Vince Young dazzled us for the past year of college football, and then wowed us with his gutsy performance at the Rose Bowl on Wednesday night. Not only did he beat the team that some said was the best college football team ever assembled, he did it with complete poise. But with that being said, I still don't think Vince Young is going to be a
very good NFL quarterback. Sure, he'll get drafted in the top 5 when he declares (whenever that may be), but I'm just not impressed. Now before my e-mail address gets flooded with hate mail, let me give you some of the reasons I don't think that Vince is going to be the guy everyone thinks he is going to be at the next level.

Sure, we all saw Vince run and pass all over that USC defense, and on opposing defenses all season long for that matter, but that's not the point. To put it bluntly, Vince Young is a good scrambling quarterback with a mediocre arm. Can anybody think of another scrambling quarterback currently playing in the NFL with a somewhat mediocre arm? Nope, it's not the speed demon Drew Bledsoe; I'm talking about Michael Vick. Here's the thing: Michael is not only faster, quicker and more agile than Young, he also has a much stronger arm. Even if I concede that Young is more accurate than Vick is, you have to understand that Vick is one of the least accurate quarterbacks in the NFL on a yearly basis. While the comparison to Vick might not be a perfect fit, it's the one that jumps into people's minds, so I'll stick with that. Michael got into the NFL on his raw athletic ability and absolute cannon for an arm. He is arguably the fastest player on the field every single time he's out there and can literally dance around defenders. That doesn't hold true for Vince Young. He might have speed, but so do a majority of the linebackers and defensive ends in the league. Teams will spy Vince like crazy and not give him a chance to run. Since he doesn't possess the pure running abilities that Vick has, Vince will struggle to gain yards on the very same plays he might have scored on at the college level. If teams were really scared of Michael Vick's arm on a constant basis, the Falcons would have more Super Bowl rings than Chuck Noll. If Vick's arm doesn't strike fear in opposing defenses, then Vince Young's will make defenders choke on their mouth guards in a fit of laughter. That being said, it won't be hard for defensive coordinators to figure out Vince Young and shut him down.

Vince might be a beast of a player with ideal size, but were you really impressed with his passing abilities this season? Did you actually watch him play, or were you being fooled by his impressive completion percentage and quarterback rating? All I ever see when I watch this guy is his favorite play, you know, the shotgun triple option play that the Longhorns run 70% of the time. It's truly a tough play to stop, and it opens the field for wide open receivers, with safeties and linebackers constantly biting on the run. In the NFL, he's not going to be able to buy time for himself and flip a little eight yard loop pass to his wide open tight end play after play after play. Honestly, how many of Vince's completions were to a wide receiver that was practically wide open? Hundreds. Has Vince Young ever made a throw that made you say, Wow, that was a perfect pass! If he has, then it sure doesn't happen a whole lot. Either that or you are the type of person that gets pumped up every time Golden Girls comes on television.

Pro teams will force Vince to beat them with his arm and, believe it or not, he has never actually beaten anyone with his arm to this date. He's not going to all of a sudden start throwing the ball harder either. That's not something that can be taught. He doesn't have the arm to hit his receiver consistently on a slant route, and that's crucial for the NFL. His deep ball flutters and might be decently accurate, but it stays in the air too long and forces his big wide receivers to go get it, rather than being on target. Obviously I'm generalizing about Vince's abilities, but isn't that what everyone else is doing when they say how great he's going to be? The truth is, nobody actually knows how great he will be at the next level, and everyone will hold their own opinion. People can argue the things that this guy has done until they are blue in the face, but I'm still not buying it. Just because the media tells you over and over that Vince Young is going to be a great player in the NFL doesn't mean you have to believe it. But don't take my word for it, just wait a few years and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Drop me a line at mistasmooth55@hotmail.com