VY vs Vick

Now that Vince Young is starting his third season in the NFL, many feel it's time for his to show if he is going to be an NFL QB who can lead his team to a Super Bowl and a championhip or if he will be another athletic QB who couldn't get it done because either he's not accurate enough or he's hurt. The last guy who was going to set the NFL afire was Michael Vick, and we all know how that has turned out, 23 months in jail for dogfighting.

But just how do Vick and Young stack up numbers wise?

In 2002, Vick led the Falcons to the playoffs as a wild card in his second season, his first as a starter. The Falcons went to Green Bay and gave Lord Favre a good beating 27-7; the first home playoff loss for the Packers in years. The Falcons then went on to lose to the Philadelphia Eagles in the Divisional Playoffs. During the 2003 preseason Michael Vick broke his leg and missed the first twelve games of the season. The Falcons ended up with a dismal 5-11 record that year. Vick returned for the full season in 2004, when the Falcons went 11-5. They made it to the Conference Championship, once again losing to the Eagles.

Vince Young took the Titans to the playoffs in his second season also as a wild card, losing to the Chargers in the first round although they led until late in the 3rd quarter.

Both have gotten the benefit of the doubt about their accuracy. For several seasons, the Falcons argued that it's not the QB it's the receivers, Vick just needs some weapons around him who can catch the ball or who can get seperation from the DBs. This was the same thing that Field Goal Fisher, and the entire Nashville media has said about VY. Such as the comments Field Goal Fisher made after the Titans win over Oakland Friday night:

"We need to become more consistent there," he said. Fisher also cited Oakland's man coverage — which the Titans opted not to counter scheme-wise — and still-developing timing between receivers and quarterbacks Vince Young and Kerry Collins.

Huh? So now you are throwing the coaching staff and the backup under the bus because the WRs couldn't deal with Oakland's man coverage and VY was throwing the ball eveywhere but to his WRs and TEs?

The final reason given for their struggles is the offensive coordinator. Vick went through in his 8 seasons with the Falcons, VY is on his second one in three seasons, evidently Norm Chow didn't take advantage of VY's strengths.