Will Michael Vick return to the NFL?

It’s the talk of the league after Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison Monday for charges stemming from the dog-fighting ring he ran out of his Virginia home.

Nobody knows if or when Vick might return to the NFL. For now, it’s little more than idle talk-show and water-cooler chatter.

But a study of the Cold, Hard Football Facts could not be more certain about one thing: if and when Vick returns to the NFL it should be — and will be — as a running back. In fact, you could argue already that he’s been one of the great running backs the game has ever seen. His performance as a passer, meanwhile – the foundation of pro quarterbacking – has always left a lot to be desired.

In tribute to his old jersey number, here are seven reasons why any future Michael Vick redemption story will come with a new jersey number, like 32 or 34.

1. Vick holds the career record for average per rush attempt
Even though Vick bore the title of quarterback, his most electrifying, memorable and productive plays came when he ran with the ball. In his six NFL seasons, he cranked out 3,870 yards on 527 attempts, an average of 7.34 YPA. Nobody in the history of football comes close to matching that average. Vick doesn’t have the necessary minimum 750 attempts to qualify for the official NFL record books, but his average is so far above and beyond anyone else in history that there’s little doubt he would hold the mark after another 223 attempts. The current record belongs to another famous running quarterback, Randall Cunningham, who averaged 6.36 YPA, nearly a full yard less than Vick’s average.

To put Vick’s average of 7.34 yards per rush attempt into perspective, consider that New England’s record-setting quarterback Tom Brady has averaged 7.25 yards per pass attempt in his career.

2. Vick holds the single-season record for average per rush attempt
Remember Beattie Feathers? No? Here’s the CliffsNotes bio: he paired with Bronko Nagurski to give the 1934 Bears one of the most devastating ground attacks in history. Feathers that year cranked out 1,004 yards on a mere 119 carries for a single-season average of 8.44 YPA that would stand as an NFL record for 72 seasons — until Vick broke the record last season when he ran for 1,039 yards on 123 attempts, an average of 8.45 YPA.

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Clearly, Vick’s average per attempt benefits because of his position. If a quarterback, for example, is tackled 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage, the play is recorded as a sack and counts against his gross passing totals, not against his rushing totals. If a running back is tackled 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage, it is, naturally, deducted from his rushing totals. So quarterbacks certainly have an unfair advantage in this category.

Still, Vick’s brilliance as a runner is evident by the fact that his career average per attempt, as noted above, exceeds another quarterback, Cunningham, by nearly a full yard. Vick’s single-season record of 8.45 YPA also blows away Cunningham’s best single-season of 7.98 YPA in 1990 which, coincidentally, is the third best single-season average in history (behind Vick and Feathers).

3. Vick was already a running back with Atlanta
The Falcons succeeded with Vick at quarterback not because he was a great passer — he wasn’t even close — but because he ran the ball so successfully. In fact, he inspired the Falcons to become one of the most productive running teams in football history. The 2006 Falcons, for example, were No. 1 in the NFL in rushing attempts (537), yards (2,939) and yards per attempt (5.47).

That team-wide average of 5.47 yards per attempt gave the 2006 Falcons the second most effective ground game of the Super Bowl Era. Only the Barry Sanders-led 1997 Lions were more consistently productive on the ground, with an average of 5.51 YPA.

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The team-wide total of 2,939 yards, meanwhile, was the fourth-best single-season output in NFL history.

4. Vick has prototypical running back size
Vick chimes in at 6-1, 215 pounds — almost perfect size for an NFL running back. In fact, he’s the spitting physical image of the league’s latest superstar ball carrier, Adrian Peterson of Minnesota (6-1, 217).

Vick is certainly tall enough to become a modern pocket-passer-style QB — just ask Drew Brees (6-0, 210) — but he certainly doesn’t match up physically with prototypical modern NFL quarterbacks such as Tom Brady (6-4, 225), Peyton Manning (6-5, 230) or Ben Roethlisberger (6-5, 240) ... the same guys who have won five of the past six Super Bowls.

5. Vick would have to relearn the QB position after a three-year absence
NFL quarterback is widely regarded as the toughest position to play in all of sports. Certainly, no position benefits more from repetition — repetition needed to master pass routes and check downs, not to mention opposing defenses, among many other variables. Quarterbacks simply get better with the more snaps they take, usually peaking in their late 20s and early 30s. Just ask the prolific Peyton Manning, who came into the NFL with all the talent in the world, but struggled to grasp the pro game, as evidenced by his 28 INTs as a rookie – nearly the number the 31-year old Manning has thrown in his last three years combined (32). Manning, like every other quarterback in the history of the game, has grown better with the more snaps he’s taken.

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