Vince Young: Fraud

I hope after last week’s performance everyone is finally ready to admit the truth about Vince Young.  Can we finally stop all the gushing about his inordinate natural talent?  Because the truth is, it doesn’t exist.  You can blame it on his inadequate supporting cast if you’d like, but what does that have to do with his ability to throw it to a guy with the same colored shirt as him?  Somewhere between his 8-5 record last season and being the Madden cover-boy we lost sight of what this man really is: a barely adequate NFL quarterback. 

It’d be convenient to sum up his inability to do his job on something as inane as the mythical Madden Curse.  It does give everyone a nice and tidy excuse.  Enough is enough, it ends here.  We’ve been giving this guy reprieves for two years; it’s time for him to take responsibility for his own shortcomings.   Young’s style of play makes him one of the most electrifying players in the NFL, but being exciting doesn’t mean you’re good.  Hell, watching celebrity boxing is exciting.  That doesn’t mean Dustin Diamond is fit to step in the ring with Floyd Mayweather.

Young is an effective runner, in fact, the man drafted a slot of ahead of him, Reggie Bush, out rushed him by only 13 yards last season on nearly double the carries last year.  That’s no small feat, but as a quarterback his legs should be secondary.  Since when is alright for a quarterback to be a below average passer?   When defenses force him to stay in the pocket and air it out he is rendered ineffective. In his four dates prior to Sunday’s match-up against the Jaguars he was held to an average of 17 rushing yards.  So it should come as no surprise that he also failed to pass for a touchdown in each of these games.

Coming into the league there were questions about Young’s ability to be an effective passer, so this isn’t a new development.  It wouldn’t be such a big deal if there wasn’t so much hype surrounding his every move.  Somehow he got pushed to the forefront of the league without ever accomplishing anything.  Sure, the Titans nearly made it to the playoffs last season, but this wasn’t because of Young’s arm, it was in spite of it.  The guy has never passed for 300 yards in game, his career completion percentage is on the wrong side of 60, and he is among the worst in the league in QB rating.  Supposedly teams have fits drawing up a game plan for him, it appears rather simple: make him throw the ball. 

Again, this wouldn’t be a big deal if the general public wouldn’t have placed him on a pedestal overlooking all the quarterbacks not named Peyton or Tom, when in fact he ranks somewhere in the bottom third of the quarterback hierarchy.  Take away his legs and he’d be dead last.  What’s so mind boggling about this is that as soon as Michael Vick began to falter the buzzards were more than ready to rip him apart limb from limb, but somehow Vince remains invincible to public’s negating eye.

Look at Eli Manning, the poor guy has had his game dissected from top to bottom, from the way he stands in the pocket to the horrible face he makes after a mistake.  Even though he has his team sitting at 6-3 and in position to make a deep playoff push, he continues to be lambasted in the media.  He may be the Tito of the family, but as a quarterback his body of work should allow him to circumvent this type of scrutiny at this point of his career. 

You’d think in this day and age someone would have blown the horn by now, but there have only been whispers of the presence of a false prophet.  Where is the Sports Illustrated cover with the word ‘Fraud’ splashed across his smiling face?  Where are the stories that inundated Vick stating that he would be better suited as a running back?  Young’s stats have already proved that he is guilty; all that’s left is for someone to convict him.