Michael Vick took a $5 million pay cut to stay in Philly in a surprise move today.

As a result, two excellent teams with expendable back-up quarterbacks — the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks — just gained a ton of leverage in trade negotiations.

The pool of free-agent QBs is jarringly thin this year. The best guys (if you assume Joe Flacco re-signs with the Ravens) are probably Jason Campbell, Matt Moore, and Brian Hoyer.

That's an unusually weak crop of QBs. And even though Vick's skills are diminished, he might have been the best of the bunch if he ended up getting cut by the Eagles.

So now that Vick's off the board, teams that desperately need a quarterback will either have to take a gamble in the draft, or try to trade for San Francisco's Alex Smith or Seattle's Matt Flynn.

With Vick off the market, there is no Plan B for teams like the Chiefs or the Browns who need to bring in a proven starter. They'll have to give up something they might not want to give up, or risk going into 2013 with no one.

The rich got richer here.