Nobody's holding onto the ball longer than Michael Vick. The Philadelphia Eagles passer is clutching the pigskin 4.3 seconds per dropback, tied for the league's longest release time, per ESPN.
According to Vick, those figures don't mean much.
"I am not holding the ball too long," he said, per Phil Sheridan of ESPN.com. "Don't try to make that an issue. It's not. Whoever says I'm holding the ball is wrong. They need to go watch the film."
Watching the film, incidentally, is how dropback time is compiled, but Vick isn't entirely wrong. Some of his better plays have come from taking time to scroll through his options downfield. That patience is a positive, but Chip Kelly wants his quarterbacks to get rid of the ball fast.
In Denver, by comparison, Peyton Manning dumps the ball in 2.35 seconds on average. The Broncos have lost multiple centers and their starting left tackle to injury, but the line continues to thrive. Manning's rapid release is a big reason for that.
Go watch the difference between Brian Hoyer and Brandon Weeden in Cleveland. When Hoyer went down with an ACL tearThursday night, Weeden took the field and -- to the naked eye -- looked creaky in the backfield, taking his sweet time pulling the trigger.
Vick says added seconds in the pocket don't equal poor decisions and lost opportunities. He's always been a mixed bag, so we'll lean on what we know: Getting rid of the ball brings success in the NFL.
The "Around The League Podcast" handed out our quarter season awards this week.
