Kafka to the rescue! ... Maybe

"Have no fear, Kafka is here!" ::Sound of speed::

There have been a lot of reports going back and forth about whether or not Vick will start this weekend versus the once mighty Giants, now reduced to nothing more than ShEli Manning. After his full participation in practice today, it looks as if he has passed all the tests and barring any setbacks, should start on Sunday. Which, don’t get us wrong, is amazing because we have our star quarterback on the field, but would have it been so bad to see young Northwestern grad Mike “The Stunna” Kafka on the field versus a depleted Giants defense? In just about one full quarter of play, Kafka was 7/9 for 72 yards and looked pretty composed considering the high pressure situation. He led the team on a long drive at the end of the game that could have potentially won the game if “that which we will not speak of” hadn’t happened to Jeremy Maclin. On top of that, he looked like a solid starting quarterback that could read a defense and make an accurate throw. Lets just think about how that could benefit us in the long run…

Possible Positives

Mike Kafka starts, has an amazing game, and we beat the Giants on Sunday. His line looks something like 300 yards on 25/35 passing with 2 TDs and an INT.

What could possibly come from this?

1.     Mike Vick gets an extra week to rest his head so that we are sure there are no lingering effects and he can continue to have an MVP type season.

2.     The second positive that could come from this is our piece of mind knowing that we have a solid backup quarterback for Vick going forward and in the event that he does get hurt in future games, we know that we have a cheap backup that can perform well enough to lead a team to victory.

3.     This would be the best possibility that could come from the game. If Kafka has an amazing game, and in some way is needed to play again in the future due to an injury, and has another amazing game, what could this do? Well, to be perfectly honest, with the respect that coaches have for Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg’s ability to develop a QB, what do you think could happen? Also, consider the fact that a solid starting QB in the league is really hard to come by and evaluate. Answer: Kafka could essentially turn into huge trade bait. We could potentially get great value for him in a bad QB draft year. With the intelligent guys that we have running the GM’s office, don’t think they haven’t thought about this already as a possibility to help the Eagles add more pieces in upcoming years. This could be yet another score for Eagles fan based on an Andy Reid underrated draft pick.

Notable Negatives

Remember when this guy was supposed to be good? We all saw what happened to him.

Mike Kafka comes out and has a pretty bad performance overall. He shows how nervous he can truly be and has an extremely forgettable game with maybe 200 yards passing on 20/45 passing with 1 TD and 2 INTs. Obviously with a performance like this, it would mean a loss to the Giants.

What could possibly come from this?

1.     Obviously this would put us in a bit of a hole in the NFC. We would start off 1-2 on the season and 0-1 in the NFC East. Although we would be able to rebound with the kind of talent we have on this team, it wouldn’t be easy. Our strength of schedule is pretty high this year and the end of the year is the worst part of the schedule. We have to face the Patriots and New York Jets, as well as the Cowboys, Giants, and Redskins all in the last 7 weeks of the season. Most of those are at home, but they are still tough games no matter where you play them.

2.     Kafka’s confidence is hurt and potentially does not rebound. He goes on to continue performing poorly and is out of the league in the next couple years, not being able to catch on with any team… NOT EVEN THE SEAHAWKS! This would not only suck for Kafka, but also the fans of talented, good looking, quarterbacks everywhere.

As you can see, there are a lot of different positives and negatives that could come from starting Kafka this weekend. It seems at this point like this is just going to be all a bunch of ‘what ifs’ because Vick looks like he is going to play. However, if  “The Stunna” comes out and has an amazing game, this could lead to amazing things for the Eagles. No matter what happens though, lets just hope we destroy ShEli and his team of misfit toys.

Brandon Jacobs is the dumb polka dotted elephant incase you were wondering.