My concerns with Michael Vick

On my sportstalk show this week one of the topics I debated with Brant was what's missing from Michael Vick's game to get him to win a Super Bowl. Simple: a receiver.

Atlanta's got a great defense, a solid running game, impressive special teams play and a beast in Alge Crumpler. The absent yang to Vick's yin is a first-rate wideout. And not just a guy with soft hands who runs like the wind and can leap DBs in a single bound - a top-notch wideout, an upper echelon guy, a first class player to compliment (and to some degree refine) #7's huge talent.

This goes beyond just a Pro Bowler - an all-pro. Think T.O. Think Randy Moss. Think Chad Johnson.

The Falcons' current receiving corps is decent, but won't get it done. Brian Finneran is good, so is Dez White. Michael Jenkins is coming along. But none of them have what it takes to lead Atlanta to its first NFL championship. Look at Peerless Price. He was outstanding as second-fiddle to Eric Moulds in his years in Buffalo, and went down south to be the next great set of hands for the NFL's Most Electrifying Player. Didn't pan out.

So while the main issue seems to be personnel-rooted, my larger interest with Michael Vick the player at this point is more mental than mechanical. The concern I've got for Vick now in his fifth season is the same I had for Kobe Bryant in his second: both live for the big, dramatic, seemingly athletically impossible feat. They revel in the chance to make the highlight and leave jaws on the floor, and usually don't fail to impress. But when it comes down to the routine, bread and butter play, they overexert themselves and often are counterproductive and difficult to play with. While he's got more running scores than most tailbacks, he's never thrown for more than a pair of touchdowns in the same game his entire pro career.

This erratic combination of has negatively impacted Vick's quarterback rating (a metric I don't give much credence to anyway). Such measurements of effectiveness are fleeting, and when the Falcons were winning earlier this season and were 5-2 and Vick's rating was among the league cellar dwellars the media was all over him. And since his passing game picked up the press backed off, but the Falcons have gone 2-2. Forget such scrutinization - this isn't the consistency I'd like to see. I'd hate to see Vick likened to Dan Marino, Ty Cobb, Charles Barkley or Patrick Ewing - suffering from the gross irony of being one of his sport's greatest competitors who never won it all.

Kobe learned and got better and became a champion. I think Vick, who I had winning the Heisman Trophy in 1999, will do the same. But he won't do it easily without a quality receiver.