Posts tagged VinceYoung at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

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Only team that rivals watching paint dry in the boredom department. The Titans likely hate fantasy football. They definitely hate the pass. Their 543 rushing attempts last year led the NFL, even though they averaged a subpar 3.9 yards per carry. Only four teams threw the ball less often, and they were the only team in the entire league that threw less than 10 TD passes. I'm bored just thinking about this offense as I type. So they did the only rational thing to do in the off-season ... shore up the run game while nearly ignoring the passing situation. Yeah, they added tight end Alge Crumpler -- a 30 year-old TE who endured a rough 2007 in easily the worst season of his career. Still, the team virtually ignored wideouts in the off-season, fully content on letting Justin Gage and Roydell Williams being the top two with an absymal supporting cast. Instead, they used their first round pick on speedster RB Chris Johnson. Do you really believe them when they say they wanna pass more?

There are very few cases of NFL quarterbacks having much success as rookies. Ben Roethlisberger is the obvious exception, and Vince Young played surprisingly well after replacing the irreplaceable Kerry Collins. More often, though, these players struggle with the speed of the games, the voluminous playbooks and the defensive schemes devised to confuse them.

Kyle Boller is the perfect example, which explains why, after five less-than-spectacular seasons, the Ravens have drafted the next franchise quarterback, Joe Flacco. But unlike Boller, who, in retrospect, never had a chance with Brian Billick serving as his career counselor, Flacco will be mentored by Cam Cameron.

Cameron was rightfully canned after a forgettable 2007 season in Miami; although he may not be head-coaching material, he's a proven offensive coordinator, and has a solid track record in developing quarterbacks.

As Flacco continues his crash course in Baltimore's offense, the chance that he finds his way onto the field this season increases.

As we get some distance from the 2006 draft, it seems like the best quarterback among those selected in the first round was the one taken last. The Broncos traded up to grab Jay Cutler with the 11th-overall selection, and through two seasons, he's progressed more than Vince Young (No. 3) and Matt Leinart (No. 10) combined.

Of course, it's probably unfair to lump Leinart in with Young; all it does is bring Young down. Leinart has battled injures and inconsistency during his short NFL career, and although he's sorta been named the starter for 2008, CBSSports.com's Clark Judge thinks it would be a huge mistake to not give the job to Kurt Warner.

[H]ere's why: The Cardinals have -- I can't believe I'm writing this -- a chance to compete for a division title this season, and Kurt Warner gives them their best chance. He's accurate. He's productive. He's poised. Best of all, he's proven. ...

Now let's make one thing clear before moving on: This is not an indictment of Leinart. I liked the guy at Southern California, and I still believe he can have a productive career with Arizona. But there have been a couple of ... how should we put this? ... detours along the way that make you wonder if he's ready to take over.

Well, it kinda is. When you suggest replacing a former first-rounder three years into his career with a guy who's career peaked early this decade, I think that qualifies as an indictment of Leinart.

On second thought, Vince Young says that he never really thought about retiring.

In an interview with the Tennessean on Thursday, one week after Young told an NFL.com reporter that he thought about hanging it up after his rookie season, Young said that while the pressures of being a quarterback are pretty intense, he never really planned to quit.

"I was never going to quit football,'' Young said. "Football, that is my pride and joy, it is my dream. I am playing my dream. And I don't plan on giving that up any time soon.''

But at the same time, Young didn't say that he was misquoted in last week's story, when he said that he thought long and hard about retiring. Now he's saying that everything had been "blown out of proportion." It seems that the pressure and constant attention that came with being the Titans' star made for a tough adjustment.

"When you retire, a lot of stuff goes away, people calling you and asking you for things. Some people say things about you that you don't like, and a lot of that stuff was killing me inside,'' Young said. "I am trying to be a role model and be a good citizen and have fun with my friends. Things were so fuzzy (that) I could hardly see through it all.''

I like Vince Young and not just because he loves hanging out at male-only topless bars. His National Championship Game performance against USC two years ago was legendary, and if he never throws another NFL touchdowns, he'll always have that.

Curiously, it almost happened -- the never throwing another NFL pass bit. After winning the Offensive Rookie of the Year award following the 2006 season, Young says he almost retired.

"I really thought long and hard about it," Young said on Thursday after practice. "There was so much going on with my family. It was crazy being an NFL quarterback. It wasn't fun anymore. All of the fun was out of it. All of the excitement was gone. All I was doing was worrying about things.

"My teammates helped lift me out of it. I prayed really hard. And I began to focus on God's calling for me. Play football. Be a role model."

I don't think it wouldn't gotten to the point where Young actually retired, although nobody thought Ricky Williams would up and move to India, so who knows. Young followed an 8-8 rookie season with a 10-win campaign last year. Despite two more wins, he struggled to throw the ball, which may or may not have had something to do with offensive coordinator Norm Chow getting axed earlier this spring.

Today, Titans quarterback Vince Young apologized to children who may have seen shirtless pictures of him in a bar, including one where he appears to drink liquor straight from the bottle. Even so, he doesn't believe he did anything wrong:

"I apologize to some of the kids if they did see it because I am trying to be a role model for them. But at the same time, I was just trying to have fun with (friends). That is the life of a quarterback, somebody of my status. I guess somebody was trying to make some money and sold the picture to the web site. But at the same time that is the life I chose to live. But it is not going to stop me from having fun. I just have to watch myself. They always want to try and get some negative pub on me. It wasn't really nothing bad. ... Everybody deserves to have a good time every once in a while during the offseason."

