Vick in Denver?

Probably not, as Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen has denied meeting with the recently-freed quarterback. Of course, you never know—I’d absolutely deny meeting with Vick under any circumstances up to the moment I signed him.

My question is, should the team consider it? On the one hand, Vick would immediately become the most talented quarterback on Denver’s roster. Our current candidates for the job this year are Kyle Orton, a career 55.3 percent passer who earned some small acclaim playing alongside a few good defenses in Chicago; Chris Simms, son of an NFL star who was best known for beating Denver in the Super Bowl, and a player who was considered a disappointment before he even left college; and Tom Brandstater, a rookie from Fresno State whose YouTube highlights fail to impress. It’s weird because I could have sworn we did okay at quarterback last year. In fact I keep hoping to hear that the trade of Jay Cutler and the firing of Mike Shanahan were all just one big joke or something, but anyway. The Broncos could use a passer.

As it is, our best bet could even be (cringe) Simms, who has somehow attempted only 494 passes in his six NFL seasons. That’s exactly as many as John Elway threw in 1994, when he notched the eighth-highest total of his career.

Vick, however, is in some respects one of the most talented quarterbacks in NFL history. Certainly he’s gifted as a runner; he picked up more than a thousand yards on the ground his last season in the game (2006). His passing can be underwhelming; he has a very strong arm and can pull off incredible throws, but he’s also capable of wild inaccuracy. Of course, you already know all this, as he was one of the most celebrated players of the decade. (One of the most annoying ways he was honored was how the abysmal ESPN Sunday Night Football crew used to shoehorn five Michael Vick mentions into every broadcast, even when his team had nothing to do with the game.)

So why not sign him? Well…there’s kinda sorta the small matter that he was involved in a long-running dog-fighting ring that involved what could be described as the torture of animals.

So should the Broncos sign Vick? To be honest, I’m not sure, but I don’t think I’d have a problem with it. Vick did hard time and has paid his debt to society. You might think he doesn’t deserve to be an NFL quarterback anymore, but the courts don’t see it that way. He needs a job, perhaps desperately, and this is the field he has experience in. I don’t think he deserves a big contract—he may be done as a player—and he’d have to earn his PT, but that’s true for everybody. I think it’d be worth signing Vick just to see one friend of mine flip out over it. Besides, it may be good PR for the team to say it’s only interested in so-called good-character guys, but if that’s true, it’s a pretty new development. For once, though, I want to know what YOU think, so hit the comments and let me know.