Vick, of course, played through Sunday's loss to the Cardinals with broken ribs. The exact play on which the injury occurred is up for debate, but, no matter when it happened, the quarterback had his worst day as an Eagle.
With Vick sidelined on Wednesday, both Young and Kafka said they split repetitions with the first-team offense. Two other players and a team source, however, said that Young took the majority of snaps.
The general feeling from the locker room was that if Vick couldn't go, Young would get his first start with the Eagles. Giants coach Tom Coughlin was asked during a conference call with Philadelphia-area reporters if he was preparing for Vick.
"Unless Vick doesn't come out, then I'll believe he's not going to play," Coughlin said.
Vick did not meet with reporters Wednesday.
Young did for the first time seemingly in months. His contributions since joining the team in late July have been restricted to the unfortunate reference to the Eagles as a Dream Team, two pass plays against the Redskins - one of which was intercepted - and a handoff against Arizona.
"It's been tough, not playing and . . . being out there with your teammates," Young said when asked to assess his tenure here.
Young started 47 games in five seasons with the Tennessee Titans before coming here. He compiled a 30-17 record as a starter, and the general feeling has been that Eagles coaches feel more comfortable with Young because of that success.
But Kafka has a one-year head start in learning the offense, and Young said he's still playing catch-up on the playbook.
"It's definitely [a] wordy, very, very detailed offense," Young said. "You have to be up with it because Andy, he'll pop up on you and ask you what the play is even though you're not in there."
Young has been a reliever before, but he hasn't looked at ease in a very small sample of jumping in for Vick. At Washington he escaped from the pocket early both times he dropped back, and threw an ill-advised pass out of his own end zone that was picked off.
On Sunday, when he came in on a third down, he appeared to line up under center before he realized he was supposed to be in the shotgun.
"That play we can do from either gun or from under," Reid said. "He chose to go from the gun there."
It will be interesting to see how Young performs as the starter if he gets the majority of practice time. He owns a 2-0 mark against the Giants with a 107.2 passer rating in those victories.
A number of Eagles players said the plays wouldn't change much if Young did start. Speculation over Young's readiness could be for naught. Vick's intention will be to play, especially with the 3-6 Eagles near death.
"Vick's a tough guy," Kafka said. "I wouldn't expect anything less" than for him to play.
Nevertheless, Reid will have to decide if a banged-up Vick is a better option than Young. Vick was wretched against the Cardinals - his 32.5 passer rating was an Eagles low. But the Eagles are three games behind the NFC East-leading Giants. Desperate times may call for desperate measures.
"We're not going to put him in any bit of risk out there. That's not what we do," Reid said. "We'll just see how the next few days go."
Reid said the Eagles did not know about Vick's broken ribs until Monday morning. He said the injury occurred on the second play of the Cardinals game, but Eagles running back LeSean McCoy said Wednesday that he thought it occurred in the fourth quarter, when Vick left the game.
After he was told that Reid said it happened on the second play, McCoy deferred to this head coach. Reid said Vick told the team he broke his ribs then. How did he know?
"He doesn't have X-ray vision," Reid said. "He was sore, I guess."
Reid was asked if it was possible Vick broke his ribs on the fourth-quarter hit.
"This isn't the game of Clue, you know," he said. "I'm telling you the second play of the game."
Young or Kafka?
Here is a look at the careers of Eagles backup quarterbacks Vince Young and Mike Kafka. One of them will play Sunday if Michael Vick is out because of broken ribs.
Vince Young
Sixth NFL season; drafted third overall by the Titans in 2006.
G GS COMP ATT PCT YDS YD/ATT LNG TD INT SCK RTG
56 47 689 1,191 57.9 8,098 6.8 73 42 43 75 75
Mike Kafka
Second NFL season; drafted 122d overall by the Eagles in 2010.
G GS COMP ATT PCT YDS YD/ATT LNG TD INT SCK RTG
2 0 11 16 68.8 107 6.7 43 0 2 1 48
Contact staff writer Jeff McLane at 215-854-4745, jmclane@phillynews.com, or @Jeff_McLane on Twitter.
