanta, the state of Georgia."

Blank knew Vick's precise injury history going back to college before he began considering extending Vick's contract last August, and he can live with it.

This season, Vick has avoided punishment better than he had in the past. And now that he is set for life, maybe somewhere in his subconscious he'll want to avoid unnecessary collisions even more. It's human nature, you know.

"I'm protecting myself," Vick says. "Longevity is the key to my career. Looking at the big picture, I want to be there for my team. I may have taken a couple big hits, but I'm a tough guy. I can get up and bounce back. That's the way I play my game. If I can play another five years like this, I'll be able to retire and be happy."

Michael Vick retire at the age of 29? "Who knows?" he says, realizing what just slipped out. "We'll see."

No one wants to discourage Vick from playing instinctively. "I just want him to be him," Falcons coach Jim Mora says. Rather than forcing Vick to become a pocket passer, Falcons coaches have encouraged Vick to run, and run he has. His 902 rushing yards this season were the third most by a quarterback in NFL history. On his sideline sheet for every game, Mora has a reminder: Get Vick 10 to 12 runs. The Falcons have made better use of designed quarterback runs as the season has gone on, incorporating about five each game late in the season as opposed to maybe one per game early in the year. About 35 percent of Vick's runs have been by design, according to Mora.

The natural progression for athletic quarterbacks is to rely more on their arms as they age. If Vick's runs decrease, it's likely his sacks will, too. Atlanta's coaches aren't overly concerned about the inordinate number of sacks Vick suffers because the rewards outweigh the risks. In the Falcons' 47-17 rout of the Rams in the divisional playoff round, Vick escaped what looked to be three sure sacks and turned the plays into 71 rushing yards.

Still, Vick can improve by giving up on some plays more quickly. "When you have that kind of ability, you want to be a hero every play," says former quarterback Ron Jaworski, an analyst on EAS NFL Matchup.

Two days before Christmas, Vick celebrated signing his new contract at a restaurant with "my own little crew" of 10 people, including Carpenter and Vick's little brother Marcus, a quarterback at Virginia Tech. Vick raised his glass of Cristal and made the toast. "This is the biggest day of my life. It's been a long time coming."

The celebration was restrained because Vick had practice the next morning. For now, Vick is trying to make other celebrations happen. Despite his team's reliance on him, Vick believes he won't have to do it alone. "Hey," Vick says, "I've won in the playoffs before. It's something I've been waiting for my whole career. It's a challenge, and I'm up for it."

Blank and others in the Falcons' compound marvel at the way Vick blends humility with confidence. He is far from the typical pro athlete in that regard. It's part of what makes him a leader--he's approachable and open to coaching, yet he believes he is capable of overcoming almost any obstacle. "I always know there's a big play coining where I can make a difference in the game with my arm or my feet," he says.

His teammates know it, too. It isn't uncommon for the Falcons' sideline to be geeked when Atlanta is trailing in the fourth quarter. Other sidelines might be lifeless in the same situation. Other sidelines don't have Vick or the hope he embodies.

Before Blank invests a significant percentage of his fortune in a player, he wants to know the player will represent his team in an honorable way and that he won't allow the money to change him. He had no concerns about Vick.

As a former first-round pick, Vick already was wealthy beyond the dreams of most men. "This contract was just to shore up his future," Carpenter says. "His kids' kids' kids' grandkids will never have to work."

Teammates have a new nickname for Vick. "New Money," they call him. With that new money, Vick plans to purchase a second boat and add to his car collection with a Mercedes Maybach, which goes for $400,000 or so, and maybe open a sports bar.

In an age when a cartoon character called "Thurston Long" yuks up a pregame show and the NFL season is kicked off first by Elton John and then by Mike Vanderjagt, it is Vick who crosses the bridge between entertainment and football the best. Neither Hollywood nor Broadway can provide theater as he can.

Vick doesn't act or rap. He just plays--like no one else. And everyone wants to see. They sold every season ticket at the Georgia Dome the past two seasons, which had happened only once in the previous 37 years. Each of those season-ticket holders--as well as each of the helpless Rams defenders--was watching Vick's every twitch Saturday night, when he had the typical Vick game: 82 passing yards, 119 rushing yards--a record for a quarterback in the playoffs--two touchdown passes and a lost fumble.

