Vince Young remains under contract with the Titans, even though the Titans have made it clear that they won’t be keeping him under contract for the 2011 season. His former position coach in Tennessee, now the quarterbacks coach in Minnesota, has made it clear that he’d like to export the Twin Titans to the Twin Cities.
“I know that question is going to be coming,” Craig Johnson told Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean. “So my answer is going to be this: I do have a relationship with Vince, a long relationship with him. But the head coach and ownership and the offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings — they’re the ones that are going to make the decision. The assistant coaches coach.”
It may have been better for Johnson’s answer to be this: No comment. Nothing good comes from making interest in a player under contract with another team known. Even if the league rarely nails a franchise for tampering, a decision by the Titans to file a tampering case (or to pull the passive-aggressive maneuver they did to get the league to investigate the Redskins for tampering with Albert Haynesworth without actually alleging tampering) would possibly scare the Vikings away from signing Young, once he becomes a free agent.
“I am sure they’ll do due diligence on Vince, and every quarterback that is going to be available on the market is going to be discussed,” Johnson said. “I know it is going to be discussed, and I’ll put my two cents worth on him because obviously I have more of a relationship with him that most. And then whatever decision is going to be made will be made. Obviously I have a good working relationship with Vince, and he produced pretty well under me.”
It’s clear that Johnson believes in Young, even if Johnson’s former boss, Jeff Fisher, doesn’t.
“I think [Vince’s] future is still to be written,” Johnson said. “What I would officially say about him, and what needs to happen about him, is in the big picture he needs to be known and thought of more for what’s happened on the field than what’s happened off the field. I think that is true of him and any quarterback.”
What has happened on the field has at times been great. At other times, Young has responded poorly to adversity.
Of course, there’s also an argument to be made that Fisher has responded poorly to Young’s poor responses to adversity. Either way, there’s a good chance that the next time Young faces adversity he’ll be wearing a purple jersey bearing a number other than 10, given that the Vikings retired it in honor of Fran Tarkenton.
Hopefully Young won’t respond poorly to that specific piece of adversity.