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Vince Young’s NFL resume includes being the third overall pick in the NFL Draft, the former face of the Tennessee Titans, NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2006, and a Pro Bowl quarterback. Yet in an offseason full of quarterback musical chairs, Vince Young is still waiting to find his next NFL home. Young has always been a winner dating back to his time at the University of Texas, and he has a knack for making big plays in crunch-time, but he is also inconsistent, extremely polarizing and comes with some baggage. In his most recent stint with the Philadelphia Eagles, Young spent most of his time backing up Michael Vick before he finally got an opportunity to start when Vick got injured. However, just like much of his NFL career the results for Young were a mixed bag. He had some positive moments, including a win over the New York Giants where he played pretty well, and yet he also showed during his brief stint as Philly starter why teams have not expressed a strong interest in the former third overall pick being a starting quarterback. So Vince Young will be forced to wait for his phone to ring while remains an intriguing free agent quarterback possibility for a team that misses out in the NFL Draft in April.
Vince Young joined KILT in Houston with Mike Meltser and Brad Davies to talk about if he still sees himself as a starting quarterback in the NFL, whether he has had contact with teams that would like to sign him, whether he would be okay with competing for a starting QB job in training camp, if teams have expressed concern over his leadership skills given his past, how he would feel about playing in Houston for the Texans, and why he believes things didn’t work out for him in Philadelphia.
If he still looks at himself as a starting quarterback:
“Yeah definitely. Always want to go in and compete for the starting job and the things that I put myself through to get better and better and to better myself as a quarterback, just waiting on that opportunity to get the chance to do that.”
Whether he has had contact with teams that would like to sign him:
“We have a couple of teams with interest right now and I’m just sitting back and waiting and letting my agent, Tom Condon, do his work. Pretty much just waiting till after the draft with the new CBA rule, all the different cap rules and things like that, just looking for the best opportunity for myself, my family and for me to go out and compete for a starting job.”
What situation he thinks would be a good one for him and whether he would be okay with competing for a starting job in training camp:
“Yeah definitely. A team that has a younger quarterback that I can definitely go in and compete for the starting job and just go in and help any way I can to make the team better. Be a team player and continue to work because there are a bunch of teams out there that are needing another quarterback to come in and be a leader for the team in order to go to the playoffs and lead them to the Super Bowl.”
If he thinks the questions about his leadership skills are still there:
“Like you just said it’s something in the past and I really feel like for my teammates and anybody else I feel like that wasn’t the issue. I think like it was more so of a perception and something that me and Coach Fisher had that I learned from and just know how to handle these types of situations now in the future. I don’t feel like anybody had any question about my leadership role, that was just more of a perception of he said, she said.”
How he would feel about playing in Houston with the Texans:
“I would love to play at home. That would be a dream come true and anything I can do to help out with the team, I just saw Arian Foster the other day and gave him a lot of respect when I saw him and just a lot of history with some of the guys around town anyway that I know from knowing each other a while and always keeping in contact with each other, come to my foundation and charity events and football camps so that would be great. I just let Tom take care of that and let him do his job. All I can do is just stay ready, keep working out and training in Houston and waiting for that opportunity to come.”
If he regrets calling the Eagles the Dream Team a year ago:
“Everybody keeps putting it in the wrong sequence. I didn’t say ‘Dream Team’ like ‘Dream Team.’ It’s like you are dreaming, like me and you dream about eating a nice burger or something, put it in those terms and just more so the respect that I have for the players from (Dominique Rodgers) Cromartie, from Nnamdi (Asomugha), to Mike Vick and the players that we had around. I was just feeling very respectful towards those guys and that’s what I meant by that situation.”
Why things didn’t work out in Philadelphia:
“One of the biggest things there was I asked Andy, ‘could I be part of the team again?’ He was like ‘I would love for you to stay here but you’re not a backup quarterback’ so when I heard the big guy, big red, say that it showed me more confidence and more respect that he had for me when he said he wanted to see me somewhere playing. I can truly understand that and they wanted to give Mike Kafka a little more of a chance to go out and compete and backup up Mike Vick but basically he didn’t see me backing up again. He felt like I should be starting somewhere and playing so that’s just the respect he had for me and saw the hard work that I put in to get better as quarterback last year with those guys.”
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