When the Falcons' bus pulls up to a road hotel, it often is greeted by hundreds of fans. McKay teases Vick, telling him he's like a rock star. Blank teases McKay, telling him he should send a bill to the other 31 team owners because of Vick's value to the NFL. "What he does is put people in the seats, and that's how you justify his contract," Cardinals coach Dennis Green says. "I think he's worth it."

Blank and McKay say they did not consider Vick a revenue stream when they determined his value because the salary cap wouldn't allow for such a concession. They merely considered him a quarterback and the centerpiece of the franchise. Still, it took them more than four months of deliberating and negotiating with Segal to settle on his value and agree to the deal.

Is a player who can't be game-planned for worth $800,000 a game, even if he doesn't fit the mold?

He can be because he doesn't fit the mold.

Altering Atlanta

Michael Vick, with help from owner Arthur Blank and the team he put in place, has made the Falcons players on many fronts. This is what the Falcons looked like in 2000, the year before Vick was drafted, and in 2004.

                                   2000                  2004

Team merchandise sales             $9,600                $1 million
Page views at atlantafalcons.com   10 million            82 million
Season-ticket holders              20,000                70.000 (wth a
                                                           waiting list
                                                           of 16,000)
* Television ratings               12.4                  22.2
Highest average salary             $5.5 million (Chris   $13 million
                                     Chandler)             (Vick)
Team passing yards                 3,166 million         2.692
Four-year winning percentage       .469                  .508

* Percent of households watching the Falcons' telecast each week, on
average.--D.P.

Expert picks: NFC title game

Paul Attner, senior writer                Eagles 27, Falcons 24
Chris Bahr, associate editor              Eagles 27; Falcons 22
Dennis Dillon, senior writer              Eagles 27, Falcons 17
Vinnie Iyer, projects editor              Eagles 27, Falcons 17
Carl Moritz, assistant managing editor    Eagles 24, Falcons 20
Dan Pompei, senior writer                 Falcons 16, Eagles 13
War Room scouts                           Eagles 23, Falcons 17

NFC championship game matchup

War room scouts offer their unique take on Sunday's NFC playoff matchup. For in-depth analysis, subscribe to the Pro Football War Room

Falcons at Eagles

When Atlanta has the ball: The Falcons' game plan will contain no surprises except for unpredictable QB Michael Vick. It will focus on the ground game, using RBs Warrick Dunn and T.J. Duckett--plus Vick's designed runs and scrambling ability--to wear down the Eagles' front seven and control the clock. The Eagles have had success against scrambling quarterbacks by playing LE Jevon Kearse inside as a spy and using hard-hitting MLB Jeremiah Trotter to cut off rushing lanes. Vick will have to throw deep a few times early to keep the safeties out of the box. The Eagles' secondary will give Vick all he can handle. Advantage: Eagles.

When Philadelphia has the ball: The Eagles will make RB Brian Westbrook the focal point early, getting him the ball in the open field on screens and wheel routes. That will force the Falcons' linebackers to account for Westbrook and roll the coverage his way, leaving the middle open for WRs Freddie Mitchell, Todd Pinkston and Greg Lewis and TE L.J. Smith. QB Donovan McNabb will run some play fakes with boot action, giving him a run-pass option and freezing the linebackers. Not only will Atlanta's fast linebackers have to make plays on Westbrook, but they will be tested by McNabb once he gets outside the containment. The Falcons will need big plays from LE Patrick Kerney and DT Rod Coleman, who must not let McNabb get outside. Advantage: Eagles.

Key matchup: Eagles RB Brian Westbrook vs. Falcons OLB Keith Brooking. Westbrook has been the Eagles' most consistent and versatile offensive weapon. They shift their formations and use motion to get him in mismatches against slower linebackers. Brooking plays with a warrior's mentality and is the leader of Atlanta's stingy defense. He likely will be asked to contain Westbrook. Brooking has great speed and flies to the ball but sometimes overruns the ballcarrier. He's one of the league's best tacklers, but in the open field he will have trouble keeping up with Westbrook. Advantage: Eagles.

Bottom line: The Falcons live and die with their ability to run. The Eagles have a more balanced attack and will keep Atlanta's defense guessing. The Eagles will force Vick to try to beat them with his arm, and he will struggle against the three Pro Bowl players in the Eagles' secondary. Pick: Eagles 23, Falcons 17.

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