"It's 'Vince can't do this' and 'Vince can't do that,'" Young said. "I don't want to be a pocket quarterback. I want to be a Hall of Fame quarterback. Compare me to Randall Cunningham in my game. I ask our coaches to let me be me on the field. I listen and I do what I am asked. But they are listening, too."
Last year we spent a lot of time wondering why Vince Young wasn't running the ball more. We wondered if it was him trying to prove he can be a pocket passer or if it was Norm Chow trying to fit VY into his offense. If VY means what he said above we have our answer. That means we should see more of the magic in 2008 that we saw in 2006.
That quote came from an interview VY did with NFL.com that has a lot of interesting things in it. The most interesting is that he says he was contemplating quitting football after the 2006 season:
"I really thought long and hard about it," Young said on Thursday after practice. "There was so much going on with my family. It was crazy being an NFL quarterback. It wasn't fun anymore. All of the fun was out of it. All of the excitement was gone. All I was doing was worrying about things."My teammates helped lift me out of it. I prayed really hard. And I began to focus on God's calling for me. Play football. Be a role model."
While I don't believe that he seriously would have retired, it is an interesting quote. The timing to me is the most interesting part. I wouldn't have surprised to hear him say something like that about the end of last year, but at the end of 2006 he was coming off a great rookie season that got him a trip to the Pro Bowl. He said in the interview that he felt lost in training camp last season. This doesn't excuse his play from last season, but it does make a lot of the body language we saw from him on the sideline make more sense. He just didn't look like he was having fun in 2007 like he did in 2006. Of course I am speculating here, but a lot of that probably came from his differences in philosophies between VY and Chow (interesting sidenote: Frank Wycheck just said on the radio he could never figure out Chow's offense).
None of this matters heading into 2008. Chow is gone. VY will get the chance to prove that his problems came from trying to deal with Chow's offense and not anything else. Mike Heimerdinger is going to tailor his offense to VY instead of trying to tailor VY to his offense. If VY will use all of his tools, he will be a really good quarterback. I am just really excited to hear him say that he wants to get back to playing his game.