Just two weeks before the start of the 2015 season, free-agent quarterback Michael Vick finally found a team. The Pittsburgh Steelers inked the 35-year-old to a one-year deal.

 

Vick will be the backup to two-time Super Bowl champion Ben Roethlisberger, as his signing coincides with the Steelers’ announcement that backup Bruce Gradkowski has been placed on injured reserve with a dislocated finger. The number one pick in the 2001 draft, Vick has very little, if anything, left in the tank at this point.

 

With the New York Jets in 2014, Vick made three starts, winning one, while completing just 52.9 percent of his passes and taking an insane 19 sacks in only 121 dropbacks. If an injury to Roethlisberger, who has missed time in multiple seasons before, forces Vick into the lineup, the Steelers are in trouble, especially against AFC North defenses like Baltimore and Cincinnati.

 

During his five seasons in Philadelphia, Vick won 20 of 40 starts. He was signed on a low-risk, high-reward deal by Andy Reid after he was released from prison in 2009, and he emerged as the team’s surprise starter and the eventual NFL Comeback Player of the Year in 2010. But three straight disappointing injury-plagued seasons, which has more or less been the story of his career, caused the Eagles to move on from Vick after 2013, Chip Kelly’s first year with the team.

 

The guess here is that Vick doesn’t make any starts for one of the league’s most explosive offenses in 2015 before retiring after the season. While he never lived up his status as the number one overall pick, four Pro Bowls, three trips to the postseason and a pair of $100 million contracts speak volumes to the type of impact Vick had during his peak years.