Tennessee’s dreadful 0-6 start to their season has made headlines for all the wrong reasons, but through it all, head coach Jeff Fisher has steadfastly refused to turn back to a young quarterback the team invested its hopes and dreams in just two seasons ago.

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, that player is QB Vince Young, and even though the Titans clearly have nothing to lose as the season progresses in giving him another shot, Fisher has thus far chosen to stick with veteran QB Kerry Collins instead, driving a wedge between himself and several key figures within the organization in the process.

One of those individuals happens to be team owner Bud Adams, who has unequivocally voiced his displeasure at Young’s continued stay on the bench, claiming the team needs to find out what Young can do for them soon.

“I have been wanting [Fisher] to play Vince Young more because Collins has been having his problems out there,” Adams told The Tennessean last week. “I just think we need to find out how well [Young] can do. If you don’t play the guy and lose all your games, it is hard for you to see what he can do for you. Vince has won a lot of games for us.” - Tennessee owner Bud Adams

I couldn’t agree more with Adams here. The Titans clearly have no chance at accomplishing anything of merit the rest of this season, given their atrocious start, and Fisher’s insistence on keeping Collins on the field while Young rots on the bench is only furthering the discontent that has been growing with each loss in Tennessee’s locker room.

Obviously, Young’s departure from the good graces of Fisher and the rest of the Titans coaching staff deserves some discussion here, as it stands to reason that he may not ever be the same player that took the team and much of the league by storm during his first two seasons. His mental toughness and ability to stay focused on making smart decisions with the football certainly needs to be evaluated, but I can see no way to do that effectively, other than allowing him to take the field as a starter in the near future.

If he falters from the very beginning, Young may not be the team’s long term solution at the position, and they can then use their first round pick next April, which will likely be in the top five, to take one of several players coming out of the collegiate ranks who project as legitimate starters in the league.

But if he plays with the same emotion and determination we saw during his time at Texas and his early days with the Titans, Tennessee will have given itself precious leverage to use next spring when they’ll be looking to upgrade other key areas of their team. All in all, I’d say it’s a win-win situation for the team, and at the very least they may be able to drive up Young’s value enough to get some return of investment on him in a trade during the off-season.

To his credit, Young has stayed stoic throughout the entirety of the Titans miserable run through the first half of their season, choosing to stay silent when he could have easily lashed out at the coaching staff for not allowing him to have his shot at righting the ship so to speak. That alone speaks volumes to me as to Young’s current mental stability, and is more than enough reason to give him a second chance in the near future.

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