Football News - In the 'Vick' of time: Michael Vick to become the NFL's highest-paid player



Look out below. Atlanta Falcons franchise QB Michael Vick has signed a bank-breaking, 10-year, $100 million dollar contract extension, keeping him a Falcon through 2014. The scary thought of this all, is that Vick had a chance to become a free agent after this season because of incentives.

This contract will make him the highest paid player in the NFL, as his contract surpasses Colts QB Peyton Manning's 7-year, $98 million dollar contract, which had a $34.5 million dollar signing bonus. Vick's signing bonus is $37 million, consisting mostly of incentives. With the recent extension of Alge Crumpler, and now the former 1st overall pick in 2001, the Falcons have kept their top two offensive threats locked up long term. The Falcons are 24-12-1 when Vick starts, and an astounding 4-19 when he does not. Vick, who will be going to his second career Pro Bowl at season's end, has completed 175 of 314 passes, for a 55% completion rating, throwing for 2278 yards, 13 TDs, and 12 INTs, but consider this all in Vick's first season under the new West Coast offense. He is only 822 passing yards, and 111 rushing yards away from setting NFL history, where he would be just the third NFL quarterback to throw for over 3000 passing yards and rush for over 1000 yards. He currently has 889 rushing yards, with 3 TDs. Vick has helped the Falcons to an 11-3 record, already wrapping up the NFC South title, as well as the #2 seed in the NFC, clinching a first round bye last week with a win over the Panthers. Over his 4-year career, he has completed 506 of 948 passes, a 53.4 completion percentage, and has 35 touchdowns to 26 interceptions, with over 6500 yards, with 6584, and already has over 2000 rushing yards, with 2210, and 13 touchdowns. Vick became the Falcons full-time starter at the start of the 2002 regular season, when he started 15 games. With

Surely this contract could come back to haunt Atlanta if Vick does perform up to his expectations, but at least you don't have to worry about another franchise-QB-less team signing him. As well, it will ensure that this young prodigy is a Falcon for his entire NFL career. We'll have to wait and see if this will scrutinize the Falcons payroll, but for now, this was a victory for the NFL, and the city of Atlanta, and its fans.




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