Not buying the Vince Young hype.

I’m tired of all the hype about Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young.  After the Titans went 8-2 with him as a starter, many analysts and football fans think Vince Young is going to continue to win games for the Titans.  His fans claim that “he just leads his team to victories” and “he’s all about winning.”  What does this even mean? Does that mean other quarterbacks are all about losing and don’t care for winning?  Vince Young has a strong arm and is strong enough to be a scrambler, but he has poor accuracy, can’t read a defense, and tries to do too much.  Given his skill set Vince Young should be nothing more than a game manager. Vince Young is completely overrated and is lucky to be playing in the NFL, let alone being a starter for a team.

http://www.gettyimages.com

What has Vince Young done to be given credit for all of the Titans’ success? Granted he is 26-13 as a starter, but this is not a result of him being the starter.  This record is incredibly misleading as it is mostly due in part to the Titans’ strong defense and strong running game.  In his rookie year, in which he went 8-5 as a starter, Young  was supported by Albert Haynesworth and the 6th ranked defense and the 4th ranked rushing offense.  Young had a 66.7 Qb rating, which was ranked 30th (2nd to last) in the NFL that season. He completed only 51% of his passes while he threw 12 TDs, 13 INTs, and 3 fumbles which is very below average for a starting QB in the NFL. Even though he did rush for 7 TDs most of the runs were from within the 10 yard line and some critics can argue that due to his inaccurate arm, he was forced to run the ball when any other QB would have thrown the ball to their receiver. And despite his poor QB rating and his turnover total Young was given the Rookie of the Year award and a spot on the Pro Bowl team.  I just don’t understand what the voters were looking at, Young statistically had one of the worst seasons of a starting Quarterback in NFL history.

Vince Young after throwing another interception. Picture courtesy of ESPN.com

In his 2nd year as the starter, Vince Young improved his completion percentage but the threw only 9 TDs and threw 17 INTs.  While his QB rating improved to 71.1, he was downright pitiful and continued to make poor decisions.  He fumbled the ball 3 more times to make bring his turnover total to 20 on the year.  Despite the Titans improving their record, their QB was not improving individually.  If it wasn’t for the defense and the running game again taking control, this Titans team would have been in deep trouble. And last season following the 0-6 start, the Titans defense turned it around, that is the main reason Young was 8-2 as the starter.  Going into their week 7 bye, the Titans defense was ranked last in the NFL, and after the bye week the defense significantly improved and the offense was not forced to play catch-up every game.  The defensive turnaround is the main reason for the Titans success in the latter part of the 2009 season. And not to mention Chris Johnson became only the 6th player in NFL history to rush for over 2,000 yards in a season, I’m pretty sure that had more to do with the Titans’ success than Vince Young. His career stat line is as follows: 57.6% completion percentage, 32 TDs, 39 Ints, 12 Rushing TDs, 8 Fumbles and he has yet to throw for over 2600 yards in a season and he hasn’t averaged more than 170 passing yards per game in a season.  I still don’t understand how this awful quarterback has been named to the Pro Bowl twice, it simply baffles me. The stats speak for themselves, Vince Young is garbage.

And before anyone brings up that 99 yard game winning drive against the Cardinals last season (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E88xjcUSKWQ) , please let me address it. First off, the whole scenario of 4th and goal for the win could have been avoided if Vince Young did not mess up earlier in the game.  Listen to what the announcer says at the 3:32 mark of the video.  Vince Young cost the Titans a field goal at the end of the first half by leaving them no time on the clock due to his bad decision making.  While he did end up redeeming himself at the end, it did put his team under a lot of pressure to get to the final TD.  And now onto Young’s performance during this drive.  There were times that Young performed well, making quick reads and getting the ball to his receivers.  But there were just as many times that Young made horrendous throws and decisions.  Two of the first three plays on the drive were terrible passes by Young.  Then the 20+ yard gain by Bo Scaife was so fortunate for Young and the Titans.  How does a 6’5″ quarterback get his ball deflected at the line of scrimmage when there is no pressure?  That is simply inexcusable. Lucky for Young, Scaife chased the ball down and made a big play.  That ball could just have as easily been  picked off by a Cardinal defender.  I counted at least 6 passes that were either overthrown or under thrown by Young on that final drive and 3 of them were almost picked off by a Cardinal defender. And let’s not forget about Young getting sacked with 13 seconds left in the game.  He needs to get rid of the ball and is lucky he wasn’t stripped from behind by a defender.  Don’t get me wrong, Young led a great drive to win the game but let’s not blow it out of proportion.  He made this drive against a defense that gave up  the 10th most passing yards last season.

http://thenflguru.com

Vince Young can’t make the proper reads at the line of scrimmage, he stares down his receivers, and has terrible accuracy.  While Vince Young came into the NFL with enormous potential he has yet to put it all together and have a breakout season.  When he takes the field, he still looks like a rookie QB playing his first NFL game and that is not what you expect from a player 4 years removed from college.  Vince Young needs to finally take some steps forward and improve his play, because ranking in the bottom 25% of  every passing statistic in the league is simply unacceptable.  He either needs to improve his mechanics and his decision-making or just become a game managing quarterback because his turnovers really hurt the Titans team as a whole.  I have even read a post on Bleacher Report claiming that Vince Young was one of the Top 10 QBs in the NFL (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/443828-is-vince-young-a-top-10-qb?search_query=vince%20young), this writer is either ridiculously biased or on crack because that is one of the most absurd comments I have ever heard. So please everyone, stop drinking the “Vince Young is Great Juice” and realize that he is one of the worst starting quarterbacks in the NFL.

This is just an opinion…so please Pardon My Bias.