So the Buffalo Bills recently worked out former Tennessee Titans and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Vince Young to be a backup quarterback for them. Make no mistake, he will be a backup as Ryan Fitzpatrick is the starter so please don't be like "Young can't start and it makes Fitz worse." According to Buddy Nix and Chan Gailey, Fitz is their guy. It's his team. But they do need a competent backup in case anything happens to Fitz, like last year when he suffered a broken rib and played poorly as the Bills lost 8 of their last 9 games after a wonderful 5-2 start. If they knew about the injury and he was playing poorly, why did they let Fitzpatrick continue to play and why did they not play Tyler Thigpen, who they gave a 3-year and played under Gailey in KC? It couldn't have worse than an injured Fitzpatrick, right? Maybe they didn't think highly of him, which is bad. That's why I would want Vince Young here, because I believe he can win a game or two if anything short term happened to Fitz and it wouldn't just destroy our team. Even if Young played terrible and lost, what's the difference? We would lose with a lesser backup QB or an injured Fitz playing through the pain. And if Young played great and won, well we all benefit from wins.
I loved watching Young play at the University of Texas, where he started for three years and made many highlight plays with both his arm and his legs. Young was a winner and led Texas to a National Championship in 2005 in a win over #1 USC. He also led the Longhorns to a Rose Bowl win over Michigan in 2004 and was the Rose Bowl MVP both times. In the win over USC, Young put on a show for the ages by recording a Rose Bowl record 467 yards of total offense (267 passing and 200 rushing) and three rushing touchdowns in the 41-38 win over a USC Trojans team that hadn't lost in over two years. Young scored the winning touchdown on 4th down with just 19 seconds to go. Young finished the season with over 3,000 yards passing and 1,000 yards rushing with 26 touchdown passes to just 10 interceptions along with 12 rushing touchdowns and completed over 65% of his passes. He also led the nation in passing effiency with a 163.9 QB Rating. Young finished his college career at Texas with a 30-2 record and completed 61.8% of his passes. Also as a junior, Young improved from being just a running quarterback to a consistent and precise pocket passer who could run. He left college after his junior year to declare for the 2006 NFL Draft as he was considered to be a very high pick.
It appeared that his hometown Houston Texans would select Young 1st overall in the draft. There were still some concerns about his throwing motion, but some thought he could be a better pocket passer and more accurate than Michael Vick, who is more of a running quarterback and has made numerous plays and won games in the league. Young's arm and his running ability was intriguing to many scouts. As a Bills fan, I wanted the Bills to move up somehow to acquire him, that or sign Drew Brees, who eventually signed with the New Orleans Saints. I thought Young could be what Cam Newton is now, a big powerful thrower who could run. But Young has shown he doesn't quite have the arm like Newton does or the throwing ability like Newton does in the NFL. Houston passed on Young to take defensive end Mario Williams with the first overall pick, a pick that many, including myself, criticized the Texans for passing on Young for Williams. Of course the Williams pick turned out to be great.
The Tennessee Titans took Young 3rd overall in the draft. After a disappointing 0-3 start, the Titans put Young in to be the starter. After two more losses dropped the Titans to 0-5, Young led the Titans to an 8-3 record over the final 11 games, including six wins in a row, as the Titans barely missed the playoffs with an 8-8 record. The Titans trailed the New York Giants 21-0 in the 4th quarter before Young led the Titans to 28 unanswered points to defeat them 28-21. The next week against Indianapolis, Young brought the Titans back from a 14-0 deficit to win 20-17 as Young became the first rookie QB in NFL history to lead his team back twice from 14+ point deficits. Then in the game here in Buffalo on Christmas Eve, the Titans trailed by nine points and scored 10 in the 4th quarter to win 30-29. I was so impressed with Young and his ability to make plays and win games even though he might have been putting up pedestrian numbers, like his lowly 66.7 QB Rating, but the team was better and they were winning. Young was named Offensive Player of the Year.
