After missing two games with an injured left hamstring, Michael Vick will start at quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday against the New York Giants, the Philadelphia Daily News reported Tuesday.
Vick took snaps with the first-team offense at Tuesday’s practice, and according to the Daily News, was expected to tell reporters that his left hamstring had healed enough for him to play.
The Philadelphia Inquirer later reported that Vick will be named the starter for Sunday’s game, quoting an NFL source.
Meanwhile, Nick Foles, the starter for two games while Vick was out, was in the concussion protocol after being knocked out of Sunday’s loss to Dallas at Lincoln Financial Field. His status remains uncertain until he is cleared. The only other available quarterback for the Eagles would be rookie third-stringer Matt Barkley, who finished Sunday’s game in place of Foles.
Vick first hurt his hamstring late in the first half of a win over the Giants at the Meadowlands on October 6. Foles played the second half and threw for 197 yards and two touchdowns, then had 296 yards and three touchdowns the next week against Tampa Bay. But he regressed badly against the Cowboys before suffering the concussion.
FINLEY MAY BE PLACED ON IR
Green Bay Packers tight end Jermichael Finley, who was being treated in an intensive care unit after suffering a scary neck injury in Sunday's Week 7 home win over Cleveland, is expected to be released from the hospital in the next 24 hours, ESPN's Ed Werder reported Tuesday. According to Werder, it was of the doctors' opinion that although Finley should be able to play football again, it's unsure when he can return to the field.
Finley went down late in the game at Lambeau Field after making a reception and taking a helmet-to-helmet hit in a collison with Browns safety Tashuan Gipson. He was carried off in a stretcher, and on Monday, he regained all movement before being transferred from the ICU.
The Packers now must decide whether there's a chance Finley can return this season, or just put him on injured reserve with hopes he can be healthy for the start of next season.
BROWNS UNDECIDED ON WEEDEN
The Cleveland Browns have yet to decide whether Brandon Weeden will remain their starting quarterback in the Week 8 game at Kansas City, the team announced on Monday. Coach Rob Chudzinski may end up benching Weeden in favor of backup Jason Campbell.
Weeden, who just turned 30 this month, is coming off an awful performance in Sunday's Week 7 loss at Green Bay. He completed only 17-of-42 pass attempts (40.5) for 149 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Since he's returned to the lineup, the Browns have lost to both the Lions and Packers to drop back below .500 at 3-4.
Campbell was signed in the offseason to be veteran insurance for Weeden, and wasn't looked at as the team's long-term option at QB. If he gets the nod, it would be a stopgap measure and more hurt Weeden's chances to stick in Cleveland beyond 2013.
The Browns' staff and front office weren't enamored with Weeeden, a 2012 first-rounder, going into his second season, and already demoted him once this season. Third-stringer Brian Hoyer, who got the first shot to repalce Weeden over Campbell, was playing well in wins over Minnesota and Cincinnati that got the Browns to 2-2 before he suffered a torn ACL early in the Week 5 home victory over Buffalo.
The Chiefs' defense leads the NFL in sacks and has wreaked havoc on quarterbacks with pressure and coverage all season. It just saw another QB make his first '13 start, Houston's Case Keenum. Campbell is very familiar with Kansas City, as he once was the starter for AFC West archrival Oakland. At 31, he's just a little older than Weeden. Eight years ago, he was a first-round pick of Washington Redskins (No. 25 overall in 2005).
MERIWEATHER APPEALS SUSPENSION
Brandon Meriweather has appealed the two-game suspension handed out by the NFL Monday for his repeated illegal hits, according to multiple reports. The Washington Post first reported the appeal Tuesday morning.
The Washington safety is entitled to an expedited hearing under the collective bargaining agreement, and it could take place Tuesday or Wednesday, reports indicate. The suspension would cover Sunday’s game in Denver and the following week at home against San Diego.
The appeal will be heard by two mediators jointly approved by the league and the players union, former NFL coordinator Ted Cottrell and recently-retired center Matt Birk. Buccaneers safety Dashon Goldson’s one-game suspension, for a Week 2 helmet-to-helmet hit on the Saints’ Darren Sproles, was overturned by Cottrell and Birk, and Goldson was fined $100,000 instead.
Meriweather, as Goldson was, is a repeat offender this season, having been fined $42,000 for a Week 2 helmet-to-helmet hit on the Packers’ Eddie Lacy. On Sunday against Chicago, Meriweather was penalized twice for illegal hits, both helmet-to-helmet hits on a defenseless receiver, against Alshon Jeffery in the third quarter and Brandon Marshall in the fourth quarter.
A seven-year veteran, Meriweather was also fined $40,000 in 2010 for an illegal hit while playing for New England, and in 2011 was fined twice, in consecutive games, for a total of $45,000 while playing for Chicago. His 2010 figure was a result of a successful appeal of the original $50,000 fine.
RAMS SIGN QUINN
The St. Louis Rams now have a new backup quarterback for their new starting QB. The team announced Tuesday that it has signed Brady Quinn, who was released on Monday by the Jets, as insurance for Kellen Clemens. Clemens, a former Jet himself, will replace injured Sam Bradford in the lineup beginnning with the Week 8 night home game against the Seahawks.
