ATLANTA -- First he heard the horn, the ear-splitting wail of someone seeking his assistance, as he slowed at an intersection near Suwanee, one of this city's far northern suburbs. And then, as the man peered into his rear-view mirror for the source of distress, he noticed the driver of the shiny vehicle behind him frantically signaling for him to pull over to the side of the road.

Not until he got out of his car, and moved to within a couple feet of the new black SUV, did the Good Samaritan realize that the supplicant was Atlanta Falcons quarterback Mike Vick. Within a short swing pass of the team's former practice complex, but several wrong turns from the lavish new training facility in Flowery Branch, Ga., the latest savior for a franchise whose history has been mostly miserable was in dire need of direction.

	Michael Vick completed 50-of-113 passes in his rookie season with the Falcons.

He had made the long drive to Flowery Branch dozens of times but, without the benefit of automatic pilot on a dashboard that resembled the counsel of a fighter jet, was still feeling his way around on some of the unfamiliar roads. Having driven aimlessly for 15 minutes, Vick had finally decided to ask for help, rather than skip a conditioning session.

"I guess the more times I do it," Vick eventually noted, after hurriedly scribbling down directions, "the more natural it will become."

The real-life parable certainly is reflective of the crossroads at which the first overall selection in the 2001 NFL draft is positioned as he enters his second season in the league.

Elevated to the top of the depth chart when veteran Chris Chandler was released during the spring for salary cap and pragmatic reasons, and having started just two contests in a rookie year marked by flashes of brilliance and plenty of botched plays, Vick is a man whose summer will define the term "on the job training."

Actually his spring has been that way as well, with Vick taking virtually all the snaps with the first unit in minicamps and other organized practices, entrenching himself in the No. 1 job while the other quarterbacks on the camp roster battle to determine the backup pecking order. Typical of any management trainee, Vick has progressed in terms of both comfort and command, and his improved confidence has been palpable according to the players with whom he shares the huddle.

But while a player hones his craft by repetition, he only reaches his full potential by playing, by experiencing situations and circumstances at full speed. And for young Mike (he has, by now, made it abundantly clear that he prefers this to Michael) Vick, the throttle is about to be thrown wide open.

Which is exactly how Vick wants things.

"Last year, maybe it was OK to learn in (increments), to be sort of spoon-fed some things at the beginning," said Vick, suddenly the highest-profile player on a team now four years removed from a Super Bowl XXXIII appearance which in retrospect must be viewed as one of the greatest aberrations in NFL history. "But no one is holding anything back this year. They're throwing it all at me and I'm ready for it. That's how it has to be and that's how I want it. I'll make a mistake here or there but I won't make it twice."

There is, to be sure, some positive reinforcement upon which to build.

In the '01 season finale, with Chandler sidelined by an elbow injury, Vick started against the St. Louis Rams and accounted for 234 of the Falcons' 255 total yards. But it was his performance a week earlier, in a relief appearance at Miami, that really opened the eyes of Atlanta brass and players around the league as to how special Vick might eventually be.

In rallying the Falcons from a two-touchdown deficit, and nearly upsetting the heavily favored Dolphins, he completed 11 of 20 passes for 214 yards and scrambled five times for 63 yards, including two incredible escapes from near-sacks that would have made Houdini proud.

That game, along with the purchase of the franchise by former Home Depot founder Arthur Blank, instantly changed the dynamic of the organization's approach to developing its young quarterback. Until the Miami game, the consensus was that the Falcons would retain Chandler for one more season, providing Vick another year of seasoning. But the buzz in Atlanta was such following the Miami outing that coach Dan Reeves and his top lieutenants began to consider Vick as the likely 2002 starter.

And when Blank purchased the franchise from the Smith Family, and promised fans a new and exciting product, there was little doubt that Vick would be moved front and center as the club's new catalyst. The philosophy of Atlanta fans now is that even if the Falcons suffer through another losing season -- remember, this is a franchise that in 36 years of existence, has never posted consecutive winning campaigns -- the product will be more palatable because of the potential for breathtaking plays from Vick.

Veteran free safety Keith Lyle, acquired by Atlanta as a free agent this spring, recently likened the second-year quarterback to Rams tailback Marshall Faulk, a former teammate. In terms of raw athletic ability, the comparison might be appropriate, since Vick is so wondrously blessed, with a laser arm and sub-4.3 speed in the 40. But Faulk is a proven playmaker, and Vick is still in the nascent stage, an athlete with jaw-dropping skills but one who must still grow into the quarterback position.

