NOW can we declare him to be nothing more than a great athlete and a mediocre quarterback? 

Please? 

Isn't it about time we all just came to terms with the fact that Michael Vick is two things. He is one of the greatest athletes to ever set foot on an NFL football field. Blazing speed, a fantastic arm, great balance. This man is strong, quick, and coordinated.

He's also nothing more than a mediocre quarterback. Sure, he can win you some games almost single-handedly over the course of a season (provided he's healthy for most of the season). He can also make glaring errors and play woefully unimpressive football. 

All you need to do is look back to the Monday Night Football game against the Bears to see that. There was Vick facing a 4th-and-10 late in the fourth quarter with his team desperately needing a touchdown.

Jeremy Maclin was wide open streaking across the right side of the field. All Vick had to do was deliver a ball to a completely wide open receiver and the drive would continue—as would Philadelphia's chances of winning the game.

He couldn't do it.

Oh, Vick did complete the pass, but the throw was so off-base that it caused Maclin to have to lean off balance to make the catch, falling to the ground where a defender would touch him and stop him with a gain of only nine yards. Drive and game over.

Great quarterbacks can make amazing plays and if that were the only quality one needed to become a "great quarterback," then Vick would easily qualify. \

There's more to it than that though. What about the routine plays—or rather the seemingly routine ones?What about checking off a potentially blitzing defender at the line of scrimmage and changing the play to one that exploits the defense rather than waiting and then trying to make the correct reaction once the ball has been snapped? What about making the easy throws? What about knowing when to scramble and when not to?

Ben Roethlisberger and Tom Brady have been to a combined seven Super Bowls. They're 5-2. Once could argue that they are the two slowest quarterbacks in the league. Even if they're not the absolute slowest, neither one would qualify as "agile". Yet both of them seem to routinely evade pass-rushers.

Brady calls plays that allow him to get rid of the ball before the defenders ever reach him. Roethlisberger uses a variety of fakes and moves to evade defenders long enough to either find a receiver or get rid of the football.

Michael Vick will at times exploit the defenses' pursuit and break free. Once he hits the open field, he becomes a very tough guy to catch and bring down. He doesn't always do that, though. Often, he doesn't pick up the blitz until it's too late. His outstanding agility will allow him to avoid the sack, but the bulk of his interceptions transpire while he's feeling defensive pressure.

In the end, the Michael Vick we see now is pretty much Michael Vick as a quarterback. He's good—but not that good. Mentioning Vick alongside guys like Brady, Roethlisberger, Rodgers and Peyton Manning is just silly.

It doesn't matter that he's a better athlete than all of them. He's not a better quarterback.

It also doesn't matter how much he gets paid. A $100 million quarterback is not automatically anything except rich. He also won't get better because of the contract. I'm not sure how long it's going to take owners, fans and media to understand that players don't get better because of lucrative high-priced contracts.The players are who they are. After head coach Andy Reid, Vick is going to rightfully get the bulk of the blame for the woeful season that the Eagles are in the midst of enduring. He's not giving less effort though. The Vick you're seeing this year is displaying many of the weaknesses he's displayed over the course of a career that has spanned almost nine full seasons.

Injury-prone? Inconsistent? Doesn't operate well when there's an intense pass-rush? Will make spectacular plays and then muff seemingly simple ones? Those qualities have all been there since day one in the NFL. There were some better seasons and some not-so-good ones as well.

After almost nine full seasons, though, isn't about time someone started to acknowledge what Vick is?

He's pretty good, he's not great, though, and if you're expecting him to be so, then you've got another thing coming.

Vick is 31 years old, it's been more than 10 years since he was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 NFL Draft. If anything, he's nearing the twilight of his career. It's been a good career and Vick is a great athlete—but great quarterback? Nope.