Young struggled a bit in 2007 as his passing numbers weren't very good as he threw for over 2,500 yards, nine touchdowns and 17 interceptions and a 71.1 rating. Unlike his rookie year where he had four 4th quarter comebacks, Young did not have any 4th quarter comebacks. Young was in the bottom 1/4 of the major passing statistics, but despite struggling passing, Young led the Titans to a 10-6 record and a playoff berth. Critics called Young a manage the game quarterback where they felt their defense and running game carried the Titans. That was somewhat true, but Young still made plays when it mattered the most to win games. As a Bills fan, I wouldn't care if my QB completed 0 passes and recorded a 0 QB Rating as long as we won. We've had terrible QBs who played awful and didn't win. I'd take a QB who struggled passing as long as we won (boy that sounds an awful lot like Tim Tebow. There was immaturity issues coming out on Young. Young was injured in the opener in 2008 and was replaced by Kerry Collins. After the game, Young left without telling anyone and people were worried as he was depressed. There were some reports Jeff Fisher and the Titans were worried that Young might take his own life, which was reported false. But Young was very upset and hurt both inside and out, according to his mother anyways. Fisher named Collins starter the rest of the season as the Titans would go 13-3. Young was the backup.
Young came back in 2009 as Collins was still the starter. However after an 0-6 start, there was pressure by owner Bud Adams to Fisher to play Young as Adams was paying him a lot of money and didn't want him on the bench despite Fisher wanting to play Collins. Young was rejuvenated as he led the Titans to a 5-game winning streak and won 8 out of 10 starts as the Titans finished 8-8 after an 0-6 start. Young completed 58.7% of his passes for 10 touchdowns and 7 interceptions and recorded an 82.8 rating. Again, pedestrian numbers, but the record speaks for itself. He also recorded three 4th quarter comebacks and three game winning drives. Young reclaimed his starting job and led the Titans to a 5-5 record in the first 10 games and threw for 10 touchdowns, just three interceptions, and a career-best 98.6 rating. But Young injured his thumb and was taken out of the game. Young threw his shoulder pads into the stands after the game was over and had an altercation with Fisher in the locker room. Young was benched for the rest of the season and did not appear in another game for the Titans. After the season, Bud Adams, a supported or Young, decided he would release Young from the Titans as well as fire Fisher as head coach. Young was 30-17 as the starter in Tennessee and they were 15-18 without him.
Young was signed to be the backup to Michael Vick in Philadelphia for 2011, a move I thought was very good as they needed a backup to Vick, who is injury-prone. Young declared the Eagles as the "Dream Team" and was criticized for it and fairly I might add. Young started 3 games for an injured Vick and went 1-2 with 4 touchdowns and 9 interceptions and played awful. After the season, the Eagles decided not to re-sign him and instead went with Trent Edwards to be backup. That's not a good sign when a team wants Trent Edwards over you. I really don't know what's up with that. Criticize Young all you want, have you seen Edwards play? Really? You want Edwards more? Maybe Young fell out of favor with coaches and I can see that.
Young has completed 57.9% of his passes for 46 touchdowns, 51 interceptions, fumbled 40 times, lost 12, and posted a 74.4 rating for his career. Very bad numbers. But his record is tremendous, 31-19. How can a QB win 31 out of 50 starts with those numbers? He must make plays to win games or else there is no explanation. I don't think he should be the starter here, but I love him as a backup. Fitz is the starter and his numbers are a slightly more TD-to-INT ratio and his rating and completion percentage are very similar to Young. But the record is much more in favor of Young. Maybe it is because Fitz was on more lousy teams than Young was. Maybe Young has more of an "It" quality. I like Young a lot, but Fitz is suited much more for this offense. Young can make some plays too in this offense. I still like Young a lot because of his record. Don't get me wrong, he's not Brady, Rodgers, Manning, Brees. He's not even Vick. But when you need a guy to win a game or two, he's the guy. The team still believes in Fitz and he's the starter hands down.
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