NFL: He wasn't our guy

By Jason Thomas

As the trade between the Atlanta Falcons and the San Diego Chargers was announced on Friday, one thought had to be buzzing in the heads of all NFL draft fans… That question is why?

Why would the Chargers trade away a chance to select someone loaded with such promise? Why would they trade away the chance to select a consensus number one? Why would they trade away a pick for the best offensive player in the draft, when they desperately need offense? Hours after the questions were being fired off, the answers started to trickle from the Chargers. And after hearing them, one had to be left with a different impression of the weeks leading up to the draft.

According to a San Diego Chargers official I spoke with, the organization has had serious reservations about Vick all throughout the pre-draft process. The questions were serious enough to not only eventually force the Chargers to deal the number one selection, but they were serious enough to divide the organization in half according to the official.

“He wasn’t our guy,” stated the official, who spoke with Fanstop.com on condition of anonymity. “There were doubts in our mind from the day he declared for the draft. Everyone wants to hang it on sign-ability. It wasn’t just that. That could have been worked around. The guy is not the player and the talent everyone says he is and there is no way that he is ready to go in this league. If he was he wouldn’t have split our organization.”

Many news organizations reported that the soul sticking point between Vick and the Chargers was the negotiation of Vick’s contract. A contract that Fanstop’s Allison Stewart reported was between $45 and $60 million with a $12 million signing bonus. However, the official I spoke with stated that anything off the field had nothing to do with the trade. It was more a question of Vick’s play between the lines.

“The debate really split our front office,” he stated. “I am not going to say who was for taking him and against taking him, however there were a lot of raised voice conversations about it. The contract issue wouldn’t have divided us like this. There is no way that kid is a franchise guy. If he were, we wouldn’t have listened to anyone about a trade. The fact we traded the pick should tell you something.”

Vick has been by many the consensus number one since the beginning of his sophomore season at Virginia Tech. He has also been called the greatest natural athlete to enter the league in the past ten years. His competitiveness, athletic ability, and ability to win have also marked him as a seemingly can’t miss product. However, the official stated there are negatives that people haven’t looked at with the young superstar.

“Not ready for the league, period,” the official stated. “The guy has a rocket for an arm, but he is not accurate. He throws to many bad balls and interceptions. He has not shown us he can win the big one. He has also not shown us that he is a quarterback. He is a great athlete, a tremendous leader, but so was Jerry Rice. And I don’t want to line Jerry up at quarterback. The guy just isn’t ready to be a starting quarterback in this league. That factor made the decision for us.”

The official also stated that the Ryan Leaf debacle of the 1998 draft had nothing to do with the Chargers decision to avoid taking Vick. He told me that they based Vick on Vick and this draft on this draft, not on anything that has happened in past years. He stated that when it came time for a decision to be made, the reasons not to take Vick outweighed the reasons to take him.

However, will that decision be one the Chargers are regretting for the next decade or so?

Article courtesy of Sportsuperstarz.com