Vince Young No Longer the Starter in Tennessee, and He Might Be Done With the Titans

First, Vince Young threw his shoulder pads and jersey into the crowd on the way into the locker room after the game.  Then, he was reportedly muttering under his breath while Jeff Fisher was addressing the team, and Fisher asked him to stop. Young got up and walked out of the locker room, responding to Fisher’s statement not to walk out on the team with “I’m walking out on you.”

It’s pretty telling when Jay Cutler is the most stable quarterback from the 2006 first round class. Vince Young has had a roller coaster career in just five seasons. He started out as the hot rookie phenom, who put up mediocre numbers, but was credited with just winning games. That was a dangerous combo, and he didn’t really progress during his second season. The Titans still made the playoffs, but the shine wore off a little. Then, we had the bizarre Vince Young suicide threat episode, where Jeff Fisher called police based on Young’s behavior and statements to his therapist. Young was shut down for the rest of the season, and Kerry Collins led the Titans to a 13-3 record.

Just when it seemed lost, though, Young came off the bench to play really well last year, as the Titans rebounded from an 0-5 start. His career was at a crossroad entering this year, and he looked like he might be able to put the incident from two years ago behind him. Then we had the benching against Pittsburgh, where there were references to his lack of preparation. He’s battled injuries, and Sunday’s episode again re-raises concerns about Young’s maturity and ability to handle the quarterback position.  Behavior like this approaches Ryan Leaf levels of immaturity.  Coming out of the draft, I don’t know that anyone had concerns over Young’s commitment (compared to Leinart, for example), and any questions seemed to be related to his throwing motion and whether he would translate to the pro game. The questions are plentiful now, though.

Paul Kuharsky thinks that Young should be done in Tennessee. I suspect that Jeff Fisher agrees.  We like comeback stories, but Tennessee is twice bitten now.  This team is built to succeed now, if they could just get some stability at quarterback that has been lacking.  If it is going to happen for Young, it’s probably going to be somewhere else.

[photo via Getty]