Kafka must step up to seize backup QB job

The Flyers and Sixers are finished playing and you might as well say the Phillies are done, so we turn our attention to the Eagles, who go to camp at Lehigh in three weeks.

I can’t help but wonder if Mike Kafka is the right man to be Michael Vick’s backup.

Kafka has the size at 6-foot-3, 225 pounds, but I’m not so sure he has the right overall make-up to step in if needed and be productive in the Eagles' offense. He doesn’t have a big arm and isn’t considered very mobile, but he’s got to have a high IQ to have gone to a school like Northwestern. 

Kafka has only two years of NFL experience under his belt and is still developing. The only passes he's thrown came last season in two games, when he was 11 of 16 for 107 yards, no TDs and two interceptions. Kafka is known around the NovaCare complex as a gym rat -- always in the weight room and constantly in dark rooms watching game film.

What he may lack in overall ability right now, Kafka makes up for in work ethic. He just might be the next A.J. Feeley, who was serviceable in this Eagles' scheme. But there’s still a part of me that has to see more from Kafka, like how he makes adjustment calls at the line of scrimmage and improvises when breakdowns occur.

Kafka is one of the players I will be closely watching during the preseason. He will get ample playing time in at least two of the exhibition games to work on his skills. For the Eagles' sake, I hope he fulfills their expectations as a backup, because after him you’re looking at a rookie in Nick Foles and veteran Trent Edwards, who I feel won't provide much of anything to the team's cause.

E-mail Derrick Gunn at dgunn@comcastsportsnet.com