Twitter Mailbag: Vick on Foles’ (Potential) Greatness

First things first: Several of you have taken umbrage with my declaration in the Wake-Up Call that left tackle is the second-most important position in football, noting that Michael Vick is left-handed and the right tackle – Todd Herremans — is the one protecting his blindside.

It’s a fair point. That factor brings the position’s importance level on this team down from red to a hot orange. Still, it can be argued that LT is the more critical position. As Andy Reid mentioned while honoring Tra Thomas Thursday morning, the left tackle usually draws the opposition’s top pass rusher as well.

Let’s all agree that it’s pretty damn pressing that the Eagles stabilize their left tackle position and move on.

Here’s what Vick had to say about the Demetress Bell-King Dunlap situation:

“Obviously you want everything to be sound and solid for everybody to be in a position where they are comfortable. As of right now we’re still making some adjustments with some guys,” said Vick. “It’s my left side so hopefully I can take advantage of things we can do as well over there… I’m not really worried about it, we’ll see how it all plays out. Whoever is over there I’m going to have 100 percent confidence that they can get the job done.”

From @muldoon_patrick: hey Tim! What’s the future potential for Nick Foles?? Could he be a starter in the NFL? #EaglesNation

Ah, the Nick Foles love is still running strong. Honestly, Patrick, you really need to see a quarterback  face live bullets (read: in a regular season game, not against third-stringers in exhibition play) before you can start making a true judgment call. Vick, though, sounds really high on him.

“His poise has really impressed me, his decision-making and obviously he has a big-time arm,” said Vick. “I think Nick has all the ingredients to be a great quarterback in this league. It may take some time, it may not, but he has all the intangibles and what it takes.”

From @bigshid215: do you think Thornton is a better option than Dixon?

For what the Eagles like to do, yes. Jim Washburn at the beginning of camp started raving about Thornton unprompted.“You know one guy that never gets talked about is Cedric Thornton,” Washburn began, then went on to list the many reasons he likes him. I can’t picture him similarly getting moved to speak on Antonio Dixon’s behalf. Dixon, you can argue, is the one guy (with Mike Patterson out) that can just clog up that middle in a run situation. But this coach doesn’t seem to value that trait. It’s all about speed and penetration. I kept Dixon off my latest 53-man projection, while Sheil has both Dixon and Thornton making the cut.

From @estebomb: Will the Eagles ever achieve Jim Washburn’s dream of fielding a defense consisting entirely of defensive linemen?

Getting closer day by day. I keep trying to figure out how they are going to take advantage of this overflow of defensive line talent. Keep them all and just send fastball after fastball? Trade one or two to gain depth at other positions? I talked to Trent Cole about this on Thursday.

“We’re just one of those teams in the NFL that has that horseshoe, we got the lucky pick of a great group of guys that can get it done,” said Cole.

“Everybody knows how it is – may the best play…If you can get it done and they want you to play, you’ll be playing. If they don’t want you here, you go somewhere else and they’ll be playing somewhere else because we have a great group of guys, and they’ll probably be starting or maybe backing up.”

Is this team capable of 60 sacks?

“I believe we can get as many sacks as we want,” he said.