Starting at running back: LeSean McCoy.

Starting at wide receiver: DeSean Jackson.

Starting at reorganized debtor: Michael Vick.

That's the Philadelphia Eagles offense, at least in the view from our Courtside Seat. We exaggerate, of course, but it looks like the Eagles high-flying quarterback might not be getting much more than a quarter or so back from his paychecks right now.

We'll finish today with a cold beer (read on), but we start by

Throwing into dime, nickel and very big-bucks coverage

Michael Vick is having a remarkable season for the Eagles, strong enough to be considered a candidate to be the NFL's Most Valuable Player. His play on the field has been so dynamic that it's easy to forget the circumstances under which he returned to the league last year.

Maybe it's worth revisiting those circumstances. In fact, the incredible tangle of distractions that Vick still faces on a daily basis make his spectacular level of performance even more extraordinary. To wit:

• He is living on a court-ordered budget until 2015.

• The trustee in charge of his bankruptcy is suing everyone in his family.

• Vick is still trying to explain a missing $5 million.

• And nearly two-thirds of every dollar he earns goes to creditors and to taxes.

Despite his return to success on the field, Vick's world is radically different from the one in which he lived as the NFL's highest-paid player a few years ago, when he had five houses, eight or nine cars (Vick himself isn't sure of the number), a couple of pickup trucks, two fishing boats, a horse farm, and investments ranging from a high-end wine shop to a car rental agency.

Instead of sharing his abundance generously and haphazardly with a host of family and friends, Vick is now governed by a monthly budget that is buried deep in the thousands of documents filed in his bankruptcy case. It is part of a court-approved "reorganization plan" for his finances, a remarkably complex arrangement that is described in a dense, often impenetrable 112 pages.

Under the terms of the budget, he is permitted to spend $3,500 each month for rent in Philadelphia, with another $750 for "utilities and miscellaneous." There is no provision in the budget for buying dinner for his offensive linemen.

He is also obligated to pay $3,712 per month on the mortgage for the only remaining residence he owns, an unimpressive house in Hampton, Va., where his fiancée, Kijafa Frink, lives with the couple's two children, Jada and London. In a rare bit of extravagance, the budget permits Vick to pay $1,355 monthly for a private school for the children.

Michael Vick might be excused if his mind wanders to his off-the-field situation every now and then. AP Photo/Brian Garfinkel

Although there is a budget provision for "living expenses," his car allowance is only $472 per month, a far cry from Vick's pre-arrest collection of F-450 pickups and $100,000 luxury automobiles.

Vick's mother, who was on his payroll in his previous professional life, is limited to $2,500 per month under the budget, a significant reduction from the salary and gifts Vick once bestowed upon her. He is also required to pay $3,000 per month to support former girlfriend Tameka Taylor and their son, Mitez.

The budget provides more generously for Vick's agent, Joel Segal, and for Vick's team of bankruptcy lawyers. Vick will pay Segal $32,500 this year, another $104,000 next year, and then $160,000 each year through 2015. It's a total of nearly $800,000.

The fees Vick will pay to the bankruptcy lawyers are scheduled to be $748,750 this year, another $1,058,080 next year and a total during the budget years of $2.6 million.

The budget is part of a plan that is supposed to allow him to pay off the debts he accumulated before his arrest. It's based on Vick's playing well enough to earn a bonanza free-agent contract at the end of the current season, and it provides for total payment to his creditors of more than $12 million between now and 2015.

As a "reorganized debtor," Vick's income will be distributed to his family and his creditors in accordance with a court-approved schedule. As his income increases, he pays more of it to the creditors. (See the accompanying table.)