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The Grand Poobah
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[SIZE=+2]QBs Young & Leinart: From can't miss to can't figure
[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]10:22 AM CDT on Thursday, September 11, 2008
[/SIZE]
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Thirty-two months ago, they were on top of the football world. It's hard to say who has fallen farther, Matt Leinart or Vince Young.
They were the quarterbacks in the spotlight of the greatest BCS championship game ever played. USC's Leinart was outstanding. Texas' Young was even better.
I couldn't imagine how either one could miss as an NFL quarterback.
Leinart seemed to have a great arm and an uncanny ability to make plays at the biggest moments. It was speculated that he would have been the No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft had he not chosen to stay for his senior year.
There were always concerns about Young's throwing motion, and the offense he ran at Texas was anything but pro style. But his ability to lead was undeniable.
I figured – and so did many scouts – that he had to come into the NFL with at least as much skill as Randall Cunningham had coming out of Nevada-Las Vegas. And Cunningham managed a pretty decent 16-year career that included being named All-Pro four times.
And yet here we are a week into their third NFL season. Leinart can't get on the field in Arizona. And Titans fans want Young off the field in Tennessee.
Young's career is one of the most difficult to analyze of any player I have seen. If it's all about winning at the quarterback position, then Young is fine. In fact, he's better than fine. He's outstanding.
Young's first start for Tennessee came when the team was 0-3 in 2006. He led them to an 8-8 record to earn Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. He led them to the playoffs in 2007.
In Sunday's opener, in spite of two interceptions and a late knee injury, Young led the Titans to victory once again.
But the numbers just keep getting worse. And if quarterbacking in the NFL is all about passer rating, then Young just can't play.
His numbers since coming into the league are worse than that of San Francisco's Alex Smith, whose career with the 49ers appears to be over. They are worse than "Train" Rex Grossman's in Chicago. They are worse than Joey Harrington's, and he can't find work in a league that employs 96 quarterbacks.
So how do you weigh the tangibles against the intangibles in Young's case? And what would his numbers look like if he were a Cowboy, throwing the ball to Terrell Owens and Jason Witten and handing off to Marion Barber instead of throwing the ball to Bo Scaife and Justin Gage and handing it off to LenDale White?
I'm not suggesting his numbers would match Tony Romo's. But every quarterback, to some extent, succeeds or fails because of his supporting cast, and Tennessee has not bothered to surround Young with top-level talent.
I still think the Titans need to find a way to get behind him and return him to the lineup whenever his injury heals. In Young's case, with so much unrefined skill, the jury is still out.
The same is true with Leinart. How do you make a judgment on a player with 15 NFL starts in two seasons? It takes a much larger body of work than that to be declared a bust.
Most people expected Leinart to emerge from the preseason as the Cardinals' starting quarterback. A three-interception game, in just 12 attempts, against Oakland pretty much handed the job back to veteran Kurt Warner.
Warner's injury history suggests Leinart's time will come during the 2008 season. But how long will the opportunity last?
Arizona has done a better job than Tennessee of supplying Leinart with talent. The Cardinals just won't let him use it.
One of the problems is that Leinart was drafted by coaches no longer in Arizona. Maybe he's just not Ken Whisenhunt's guy.
But with the financial investment that both teams have made in their quarterbacks, the Cardinals and the Titans have to want these two to succeed.
For them to be failing this deep into their pro careers is a stunning development. And it may have as much to do with organizations failing them as the other way around.
[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]10:22 AM CDT on Thursday, September 11, 2008
[/SIZE]
http://www.***BANNED-URL***/sharedcontent/dws/img/standing/sports/columnists/mugs/mug_tcowlishaw.jpg
• E-mail
Thirty-two months ago, they were on top of the football world. It's hard to say who has fallen farther, Matt Leinart or Vince Young.
They were the quarterbacks in the spotlight of the greatest BCS championship game ever played. USC's Leinart was outstanding. Texas' Young was even better.
I couldn't imagine how either one could miss as an NFL quarterback.
Leinart seemed to have a great arm and an uncanny ability to make plays at the biggest moments. It was speculated that he would have been the No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft had he not chosen to stay for his senior year.
There were always concerns about Young's throwing motion, and the offense he ran at Texas was anything but pro style. But his ability to lead was undeniable.
I figured – and so did many scouts – that he had to come into the NFL with at least as much skill as Randall Cunningham had coming out of Nevada-Las Vegas. And Cunningham managed a pretty decent 16-year career that included being named All-Pro four times.
And yet here we are a week into their third NFL season. Leinart can't get on the field in Arizona. And Titans fans want Young off the field in Tennessee.
Young's career is one of the most difficult to analyze of any player I have seen. If it's all about winning at the quarterback position, then Young is fine. In fact, he's better than fine. He's outstanding.
Young's first start for Tennessee came when the team was 0-3 in 2006. He led them to an 8-8 record to earn Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. He led them to the playoffs in 2007.
In Sunday's opener, in spite of two interceptions and a late knee injury, Young led the Titans to victory once again.
But the numbers just keep getting worse. And if quarterbacking in the NFL is all about passer rating, then Young just can't play.
His numbers since coming into the league are worse than that of San Francisco's Alex Smith, whose career with the 49ers appears to be over. They are worse than "Train" Rex Grossman's in Chicago. They are worse than Joey Harrington's, and he can't find work in a league that employs 96 quarterbacks.
So how do you weigh the tangibles against the intangibles in Young's case? And what would his numbers look like if he were a Cowboy, throwing the ball to Terrell Owens and Jason Witten and handing off to Marion Barber instead of throwing the ball to Bo Scaife and Justin Gage and handing it off to LenDale White?
I'm not suggesting his numbers would match Tony Romo's. But every quarterback, to some extent, succeeds or fails because of his supporting cast, and Tennessee has not bothered to surround Young with top-level talent.
I still think the Titans need to find a way to get behind him and return him to the lineup whenever his injury heals. In Young's case, with so much unrefined skill, the jury is still out.
The same is true with Leinart. How do you make a judgment on a player with 15 NFL starts in two seasons? It takes a much larger body of work than that to be declared a bust.
Most people expected Leinart to emerge from the preseason as the Cardinals' starting quarterback. A three-interception game, in just 12 attempts, against Oakland pretty much handed the job back to veteran Kurt Warner.
Warner's injury history suggests Leinart's time will come during the 2008 season. But how long will the opportunity last?
Arizona has done a better job than Tennessee of supplying Leinart with talent. The Cardinals just won't let him use it.
One of the problems is that Leinart was drafted by coaches no longer in Arizona. Maybe he's just not Ken Whisenhunt's guy.
But with the financial investment that both teams have made in their quarterbacks, the Cardinals and the Titans have to want these two to succeed.
For them to be failing this deep into their pro careers is a stunning development. And it may have as much to do with organizations failing them as the other way around.
