Ray Glier

ATLANTA - Welcome to this edition of "Inside the NFL" on HBO. Our guests are Roddy White and Michael Jenkins, wide receivers of the Atlanta Falcons.

It’s your turn, guys. Go ahead.

“Man . . . if I had a chance to play with a quarterback like Peyton Manning,” White begins.

“No, man, Tom Brady, or Donovan McNabb,” said Jenkins.

"Yeah," says White, "quarterbacks who throw on time."

And joining us is Falcons offensive coordinator Greg Knapp.

“We help take the pressure off the quarterback with a running game that forces defenses to put eight defenders in the tackle box,” says Knapp. “Our quarterback still doesn’t complete 50 percent of his passes. Oh well.”

We bring you White, Jenkins and Knapp in the interest of equal time.

We also give you their side so you can throw darts at Michael Vick’s leadership skills. He deserves to look in the mirror.

The past two weeks, against teams with a combined record of 5-13, Vick has thrown four interceptions and four touchdown passes. He has completed 45 percent of his passes. He fumbled to ruin a drive to win against Cleveland last week.

This is after Vick said on HBO he wished he could throw to receivers like Marvin Harrison and play in a pass-first system like Manning.

This is after he smeared his stats in two games — against Pittsburgh and Cincinnati — in the face of his critics and declared, yet again, he had arrived.

Maybe his receivers and his coach should jump in front of a microphone and put him down now that it is apparent they are not the only problems with the 5-4 Falcons.

I’ve had one foot on and one foot off the Vick bandwagon for two years. He makes plays, he makes mistakes. Only my thermometer in November goes up and down more than this guy. Sixty-eight during the day; 43 at night.

The guy plays hurt. He is not afraid to run with it. He’s got arm; he’s got guts. The Falcons have the best run game in the NFL because of Vick.

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Then you see the other stuff. The high throws, the carelessness. If you are paying attention, the Falcons rank 30th in the NFL in pass offense for reasons that include the receivers, the scheme and the quarterback.

A newspaper in Green Bay surveyed eight NFL scouts, and the experts ranked Vick as the seventh-best quarterback in the NFL.

The guy has stirred countless debates in Atlanta. Is it his mechanics, or is it the lack of protection? Is it the receivers or his throwing?

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