Behind the Scenes of Jeff Fisher’s Switch to Vince Young

By: dwil

Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams said he wanted Vince Young to start Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars.. Head coach Jeff fisher, who is presiding over an 0-6 team with the NFL’s 27th-ranked offense, seemed to balk at such a suggestion. Something behind the scenes changed because Young is starting Sunday:

The Tennessean reported this week that team owner Bud Adams spoke to Fisher during the bye week, telling the coach he preferred that Young start against the Jaguars over Collins, who went 2-for-12 for minus-7 yards and an interception in a 59-0 loss to New England on Oct. 18.

It was the largest margin of defeat since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. Young went 0-for-2 with an interception in relief of Collins.

Tennessee hasn’t scored a touchdown in eight quarters. Young and Collins split the work evenly at practice Wednesday.

However, there is more than this switch than meets the eye. Patrick Ramsey was cut after Week 3 of the regular season, leaving the Titans with two quarterbacks on their roster. This means Young was relegated to quarterbacking the scout team, rather than preparing as a potential starter in case Kerry Collins went down with an injury, or was pulled from a game.

Perhaps this is what is lies behind Young’s tepid, albeit brief performances when he entered games for Collins.

The Titans have carried only two quarterbacks since cutting Patrick Ramsey after Week 3, but Wednesday had John David Booty added to the practice squad, presumably to take a share of scout-team reps while the situation with the starter was sorted out.

Young had referred to himself as the scout-team quarterback since Ramsey’s departure.

Adam Schefter added on ESPN’s NFL Live telecast Thursday:

Follow the money. On March 10th of 2010 vince Young has a $4.25 million option bonus payment due. The Titans have to figure out if vince Young is their quarterback of the future or whether he has any value to any other team to be another team’s quarterback of the future.

While there is a power struggle between owner and head coach, there are also money considerations that must be clarified before the end of the Tennessee Titans season.

It is now incumbent upon Young to produce. Because Vince Young was the preferred 2006 first round draft choice of Adams, If he does play well the remainder of the season and gets the support of the players around him on both sides of the ball, it might spell the end of the Jef Fisher era in Tennessee.

After all, Young was the 2006 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year but was not provided an equal chance to start this season for the Titans. Meantime Kerry Collins helped lead the team down the river with out a boat to an 0-6 record while Young was the scout team quarterback. Now, If Young does play well, Fisher will appear to have some sort of continuing but unfounded bias against Young.

And guess who will hit the skids? Because Tennessee played its way out of the playoffs in the first seven weeks of the 2009 season, it won’t be Vince Young.

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