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Vince Young dazzled us for the past year of college football, and then wowed us with his gutsy performance at the Rose Bowl on Wednesday night. Not only did he beat the team that some said was the best college football team ever assembled, he did it with complete poise. But with that being said, I still don't think Vince Young is going to be a
very good NFL quarterback. Sure, he'll get drafted in the top 5 when he declares (whenever that may be), but I'm just not impressed. Now before my e-mail address gets flooded with hate mail, let me give you some of the reasons I don't think that Vince is going to be the guy everyone thinks he is going to be at the next level.

Sure, we all saw Vince run and pass all over that USC defense, and on opposing defenses all season long for that matter, but that's not the point. To put it bluntly, Vince Young is a good scrambling quarterback with a mediocre arm. Can anybody think of another scrambling quarterback currently playing in the NFL with a somewhat mediocre arm? Nope, it's not the speed demon Drew Bledsoe; I'm talking about Michael Vick. Here's the thing: Michael is not only faster, quicker and more agile than Young, he also has a much stronger arm. Even if I concede that Young is more accurate than Vick is, you have to understand that Vick is one of the least accurate quarterbacks in the NFL on a yearly basis. While the comparison to Vick might not be a perfect fit, it's the one that jumps into people's minds, so I'll stick with that. Michael got into the NFL on his raw athletic ability and absolute cannon for an arm. He is arguably the fastest player on the field every single time he's out there and can literally dance around defenders. That doesn't hold true for Vince Young. He might have speed, but so do a majority of the linebackers and defensive ends in the league. Teams will spy Vince like crazy and not give him a chance to run. Since he doesn't possess the pure running abilities that Vick has, Vince will struggle to gain yards on the very same plays he might have scored on at the college level. If teams were really scared of Michael Vick's arm on a constant basis, the Falcons would have more Super Bowl rings than Chuck Noll. If Vick's arm doesn't strike fear in opposing defenses, then Vince Young's will make defenders choke on their mouth guards in a fit of laughter. That being said, it won't be hard for defensive coordinators to figure out Vince Young and shut him down.

Vince might be a beast of a player with ideal size, but were you really impressed with his passing abilities this season? Did you actually watch him play, or were you being fooled by his impressive completion percentage and quarterback rating? All I ever see when I watch this guy is his favorite play, you know, the shotgun triple option play that the Longhorns run 70% of the time. It's truly a tough play to stop, and it opens the field for wide open receivers, with safeties and linebackers constantly biting on the run. In the NFL, he's not going to be able to buy time for himself and flip a little eight yard loop pass to his wide open tight end play after play after play. Honestly, how many of Vince's completions were to a wide receiver that was practically wide open? Hundreds. Has Vince Young ever made a throw that made you say, Wow, that was a perfect pass! If he has, then it sure doesn't happen a whole lot. Either that or you are the type of person that gets pumped up every time Golden Girls comes on television.

Pro teams will force Vince to beat them with his arm and, believe it or not, he has never actually beaten anyone with his arm to this date. He's not going to all of a sudden start throwing the ball harder either. That's not something that can be taught. He doesn't have the arm to hit his receiver consistently on a slant route, and that's crucial for the NFL. His deep ball flutters and might be decently accurate, but it stays in the air too long and forces his big wide receivers to go get it, rather than being on target. Obviously I'm generalizing about Vince's abilities, but isn't that what everyone else is doing when they say how great he's going to be? The truth is, nobody actually knows how great he will be at the next level, and everyone will hold their own opinion. People can argue the things that this guy has done until they are blue in the face, but I'm still not buying it. Just because the media tells you over and over that Vince Young is going to be a great player in the NFL doesn't mean you have to believe it. But don't take my word for it, just wait a few years and you'll understand what I'm talking about.
http://www.nfldraftblitz.com/dontbuythehype.htm

Your team stinks

TheDeuce

Great read. VY is one hell of an athletic talent, but I just don't think his legs will be able to make up for his mediocre arm.

Winwin

Vince Young


Stock will never be higher for nation's best QB prospect
By Eric Edholm (eedholm@pfwmedia.com)
Jan. 5, 2006





I don't care what Texas QB Vince Young does � stay or go � I love the freakin' guy. Love him. I thought he had a very fine game last night and showed to the four remaining critics out there (not accurate, inconsistent thrower and � my favorite � not a pro-style passer) that he's a whole lot more than legit.

