Titus Young, the 2011 second-round draft pick who lasted less than two years with the Lions, has now lasted less than two weeks with the Rams.
Rams coach Jeff Fisher confirmed today that the Rams have waived Young, ten days after they picked him up off waivers from Detroit. Fisher declined to get into specifics, but he said that after spending a few days with Young at the team facilities, the Rams’ coaching staff decided he wasn’t a good fit.
“We felt Titus is better suited for another organization,” Fisher said.
Reading between the lines in Fisher’s comments, it sounds like the same attitude problems that plagued Young’s career in Detroit cropped up again during his brief stay in St. Louis.
“We felt like by claiming Titus we would have the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with him,” Fisher said. “We spent that time with him, we spent probably four or five days with him, and as an organization, at the end of the interview process, you might call it, we felt it was best to go in another direction.”
Fisher described Young as “an outstanding young talent” and made clear that there were no injury or health issues, which pretty much leaves the off-field concerns as the only reason the Rams wouldn’t want him.
Although he showed flashes of talent with the Lions, Young proved to be more trouble than he was worth. Penalties and talk that he wasn’t working enough in practice plagued his rookie season, and in his second year with the team he stepped up his trouble-making by sucker-punching teammate Louis Delmas in practice, and by purposely lining up in the wrong spot on the field to protest his belief that the Lions were throwing too many passes to Calvin Johnson and not enough to Young.
The Rams were the only team to put in a waiver claim for Young, and now the Rams have decided they don’t want him, either. At this point, the odds seem good that the 23-year-old Young has played his last NFL game.