ATLANTA -- Permitted the luxury of playing the "what if" game, a benefit earned by virtue of the St. Louis Rams' 35-6 triumph on Sunday, defensive end Grant Wistrom paused briefly to consider the perilous specter of a unit forced to chase around Michael Vick if the Atlanta Falcons rookie was lined up at tailback or wide receiver.

"Now that," acknowleged Wistrom, pausing to accentuate what was coming next with a sharp whistle, "would be a bitch. He is an incredible athlete, no doubt about it, and he has Marshall (Faulk)-type speed. But they didn't pay all that money to play him at receiver or running back, so we're not going to see that for a while, I don't think."

	Michael Vick may find himself backing up Chris Chandler again in 2002.

Chances are good, based on his Sunday performance, that Vick won't be lining up for a while, either, as the Falcons' starting quarterback. As the first overall selection in the 2001 draft learned again Sunday, often times the hard way, all of those press clippings earned during his brilliant career at Virginia Tech are little more than memories now.

Appearing in just his sixth game of the season and his first since he started for injured Chris Chandler against Dallas on Nov. 11, Vick completed only seven of 18 attempts for 94 yards and was sacked twice. As has been the case in most of his appearances, his best moves were when he scrambled, netting 52 yards on six forays outside the pocket.

But at this nascent point of his still-young career, throwing Vick to the St. Louis defense when Chandler exited with a sprained left ankle in the second quarter was not unlike tossing chum in the water to a ravenous shark. A unit that played it mostly straight against Chandler, primarily rushing just four defenders and dropping into conservative zones, got after Vick with a vengeance in the second half.

Not surprisingly, given his lack of experience, Vick looked discombobulated most times.

Fortunately for the Falcons, who have done an excellent job in not rushing Vick into the fray, the young quarterback isn't loath to concede he has a long way to go before being handed the reins on a full-time basis. With only a little more than a month remaining this season -- and Atlanta still in the wild-card chase, Vick could find playing time hard to come by the rest of the way.

But unless he plays and for an extended period, Vick won't earn the kind of empirical experience he requires to take the next step. And unless he does that, the likelihood is that Chandler will again be the Falcons' starter in 2002, not an altogether bad thing given that the 14-year veteran has gotten better with age.

"The people expect a lot from me, but nobody expects more from me than I do, and so I have to go back to the (drawing) board and correct the things I did wrong this afternoon," Vick said. "It'll come. Believe me, it will come. I understand (the fans) aren't very patient because I'm not very patient, either."

That might be, though, a virtue Vick will need in industrial-sized doses as he advances into a second season. In most cases in the NFL, quarterbacks are made, not born. For all his athletic prowess, Vick is not yet anywhere near ready to play quarterback consistently well at the NFL level.

To compete athletically? Definitely. He is a rare talent -- a potentially electrifying player who could probably line up at any of the skill positions and succeed. But his destiny is to play quarterback, albeit at no time soon, and in time he will fulfill the birthright. The operative phrase there is "in time," and when that arrives will be based in part on a learning curve certain to be accelerated in the offseason, all parties involved agree.

	“	Once he (Vick) gets more (reps), reading the field, look out. He has a laser for an arm and if he gets out of the pocket he can run a long, long way. He'll be special in time. ”
		— Aeneas Williams, Rams cornerback

It is not unusual for a player to make a quantum leap between his rookie and sophomore seasons in the NFL and, truth is, that is typically the most significant period of progress. But this is worth remembering: Vick started only two seasons at Virginia Tech, threw just 313 passes and ran for nearly as many scores as he earned through the air.

"That's not a lot of attempts, not a lot of times dropping into the pocket, scanning over a defense and making a decision," said St. Louis cornerback Aeneas Williams. "But once he gets more times doing that, reading the field, look out. He has a laser for an arm and if he gets out of the pocket he can run a long, long way. He'll be special in time."

That time was not Sunday, with the Falcons managing 144 yards in the second half and failing to score. There were snippets of brilliance, hints of things to come, and that roused a crowd that numbered thousands dressed in No. 7 jerseys.

On his first pass, Vick zapped a bullet to wide receiver Tony Martin for 20 yards, but that first attempt was his best throw of the day. Three plays later, on a third-and-8 play at the St. Louis 43-yard line, he threw badly behind Terance Mathis on a slant to the right. Predictably, the crowd booed Mathis, the ball glancing off his outstretched hand.

There was a scintillating 20-yard run, one that began with Vick eluding a blitz by Rams weak linebacker Tommy Polley, then bursting around left end for 20 yards. But by late in the game, coach Dan Reeves was alternating Vick with third-stringer Doug Johnson, and the bright moments were overshadowed by dull ones.

It is a dicey situation in which the Falcons find themselves because they have basically marketed the team around its backup quarterback and hitched their hopes to the future. The job that Reeves and his staff have done is admirable, for they have not rushed Vick and know the best is yet to come.

Unfortunately for a struggling franchise, one that still had nearly 20,000 tickets left for Sunday's game at midweek, the Falcons need Vick sooner rather than later. There is a chance that if Chandler cannot play next Sunday against New Orleans -- and the starter noted that his left knee actually hurt worse than his ankle as he limped out of the dome on crutches -- Vick will get his second start of the season.

If that occurs, it will mark another step in the process in Vick's development, but there are miles to go before Vick is ready to sit atop the Falcons' quarterback totem pole. Such is life when you are a work in progress, Vick allowed, albeit with a solid show of confidence.

"It's going to happen," he said. "There's no doubt in my mind."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.