With indications floating around earlier this week that Young was leaning toward staying in school, perhaps because the teams in the top 10 didn't look too appealing as destinations (but when do they?), I felt that Young might have been taking the easy route.

I felt by sending out those signals that he was coming back, Young might have been relieving some of the pressure he had been feeling this week, this month, heck, this season, over the much-anticipated Rose Bowl matchup between Texas and Young and USC and its Heisman duo of Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart.

Forget it. Scratch that from the record. Young is not the type to bail out, to relieve the pressure. He's out there to win games, to play quarterback better than anyone in the country.

Yeah, you read it right. He's better than Leinart now, and he'll be better than Leinart in the pros.

There was talk that Leinart had gotten a little cold to the idea of following Bush in the draft at No. 2 because it would mean his draft rights would be owned by the downtrodden Saints. Somehow I just don't see Young taking that stance on a potential NFL career. He's the better man right now and the better QB prospect.

Wednesday night proved it. You can look at the stat sheet and say that Leinart threw for 100 more yards than Young. You can point out Leinart might have the prettier mechanics as far as a coach or scout might prefer. But all you need to do is look at the final score � 41-38, Longhorns � to see that the player everyone had slotted as second-best in the nation was the difference-maker. Second isn't too shabby, but it isn't for Vince Young.

"He's a fantastic player, and he made the difference," said USC coach Pete Carroll following the game.

I came into the game really believing in Young but not knowing whether he'd go to the pros or exactly where he'd fit in. I believed in him, but I wasn't quite ready to anoint him anything more than the next Randall Cunningham. And hey, that's very, very nice company. The man threw for 207 touchdowns, ran for another 35 and is in the top 30 all-time in attempts, completions, passing yards and TDs. He went to four Pro Bowls, won five playoff games and was labeled as a player who helped pave the way for mobile quarterbacks to succeed in the NFL.

Young has the chance to make Cunningham a footnote in history. He's that good. I don't care if it's this year or next � but don't you just think he'll reconsider his reported inklings? � but I can't wait to see Young play in the NFL.

I think you have a potential leader and someone you can build an offense around. He will not win Rookie of the Year. He won't be an overnight success. But Young has all the skills to be a great, even a transcendent, quarterback. I saw someone last night who never panicked, kept the pulse of the game in his head at all times and helped convince his teammates that all they needed to do was the job and the assignment that was right in front of them, and he'd do the rest. I loved his control of the game.

And didn't it look, just for a second, following Young's game-winning TD run, that he was about to launch the ball in celebration or perhaps rip his helmet off? It certainly did to me, and I felt that his best moment in the game was after the TD run we'll all remember. It was dampening the vibrant spirit that he exudes. Nineteen seconds left. Have to go for the two-point conversion. That other team is too good. Young just walked the ball back to the ref and went back to work.

This lovefest I am putting forward certainly has a rah-rah, collegiate feel to it, doesn't it? It certainly sounds over-the-top enough as I write it.

But with last night's performance fresh in my mind, I am compelled to envision this man's professional future, as he no doubt will in the days to follow (and his awkward postgame response to John Saunders' "Will you be back?" question did little to stoke the talk that he's coming back). And what he must accept is that his pro stock never will be higher.

Let's just get the staggering numbers out of the way.

On 19 carries, he ran for 200 yards. On top of that, he completed 30-of-40 passes for 267 yards. He took the game over when it was up for grabs and seized a national championship.

Which of those characteristics or skills don't you want on your team?

Young is unorthodox, I'll give you that. But wasn't Cunningham not orthodox? What about Steve Young or Bernie Kosar? Weren't they, in their own ways, a bit different? I say Young is a better prospect than Michael Vick has shown so far. Not what he could accomplish, but what Vick has so far.

Will Young come out? Yeah, I think so. I think despite the lack of appealing teams sitting atop the NFL draft, Young will decide that there is nothing more he can do in college to prove his worth or improve his stock in the eyes of the pro scouts. If I am New Orleans at No. 2 and Young is out there, I grab him and turn the franchise keys over to him for the next five years. If he can carry the whole state of Texas on his back for a season, Young certainly can do the same for the good-news-starved Saints fans and Louisiana residents.

And Young would be all the more happy to restart his legacy so close to home. He's the best college quarterback I have seen in a long time, and I hope to see him in the NFL soon. But I am even willing to wait. I like him that freakin' much.

IN THE END THE THIRST ALWAYS WINS-DRACULA