Michael Vick has handled his transition to No. 3 quarterback on the Philadelphia Eagles' depth chart with class. That's easier to pull off when he knows it's a temporary arrangement.
Come the offseason, Vick will be perhaps the most interesting name that hits the open market.
"I'm not a backup. Just being honest, just being candid. I'm a full-fledged starter," Vick told Tim McManus of Birds 24/7. "That's what I've got in me, that's what I provide, that's what I offer. Whatever happens, wherever I end up, they're going to get 110 percent. You're going to get the same thing out of me that you got the last two, three years, and that's 110 percent effort and a guy that's confident in his abilities to play and win."
Vick, who will turn 33 next summer, knows he won't be back in Philadelphia. Teams like the New York Jets, Kansas City Chiefs and Arizona Cardinals will be looking for starters. Vick remains too inconsistent to be a championship-level player, but he still would upgrade a lot of situations.
"I want to start," Vick said. "Yeah, I'm a starter. I'll feel that way until I start to feel like I'm becoming a problem on the team."
That last italics was not ours originally, but we like it. Vick's defenders will blame all of 2012 on the Eagles' offensive line. We're not sure what their reasoning was for his up-and-down 2011 season. Leaving a quarterback guru like Andy Reid doesn't exactly sound like good news, but Vick said he'll take lessons learned with him.
"I just feel like I have made so many strides as far as learning the defensive part of the game and kind of piecing it together with the offense," Vick said. "I feel like over the last two years I've kind of gotten better in the protection game and learning defensive schemes.
"I've got prime left, man. I'm just getting started."
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.