2007 Outlook

Nothing like being the Offensive Rookie of the Year to put a stamp of legitimacy on Vince Young. After taking over in week four, Young extended the Titans winless streak to 0-5 before turning the franchise around and ending the season 8-3 which included a one point loss to Baltimore. When Young took over, the Titans had no wide receivers of any note and ended the season the same way. He won games by mixing wideouts and tight ends with plenty of his own rushing to make the difference. He only threw for 2199 yards and 12 touchdowns against 13 interceptions but he gained 552 rushing yards and scored an NFL high seven touchdowns via the run. That was almost double the #2 rushing scorer who was, amazingly enough, Peyton Manning. Michael Vick only had three.

Young’s rushing yards and scores made him a top ten quarterback in many leagues though he offered more inconsistency since his best passing yardage of the year was only 249 yards and nine of his thirteen starts ended with less than 200 passing yards. And yet he was only a rookie playing for a team that has a wideout crew as weak as any other team. What is troubling is that the Titans did not use free agency to acquire a veteran this year and allowed both Drew Bennett and Bobby Wade to leave. Once again, the Titans are entering the season with a slew of inexperienced wideouts in the hope that one or more of them step up and exceed reasonable expectations. Complicating this more was allowing Travis Henry to leave and relying only on LenDale White, the very inexperienced rookie Chris Henry and bringing back Chris Brown. That’s not an equation for improvement but Young already took the team on his back in 2006 and ended a more than respectable 8-8 on the season. The Titans have a very tough schedule this year which will challenge Young again but that could end up with him running for more yardage this season. The worst of all worlds here is that neither White nor Henry make defenses respect the rushing game and the receivers show their inexperience and make Young a marked man for the entire defense.

Young's value during 2006 was his rushing yardage and scores and while he'll no doubt need to run again this year, expect his touchdown total to decrease. The best comparison for this is how Michael Vick's first full season saw him score eight rushing touchdowns but it was not until three years later he got as high as six scores again. Last year Vick had 1039 rushing yards but only two scores. Defenses adjust to what the strength of the offense is and that will once again be Young taking off on a run. With lesser receivers than in 2006, more effort will be placed on keeping Young out of the endzone.

08-20-07 Update: After already being concerned that the TEN offense would struggle this year, two preseason games have done nothing to suggest that is not true. Young has to drop a couple of spots in the rankings because his offense looks worse than last year.

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