PHILADELPHIA – Jevon Kearse didn’t even bother with his poker face when he was asked if he would be the “spy” on Michael Vick in the Philadelphia Eagles’ defense on Sunday. Instead, he threw back his head and smiled, like a child with a secret he couldn’t wait to share.
“Hmmmm,” Kearse said with a laugh. “I don’t know.”
Oh yes he does.
In fact, on Monday, the morning after the Eagles disposed of the Minnesota Vikings, Kearse told his position coach that’s exactly the role he wants to play when the Eagles face the Falcons in the NFC Championship Game: to be the Eagles’ not-so-secret weapon in their scheme to keep Vick contained. Wherever Vick goes, that’s where Kearse wants to be.
“I asked (defensive line coach Tommy Brasher) if I could take on a bigger role in this game, maybe move around a little bit more,” Kearse said Thursday. “Especially knowing Michael Vick is a lefthanded quarterback, I asked to be more into the game plan as far as being one of the ones to help contain someone like this.”
It remains to be seen whether that means Kearse will play the role of the “spy,” shadowing the mobile Vick from the other side of the line of scrimmage. But it seems the Eagles will at least move their top pass rusher around often, just to keep Vick off guard. The man known as “the Freak” had 7 sacks from the left defensive end position this season, but as a lefty Vick is more likely to scramble to the other side.
So Kearse said, “I’m probably going to be playing on both sides a lot this week, probably a little more on the right side.” The idea is to keep Vick from scrambling and running like he did Saturday against St. Louis, when he set a playoff record for quarterbacks with 119 rushing yards. And the Eagles seem to think the best way to do that is to put the speedy, 6-4, 265-pound Kearse in his way.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to match up speed with speed,” Kearse said. “I’m not saying in any way that I’m faster than Vick. But I think I can do some pretty good things as far as not letting him outside and helping keep our defensive backs from covering all day.”
The Eagles used Kearse that way on Sunday, when they held quarterback Daunte Culpepper to just 25 rushing yards and beat the Vikings 27-14. But Culpepper is not nearly as mobile and dangerous as Vick. In fact, Vick is so dangerous that most teams don’t even attempt to put a spy on him. He said the only time he has been spied was Saturday.
And he said the Rams only did it for one play.
That sounded extreme, but Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson said it was probably accurate. “I think most people think that he’s such a unique athlete that not one guy can always spy him,” Johnson said. “So you don’t see much of it.”
“If you spy a quarterback it doesn’t really help you, it hurts you in a sense,” Vick explained. “It’s like playing with 10 guys on the field. You’ve got one guy sitting in the middle of the field watching the quarterback. It doesn’t give you a good chance to make a stop when you need to.”
One way or another, though, Vick will see a lot of Kearse, whom Johnson called “one of the biggest upgrades we’ve had” to the overall speed of the Eagles’ defense. That’s why the Eagles gave him an eight-year, $66 million contract and a $16 million signing bonus on the first day of free agency last March. And it’s why his coach agreed to let him be the spy against Vick on Sunday.
At least that’s what he said.
“He (Andy Reid) said he’s going to let me do that,” Kearse added with another smile. “But who knows? Sunday is a long time away.”
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