It is quite a leap from outstanding athlete to even serviceable quarterback in the NFL. As former Pittsburgh personnel chief Art Rooney Jr. once pointed out, if the game was just about physical skill, teams would simply select decathletes in the first round.

Said one NFC defensive coordinator: "You can see he's got some of the same things going for him as does (Philadelphia quarterback Donovan) McNabb. But we'll see this year if he's got the understanding of the game that McNabb possesses. The guess is that he's going to make some big plays and make some boneheaded ones, too."

Translation: Those 253 snaps Vick logged in 2001, and the big plays he authored, aren't enough to canonize the former Virginia Tech star. "I think he realized last year," noted the departed Chandler, "that there's a whole lot more than just the obvious physical stuff to playing quarterback at this level."

	“	Last year, maybe it was OK to learn in (increments), to be sort of spoon-fed some things at the beginning. But no one is holding anything back this year. They're throwing it all at me and I'm ready for it. That's how it has to be and that's how I want it. I'll make a mistake here or there but I won't make it twice. ”
		— Mike Vick, Falcons quarterback

Indeed, for all his alleged elusiveness, Vick was sacked 23 times in just 134 "dropbacks" in 2001, an average of one sack every 5.9 "dropbacks." Extrapolate that number over the times, for instance, that Chandler dropped into the pocket, and the result would be an astronomical 69 sacks. Clearly, the problem isn't a lack of speed, but rather a shortage of recognition skills, something on which Vick has worked diligently in the offseason.

He has vowed to be infinitely more aware in 2002 of when opponents are loading up to blitz, of where the pass rush is coming from, of getting rid of the ball quicker. Those are skills, though, that can only be enhanced with experience.

To aid Vick, and to dramatically enhance the learning curve, the Falcons have reinvented to some extent the Reeves-designed offense, a refurbishing long overdue, but one meant to better dovetail with the diverse abilities of Atlanta's new starter. Some stodginess and much of the excess verbiage, which sometimes meant 17-20 words to announce a simple running play in the huddle, has been eliminated. The Falcons want Vick to become more comfortable in the pocket, but have added plays that will get him outside the tackles, and force defenses to contain him.

"If he's going to be the centerpiece, then you have to build around him, and we've done some things to take advantage of his speed," said quarterback coach Jack Burns. "We've cut back some stuff but added packages to play into the things he does well."

In a move more cosmetic than curative, and which figures to be more media event than meaningful tutorial, former San Francisco quarterback Steve Young will meet on Friday with Vick during the final session of Atlanta's two-day minicamp. But even Young has conceded that there is little he can offer Vick, who idolized the former 49ers star while growing up, that will significantly change the youngster on the field.

Truth be told, beyond the fact both men are lefthanded and run well outside the pocket, the Vick-Young comparisons are overblown. Young was a surgeon, a precise passer who was called upon to complete 65-68 percent of his passes in a West Coast-style offense. Vick is more a gunslinger, a quarterback with a powerful arm, one that will stretch out secondaries vertically, but a player who might never complete more than 55 percent of his passes, even though his accuracy has improved this spring.

"I don't know in an hour or two what I can say to him or show him that will improve his play on the field," Young said of the much-ballyhooed visit. "He's a great player, a guy who is going to break the mold, but he has to go out and do it himself."

Vick agrees that the quantum leap will come this year as his snaps expand and Falcons management certainly is counting on him to revitalize the franchise. Unlike a year ago, when the club built much of its flawed marketing campaign around him - in essence, asking fans to come watch their high-priced rookie quarterback hold a clipboard on the sideline - the Falcons are justified now in hyping Vick as the man destined to re-energize the franchise.

A year ago, Vick uniform jerseys were the hot sellers at local sporting goods stores, but the novelty wore off as another losing season wore on. All the excitement created by the Falcons' draft eve trade to acquire the rights to Vick from the San Diego Chargers fizzled out in the rubble of a 7-9 season.

But the spark has been re-ignited and those No. 7 jerseys are in full display in downtown Atlanta, at the team's training facility, all over the metropolitan area. By dropping ticket prices Blank is all but daring the slumbering populace to come witness the emergence of a quarterback whose polar abilities -- the knack for turning would-be disaster into big plays or to transform the sublime into a pratfall -- should keep the fans on the edge of their seats and opposition defenses on their toes.

For a man who does not often manifest his own passions, and prefers his passes long but his replies short, Vick seems fired up about the daunting prospect of trying to revive this Falcons team and of eventually making it a Super Bowl contender.

"I know I have a long way to go," he acknowledged. "But I also know that I have been blessed with the tools to get there faster than most."

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