gocats
Footballguy
Nice to hear there's as good of talk coming out of Tennessee as Arizona:
http://www.billszone.com/mtlog/archives/20...l_ball_time.php
http://www.billszone.com/mtlog/archives/20...l_ball_time.php
Tennessee Two-Step
The 2006 season will represent step one of a two step process that will propel the Tennessee Titans to the basement of the NFL. Step One will involve the firing of Jeff Fisher and Norm Chow, while Step Two will see them wallowing away in frustration and controversy over new quarterback Vince Young until GM Floyd Reese is finally fired along with the next coaching staff.
The 2006 season figures to be no picnic for Titans fans. It will start off on the wrong foot when the Titans release or trade veteran Steve McNair, who is newcomer Vince Young's friend and mentor. This will give Vince mixed feelings about the front office.
Vince Young is also aware that the current coaching regime, including both Jeff Fisher and Norm Chow, wanted nothing to do with Vince Young. He has likely heard by now that Fisher and Chow lost a waged battle with general manager Floyd Reese that saw the Titans selecting Young over the coaches' choice, Matt Leinart.
Acrimony between Young and the front office will develop in contract negotiations as Vince demands to be paid more than the number one overall selection in the draft, Mario Williams. Prior to being drafted, the Vince Young camp, led by laughable agent Major Adams, indicated that Vince could demand to be paid more than any other draft pick regardless of draft position. Being selected number three overall (where many predicted a slide), along with a perceived weakness in the value of number one overall pick Mario Williams, and leverage deriving from Steve McNair's departure, all figure to embolden Vince Young in his desire to be paid more money than any player in the draft.
After what could shape up to be a tough set of contract negotiations and a significant holdout, Vince Young will cry poormouth as the unwanted stepson of a coaching staff that preferred the white Matt Leinart, and a front office that refused to pay him his worth.
Troubles will continue throughout the 2006 season as as a struglling Titans team sees strenuous fan demand to see Vince Young play earlier, rather than later. Though he will not even be close to ready, Vince Young will agree with the fans, and will make his own push for the benching of Billy Volek.
The obvious fact that Vince is simply not intelligent enough to learn Norm Chow's full pro style offense will force the staff to incorporate some zone read and option plays into the playbook. As Rod Woodson recently explained on the NFL Network, every team in the league is hoping the Titans run the option, because the option never has, and never will work in the NFL.
After struggling predictably, Young (who is not use to losing) will begin to unravel off the field in a manner similar to Ryan Leaf. His pattern of decision-making between the Rose Bowl and Draft suggests a consistent inability to handle off-field issues in the manner expected of the face of a multi-billion dollar franchise.
To Young, the reason he is struggling will be the fact that neither Jeff Fisher nor Norm Chow wanted him. He will claim (privately, maybe publicly as well) that the pair refused to set him up for success in a manner that compares to the way Daddy Mack Brown tailored his offense to Young's talents. The reality is that Mack Brown reduced his normal offense (the one operated by Chris Simms) to the paint-by-numbers version, in order to accomodate Vince's lack of intelligence and inability to grasp the offense. In the NFL, you just cannot get away with that kind of simplification.
After a season of struggles, Jeff Fisher and Norm Chow will be fired. Floyd Reese will steer the ensuing search toward coaches that have specific plans for using Vince Young in a manner that best utilizes his athletic ability (and covers for his lack of intelligence). When astute coaches point out in interview that the team should move Vince into an option receiver role and start over at quarterback by drafting either Brady Quinn or Drew Stanton, Floyd Reese will hit a button that opens a trap door beneath them which leads to a pit of crocadiles, where the unsuspecting coach will be torn to pieces.
A number of high quality head coaching candidates will simply shy away from tossing their name in the ring for the Tennessee job, because they do not want to be forced to abandon the principles of offense that they have developed for years in order to run a gimmick offense around a childish malcontent with no aptitude for pro offenses, and an awkward sidewinder delivery.
A name that could surface for the head coaching job in Tennessee would be Mike Mularkey, whose recent step-down from the Buffalo Bills head coaching position actually resulted in a net positive to his sinking reputation, once the remainder of the NFL realized just how messed up the Buffalo front office situation was under Tom Donahoe. Mularkey will receive high praise from Reese for his being the offensive coordinator to manage a 3,000 yard passing season out of Kordell Stewart in Pittsburgh. He should be fresh off a semi-successful one year stint as offensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins.
Under Mularkey, and with Vince Young as quarterback, the Titans will flounder in the basement of the NFL for a few years, until GM Floyd Reese is asked to step down, and Mularkey, Young, and staff are run out of town.
Nick Saban, head coach of the Miami Dolphins, will then utilize his personal relationship with Vince Young to do what he attempted to do with Young many years ago at LSU: recruit him as a wide receiver.
