Vince Young update

In his Monday Morning QB, Peter King has a short section on Vince Young and if Titans fans are wanting good news, stop reading.

King describes Young's body language as "the worst body language of any backup quarterback I've ever seen."

King's description of what he saw;

"I was in the Titans' locker room Thursday for 45 minutes and never saw a sign of Young, who lockers next to Kerry Collins and a couple of stalls down from third-stringer Chris Simms. Collins and Simms enjoyed the time in media-access, talking to an out-of-town reporter or two about their team, their old teams, Brett Favre, the Browns hiring Eric Mangini and anything else that came up. Nice, easy conversation.

No Young.

That's par for the course, one Titans source told me. Young's not one to pal around or shoot the breeze much with Collins.
On Saturday, a few minutes before the opening kickoff of the playoff game against Baltimore, there was Young, the once and perhaps future quarterback king of Tennessee, sitting alone on the bench. Out on the field, loosening up between the Martina McBride rendition of the anthem and the start of the game, was Collins, throwing to a receiver with Simms throwing the ball back.
Before the opening kickoff, Collins and Simms talked together, with Young still on the bench. And often during the game -- except when the three quarterbacks gathered between series with offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger -- Young was away from the action, just watching in his Titans' coat. Maybe there were times when he suggested something to Collins or Heimerdinger, but I never saw it."

When Collins took Young's job early in the season, I wrote that Young was rebuffing Collins' attempt to take him under his wing and show him how to rebound from adversity and become a better player. From what I saw this week, Young's still not willing to listen. A shame. It'll be interesting to see how the Titans, with the sudden arrival of the offseason, handle the Young story. I'd be surprised if they didn't aggressively try to re-sign Collins, whose contract is up. Where would signing Collins leave Young? My feeling is the Titans will look to move him. That's going to be the big story of the Tennessee offseason.

Salary cap-wise, the Titans are under no immediate pressure to move Young. The third-year quarterback's 2009 cap number is a very palatable $4.6 million, but it jumps to $14.2 million in 2010. And if they either cut him or trade him in 2009, he would count as $7.74 million on their cap in 2009 because of the pro-rated signing bonuses and guarantees that would come due immediately. The Titans haven't reached the point of no return with Young the way they did with Pacman Jones a year ago; it's not even close. But they might figure that a $7.74-million cap hit would be a small price to pay to be rid of the Young distraction if they can re-sign Collins.
One big factor in Young's future: Owner Bud Adams, a Texan through and through, loved the pick of Young in the 2006 draft. I doubt he'd be happy with giving up on Young after three star-crossed years. Would he draw a line in the sand and say to Jeff Fisher and GM Mike Reinfeldt, "You can't trade or release Young?'' He might.

If King is right and he usually is, the Titans have a huge problem on their hands. They are paying VY starters money and are expecting him to be the starter either next season or the one after. Will Young be ready to be the starter like he was as a rookie and in his second season or will he repeat his behavior from September?

Young has proven that he can be the starter and can win in the NFL, and the Titans would love to know if they can count on him when he gets another opportunity.