And when he says "every once in a while," I'm guessing his definition is different than most people's. Below the gallery is a selection of six Vince Young birthday party links (and pictures) from just last weekend hosted by a promotion group called "inDmix":

I guess Titan quarterback Vince Young was jealous of his 2006 draft classmate Cardinal quarterback Matt Leinart in the embarrassing party pix department.

Blogxilla.com, a blog discussing "Urban Life Daily," received some pictures that the sender claimed was Vince Young at a bar getting his drink on in Austin Texas. The site has a series of pictures of shirtless Vince Young and friends, including one where he looks to be drinking what appears to be Silver Patrón tequila straight from the bottle. (I worked in bars to pay for school, so uh, I think that is a good guess).

At FanHouse, one man's trash is another man's treasure. But only the few raise to the level of Notable Moments in FanHouse Commenting.

One of the best parts of the NFL draft is the passion that fans show for their teams. We see it in a ton of FanHouse comments, including this one a Titan fan gave to this entry from JJ Cooper entitled "Titans Sure Love to Draft Running Backs." Unfortunately, the comment wasn't published because of some very naughty words, but I have cleaned it up some so you can read its passion without serious profanity offending your delicate sensibilities:

**** YOU TITANS!!!! IM A DIE HARD FAN AND I HAVE NEVER BEEN THIS MAD AT MY TEAM BEFORE. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY ZERO SENSE IN THIS PICK. WE DONT EVEN NEED A ****ING RUNNINGBACK AND THERE WAS LIMAS SWEED (VINCE'S FORMER ****ING TEAMMATE!!!!) AVAILABLE!!!!!!!!!! WATTTTT THEEEEEEE ****KKKKKKKKK ARE YOU DUMB ****SS THINKING IN TENNESSEE. SO NEXT YEAR WHEN VINCE ONLY THROWS FOR 9 INTS AGAIN, DONT BLAME HIM. YOU SHOULD HAVE GIVEN HIM A ****ING RECIEVER. NOT ANOTHER ****ING RUNNINGBACK FOR THE THIRD ****ING YEAR IN A ROW

Let me make a brief point on style. I believe the Titan fan makes a cogent argument that might be shared by other Titan fans, but he does not need to use the all capital letters to make his point. Though popular among certain enthusiastic fans with poor typing skills, all caps is not the preferred commenting style at FanHouse. You might see all caps around here a lot, but really, please don't do that.

I leave you with a public service couplet: Please keep the comments clean, so that they can be seen. Thank you.

When I saw this headline,"Titans want WR Williams at 250 pounds", I took it to mean that head coach Jeff Fisher was going to let former Lions first-round pick Mike Williams play at a weight he found most comfortable. And when I say "most comfortable" I obviously mean "allows him to eat as much ice cream as he wants and still squeeze into his game pants."

Actually, Fisher wanted Williams to drop weight to get to 250 which is, well, mind-boggling. Of course, I had forgotten Williams was still in the league which is kind of ironic given that he's pretty hard to miss.

Fisher wanted receiver Mike Williams at 250 pounds by [last Thursday]. Earlier this week the former first-round pick was about four pounds short of the 20 he'd been told to lose.

"Very few people on this roster and other rosters accomplished what Mike was able to accomplish from the time the season was over until reporting," Fisher said. "He worked and it's obvious. I was pleased with his effort. That's a good sign, it's important."

So it sounds like Williams was pushing 270 at some point in the not-too-distant past. That's very Jermaine Wiggins-esque. To his credit, it sounds like he's working it off and if Fisher is happy with his progress then so am I. If Williams can flash any of the potential that made him a top-10 pick three years ago, it should make Vince Young's life a lot easier.

This assumes that some of Youngs' struggles are a consequence of not having anyone to throw to. If it's the case that Young's not a very good NFL quarterback then it won't matter how much weight Williams' loses. Which should be great news for the local Nashville eateries.

Even when the Lions appear to be making strides, most pundits are afraid to step out onto that frail limb and predict a .500 or better season. Historically, this makes sense; when the Lions have appeared to be making strides, they haven't followed through. But it takes a man nicknamed "Stink" to separate from the herd (in related news, Merril Hoge is still looking for people to listen to him bash Vince Young). ESPN analyst Mark Schlereth is diggin' on good vibrations regarding the '08 Lions.

Schlereth claims that the exorcising of Mike Martz and the improved run game/balance that should ensue will lead to a 9-7 record. And though it seems laughable given the way the Lions finished last season, it's really not. The Lions started really well last year, and it was only the foregoing of the run game and some rotten apples that led to their collapse. Both have been seemingly repaired.

Even though the team has remarkably improved its secondary, there are still a ton of holes to fill for sure. Luckily, the draft is incredibly deep at all of their biggest trouble spots. They can emerge from the first three rounds with new starters at offensive and defensive tackle, running back, and linebacker (assuming they draft well which is, again, a leap of faith, but one I'm willing to make). So yeah, I don't think a 9-7 finish is that unlikely. No matter what Vegas thinks.