Before Quinn, a first-round draft pick of the Browns in 2007, was on the sidelines in New York, he also spent some time in Seattle. St. Louis is his sixth NFL stop, as Quinn's NFL past includes Denver and Kansas City as well. Given Clemens was the only quarterback on their roster, the Rams added a No. 3, too, in Austin Davis.
Clemens, who at least has experience in Brian Schottenheimer's offense, will be Jeff Fisher's primary option while Bradford is on the shelf of the rest of 2013 with a torn ACL he suffered in Sunday's Week 7 loss at Carolina. At the very least Quinn offers some starting experience from his days with the Browns and Chiefs.
WAYNE OFFICIALLY ON IR
Reggie Wayne's season is officially over.
One day after coach Chuck Pagano confirmed that the Colts receiver had a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, the Colts put their top receiver on season-ending injured reserve. It's the first time in Wayne's 13 NFL seasons he landed on injured reserve, ending a streak of 189 consecutive games played.
Indy (5-2) signed cornerback Jalil Brown to take Wayne's roster spot, though it's still possible the Colts could add a receiver this week. The AFC South leaders have a bye this weekend.
Wayne led the team with 38 catches for 503 yards and also had two TD catches.
Brown was Kansas City's fourth-round pick in 2011.
GARCIA CONTACTS BROWNS
The Cleveland Browns’ quarterback situation is as desperate as any in the NFL right now. Jeff Garcia apparently is testing exactly how desperate the Browns are.
"It’s funny, I actually reached out to the Browns and said, 'Hey, if you need a guy to come in, hey, work me out, take a look,'" Garcia told Cleveland radio station WKRK-FM Tuesday afternoon. "I don’t know if people want me back in Cleveland, but I’m open to the opportunity."
He was serious.
When Garcia is not openly soliciting his troubled former team to audition a 43-year-old who last threw a pass in a regular-season game in 2008, he is a studio host for the NFL Network and trains quarterbacks in the San Diego area.
He has dropped hints about returning a few other times in the last two years, usually when asked about quarterbacks he has advised or worked with, including Mark Sanchez an JaMarcus Russell. Dropping one in Cleveland, however, was unusually bold.
Garcia, who had gone to the playoffs twice and the Pro Bowl three times with the 49ers, is considered one of the biggest busts of the current incarnation of the Browns franchise, lasting one, injury-riddled losing season in 2004 before being released one year into a four-year, $25 million deal.
Still, Garcia told the radio station, "I’m still ready to be a quarterback myself. I mean, I see all these quarterbacks going down, I’m like, ‘Hey, give me a call, I’m ready to come back, man.'" The hosts followed by remarking on the Browns being left with an ineffective Brandon Weeden after Brian Hoyer suffered a season-ending knee injury three weeks ago — and Garcia responded with the revelation about calling his old team.
When similarities between Hoyer and him were pointed out, Garcia said: “That’s what I said to the player personnel rep for the Browns. I said, ‘Does he remind you of anybody?’, because that guy was with me in Philadelphia and saw me play in 2006."
Joe Banner, the Browns’ CEO, and Jon Sandusky, their player personnel director, were both with the Eagles that season — when Garcia came in for an injured Donovan McNabb, won five of six starts and took them to the playoffs.
The Eagles, in fact, were one of the teams Garcia has pitched in recent years — last year, before Andy Reid’s last season as coach. He told WIP-FM radio: “I can be that person who can continue to motivate and inspire and help teach and educate, and if given the opportunity to step on the field, I'm gonna give everything I have to find success, no matter how it happens."
Garcia didn’t get a call back from the Eagles. Stay tuned if, a year later and Garcia a year older, the Browns decide that he’s the answer.
NFL GETS 'A' FOR HIRING
The NFL received its fourth consecutive A grade for its racial hiring practices amid concerns over a significant drop in minority head coaches this season.
The league drew a C+ for gender hiring practices in the annual report by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport released Tuesday.
Overall, the total number of women and people of color at or above the vice president level in the NFL increased by 11 percent. The league received an overall grade of B.
The institute says it issues the grades in relation to the overall patterns in society.
Richard Lapchick, the main author, said the league continues to receive high grades because of what he sees as a continued emphasis on diversity from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and his staff.
"It's been a priority of his commissionership since he took over," Lapchick said, pointing to Goodell's decision to hire Robert Gulliver as the executive vice president of human resources and chief diversity officer in 2010.
However, the number of coaches of color in the NFL has unexpectedly fallen from a league-high eight in 2011 to four this season. The report also expressed concern that of the eight NFL coaching vacancies this offseason, none was filled by minority candidates.
"I think it's a big concern not only for people who monitor it like myself, but for the league as well," Lapchick said. "I don't think the league was expecting that to happen. The telling tale will be what happens after this season."
Lapchick believes the "Rooney Rule" — a mechanism to assure that teams interview at least one minority for their head coaching vacancies — is still working. But he said perhaps more can be done.
Lapchick points to an initiative taken by college football — gathering minority assistant coaches and athletic directors at conferences in an effort to introduce the ADs to potential head coaching candidates.
"If the NFL does something like that at the annual meetings it might help," Lapchick said.
Contributors: Rana L. Cash, Vinnie Iyer, David Steele, The Associated Press