Fisher’s decision to stick with Collins may be an indictment of Young. Matt Bowen
When you are an 0-6 football team at this point of the NFL season, change is expected—almost demanded—and that is exactly what we are now seeing in Nashville, where Titans owner Bud Adams has spoken his peace about the quarterback position.
And it is all about Vince Young taking over for current starter Kerry Collins.
APWill Jeff Fisher listen to owner Bud Adams and give QB Vince Young the starting nod on Sunday?
Adams has informed head coach Jeff Fisher that he wants to see Young under center for the Titans, who host Jacksonville this Sunday, telling the Tennessean, “I have been wanting (Fisher) to play Vince Young more because Collins has been having his problems out there. I just think we need to find out how well (Young) can do.”
Adams went on to say, “Vince has won a lot of games for us.”
Yes, I agree, but V.Y. hasn’t won games for this franchise for a long time, and that is why I am wondering about the decisions that Fisher will ultimately have to make this week as the team starts to game plan tomorrow for Sunday.
Because if Collins is playing so poorly—which we can all agree on by watching this offense in ’09—then why hasn’t Young already been asserted into the starting lineup?
Now, we can speculate all we want, but Fisher has earned the respect in this league for his coaching abilities. I don’t know him personally, but I do know many of his former players, and I have never heard a negative thing uttered about the man. He seems, well, like the ultimate head coach to play for. Plus, we aren’t on the practice fields and we aren’t in the meeting rooms. We can’t see if V.Y. is ready to play, or if he has shown the coaching staff that he is now mature enough to lead this offense.
APDespite the team's struggles, Fisher has kept Young on the sidelines thus far.
In saying that, we should respect Fisher’s decision for having kept Young on the bench thus far this season, because if he was good enough to play—and win—for the Titans, he most likely would have been in the lineup already over Collins.
But, he hasn’t been. Instead, he’s been regulated to backup duty for the entire season up until this point.
That is why I am concerned whenever an owner starts to get involved with the quarterback and the head coach. We have already seen it in Oakland this year with Al Davis lobbying for JaMarcus Russell, and now we are seeing it in Tennessee. Yes, we all understand that first-round quarterbacks do not do the owner any good by sitting on the bench with a bag of money on the ground next to them, but I find it hard to question a coach like Fisher.
He has won too many games, and despite his team’s lack of production this season, I still am going to side with his decisions over the owner from way up above in the luxury box.
But, V.Y. will most likely play this Sunday. Is it the right move? For the future? Maybe. But for right now? Only if Fisher makes the call.
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I never indict a QB for the play of their defense unless he is a huge part of why they aren't doing well.
I also don't credit a QB for the play of their defense. To say VY "led" the Titans anywhere or that he was ROY for any other reason than some popularity contest like Pro Bowl FAN vote would be a mistake, IMO. Their defense was a bigger factor on both their playoff runs than either VY or Collins. HOWEVER....Collins can run an NFL offense and committed very few turnovers last year which helped his defense. I heard Drew Bennett, a teammate of VY's in 2006, say something very interesting on MMQB on ESPN last Monday. He stated that the team already KNOWS VY can't be their QB due to incidents like the missing the plane and refusing to go to the game after that etc. Why else wouldn't they play him now? It makes total sense to me. They are keeping him as a backup for this year and it's likely that Fisher would dump him after this season. He doesn't have the mental part or leadership part of being a QB and if you don't have that now, IMO, you aren't going to suddenly get that. Leaders are born not made
I have also heard Merrill Hoge commenting after watching tape that the offense for VY was so ludicrously simplified it was ridiculous.
Ron,
Don't see a "correction" anywhere. I see an opinion by a VY fan in yourself, but that's it. Kind of agree with Matt that if Fisher thought VY was the answer, then he would be playing by now.
Make sense to me.
I have to side with the owner here. Their season is over. I doubt Kerry Collins is their QB of the future. VY probably isn't either, but at least put him out there and give him a chance to either do somethng or stink it up.
Yeah, I'm on the "Play Vince" side of the fence. I know that its not exactly fair to say that VY is responsible for "winning" 18 games vs. 11 losses. But he did demonstrate that he has the skill set to help his team score enough points to win. If Collins was executing and the Titans were lighting up the scoreboard, then I could see how Fisher would really be justified in saying that Collins is not the problem, and sticking with his guy. I don't believe Collins is THE problem, but I think he is part of the problem.
I'm a little surprised that this little difference of opinion between Fisher and Adams is being played out in public. It's not like Adams has a reputation as a particularly meddlesome owner (at least compared to Snyder and Davis). It seems to me that if the owner wants to see a guy play, and your season is functionally over anyway, then the obligation of the coach is to play the guy the owner wants. Especially in this case, where VY's past history suggests that he is capable of contributing to the success of the team.
