Recent reports out of Tennessee indicate that the Titans haven't changed their stance on the departure of Vince Young - he won't be a Titan in 2011, according to their new Head Coach Mike Munchak. While this isn't exactly breaking news, it does make you wonder even more about where Young, a former Pro-Bowler, will end up. With the Seahawks' quagmire at quarterback, you have to wonder why he's not being talked about more in Seattle.
On paper, it might make sense. He's been a part of an offense that's built around running the ball, something that Pete Carroll has mentioned he wants to do in Seattle. He's a very mobile, athletic quarterback that has a pretty good track record of taking care of the ball. He's the guy that beat Pete Carroll's Trojan's in the 2005 National Championship game so you know Pete has seen what he can do. He's not a prolific passer, but he's managed 20 TDs to 10 Interceptions in the past two seasons and his team has won at a pretty high clip when he's the signal caller.
So why would the Hawks be so seemingly disinterested? He's got a history of off-field and locker room issues that they just may not want to take a chance on I suppose. He's had some injury issues as well. He's not a pure passer but from what I can tell he is the type of QB that could have success in the Hawks' system emphasizing mobility and working the QB into the running game on bootlegs and rollouts and perhaps a change of scenery would do Young some good.
We've talked about Matt Leinart a little bit here, and Vince Young is another one of those wild cards that I can't really make my mind up about. The attitude issues are a definite concern - he hasn't had the maturity to get along with his coaching staff in Tennessee so it stands to reason that he'd carry those issues here. But, as we have seen, Carroll is a true players' coach, and has been effective in coaching primadonnas at the college level and has had some success rehabilitating careers here in Seattle.
If the rumors are true that Ryan Mallett is off the Seahawks' draft board completely because of mobility issues, then you have to reason Leinart may not be a fit either. Vince may be the most mobile and athletic QB in free agency and in my mind may be a better option than reaching for a rookie QB like Christian Ponder or Andy Dalton in the first round. These guys wouldn't be able to start immediately anyway, so the idea of grabbing a guy like Young to come in to compete for the starting job with Whitehurst while addressing other needs on the roster in the Draft is more appealing to me.
Some of you may loathe the idea of Young in Seattle based on his attitude and past issues off the field. Some of you may covet his scrambling and playmaking abilities and have the ability to either ignore his problems or hope they work themselves out. I think I might be somewhere in the middle of that group - I am intrigued by the thought of Young in a Seahawks uniform but am wary of the baggage he could bring with him. However, like Leinart, he'd be a low risk, relatively low cost option for the Hawks to pursue and if it didn't work out it wouldn't be a huge waste.
Thoughts?