Titans Release Vince Young, Eagles Have Interest

Added on Jul 29, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

The Tennessee Titans finally did what they should have done a long time ago and severed ties with head case quarterback Vince Young. Owner Bud Adams said 8 months ago that the team would trade or release Young, though the NFL lockout delayed their plans. Not finding any team interested in a trade for the malingering Young the team decided to release him. The team had to act quickly to avoid paying him a $4.25 million bonus this season.

Young was a college phenom at the University of Texas but he’s been a bust in the pros. His downside list could fill both sides of a sheet of paper but the biggest issues are a lack of leadership skills and work ethic. There are also questions about his football smarts, ability to read a defense, mental and physical toughness, and psychological well being. In other words, he’s an extreme head case even by the standards of professional sports.

The Titans have made it clear that they had no interest in Young for the future, and their personnel moves since the end of the 2010 campaign underscore this fact. Tennessee chose Jake Locker out of the University of Washington in the NFL draft and almost immediately after the lockout ended signed free agent veteran Matt Hasselbeck to a deal after Seattle said they weren’t bringing him back. Hasselbeck will most likely be the starter in Tennessee this year which will give Locker a chance to ‘learn the ropes’ from an experienced veteran NFL quarterback.

Young may end up landing with one of the few teams that apparently have no interest in the character of their players–the Philadelphia Eagles. Obviously any team that turns the starting quarterback job over to human debris Michael Vick wouldn’t have any qualms about someone like Young. The message from Philadelphia is that as long as you’ve got football skills, being a subhuman (in the case of Vick) or a head case (like Young) isn’t a big deal. If Vick struggles this season (and we’ve been of the opinion that his success last year was more due to a fluke caused by the Eagles’ schedule than anything else) the Eagles will have no leadership at the quarterback position whatsoever and things could go into the tank *real* fast.