Fisher's resistance on this point makes me think that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Matt extrapolates that it must be VY's abysmal performance in practice or in the meeting room that is contributing to him being on the Bench. But couldn't it also be true that Fisher may have just taken a set against VY based upon last years problems, and has just irrationally decided that VY can't play QB in the NFL? Sort of like Al Davis' problems with Marcus? That doesn't make Fisher a bad person, it just makes him a person with flaws. Like all of us.
Its amazing to me how the VY critics discredit his wins. Everyone knows the QB gets the credit and the blame. By your logic Big Ben, Mannings Bro, and Brady should get any credit for their wins because they dont play defense. I could see your point if you were using facts but your not. The whole VY isn't smart enough to play as a NFL QB is insulting. How is anyone supposed to meet your subjective criteria of what an intelligent QB should be? What your missing is they dont have to go by your standard. Its all about wins and loses. If you go by stats VY is a better QB than Kerry. Kerry's numbers are the same as they been throughout his career. In VY's four years as a pro he has thrown 33 ints compared to ..wait for it... Peyton Mannings 4 yrs in which he threw 81. 28 in his rookie season alone. Another point if it was so obvious Fisher knows what he is doing the titans wouldn't have lost 8 games straight. Who cares if KC is great in practice. What is he doing in the game besides going 0-13 in the 2nd half of one game, fumbling on the final drive in another and going 2-11 for -7yds 1int in another. There is no way the Pats can score 5 TDs in one quarter unless the opposing offense is going 3 and out everytime down. I just don't see how you can defend leaving KC in there as starter. Bottom line is Bud Adams wants VY to start. Considering its his team Fisher doesn't have a choice.
Matt, I definitely agree with you and your trust in Jeff Fisher head coaching skills. He has the opportunity to watch VY any given day and thus decide if he's ready to play or not. To run an NFL offense you've to be an NFL caliber qb and I still think that VY is not yet that kind of player. As trent dilfer poited out yesterday (well I've seen him yesterday on ESPN America) if you want to play qb in the NFL you've to learn to play under center, and I'm not too sure he's ready to do it constantly.
The media kills me on how "respected" Jeff Fisher is as a coach. He may be respected, but that does not make him a great or even good coach as is often thrown around when the national guys talk about him. He is way over-rated with barely just over a .500 winning percentage and that is dropping like a rock this year. In 15 years he has had only had six winning seasons and six playoff appearances (5-6 playoff record). I live in Nashville and in most cases if he was in any other city, he would have been fired years ago for being just AVERAGE.
He is not a perrenial winner, say like the colts the steelers, patriots.....let me coach one team for 15 years and I am bound to have a few good seasons. How can you go from a 13-3 season to an 0-6 start.....i tell you how...they were not as good as people would believe, they were not as well coach as people have you to believe....they had an easy schedule and got a few breaks here and there. Now that they have to play a better schedule.....their true colors come out. GARBAGE!!!!! And the reason he doesn't play Vince is because if he puts Vince out there and the team improves at any degree, it makes him look bad, because he has stood firmly behind "Kerry gives us the best chance to win" coach speak. Plus Fisher never wanted Vince in the first place, he wanted Lienart.
I think Jeff Fisher is one of the better coaches in the league, but I do question why he is so hesitant to start VY. At this point, it doesn't matter how Kerry Collins is playing because you're playing for next season. You can’t recover from a 0-6 record with the way their defense is playing regardless of who is playing QB. You need to see if VY can play QB and whether or not to pick up his offseason roster bonuses. If he's not showing a lot in practice, you have to hope he can play through it on the field and develop some confidence. Much like Lombardi preaches, you have be able to evaluate your own talent and roster first, and unfortunately the Titans put too much faith in a young secondary and old linebacker crew that over achieved last season (although they have suffered a lot of injuries in the secondary). Now it’s time to see what you have in VY on the field, not in practice. If he plays well down the stretch you have something to build on for next year. If he doesn’t, you know where you can save some money.
Vince Young is another perfect example of the high stakes, foolish gambling contract beteween the owners and the player assoc. The quandary is : play the multi million dollar man who is not star level pro talent or sit him and the millions invested in him.
Why the league owners ever acquiesced to and continue to labor under a situation that pays huge rewards without accomplishments truly baffles me.
Vince Young can play football, but he is not in the same league as the great ones. He is a 2nd, --a back-upstringer.
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Oct 27, 2009
05:00 PM
Like to make a quick correction. The titans have lost 8 games in a row with Collins as a starter going back to last year. When is the last time a team stayed with a QB that lost 8 games in a row? Even this year every team that has one or zero wins has switched QB's. Add to the fact VY is a pro bowl QB that was also rookie of the year AND he has an 18-11 record as a starter. Compared to 13-13 for KC. Fisher is showing incompetence right now. his judgment has to be questioned because so far every decision he has made for 8 straight games have been wrong. By the way the last time Bud Adams insisted VY play the Titans were 0-3 with KC and vince ended the year with an 8-3 record.