For the love of Ryan Leaf!

Big Vince Young will be a giant bust in the NFL.Back in 1998, I was watching week two of the NFL with some friends, and they were raving about the San Diego Chargers. I grew up in San Diego, was down for a weekend from college, and my buddies were raking me over the coals for my audacity to have lauded the Indianapolis Colts (0-2 at the time, coming off a decade of futility) for selecting Peyton Manning over Ryan Leaf, the #2 overall pick by SD. Peyton had looked horrible in his defeats, and Leaf, tall and strong as a Montana sycamore, was brilliant in victory.

The next week, Leaf and S.D. were annihilated in the rain of Kansas City, as Leaf went 1 for 15 for four yards. Leaf’s times in SD ended in another year, and his career died a few years later, full of embarrassment, appalling petulance and unclaimed talent. He is now a quarterbacks coach at a Junior College in West Texas, and the Chargers have made the postseason once since 1998. Enough said.

We know where Peyton Manning sits now. I won’t rehash how he, with the help of an all-pro runner and receiver, good coaches and a solid front office, has turned around the Indianapolis franchise.

Vince Young will most assuredly not turn into another Ryan Leaf. After all, Vince won the Rose Bowl; Ryan did not. But that of course is irrelevant. What I do find germane to the matter is that Young still has, in my view, the potential to be more like Leaf than Manning, while USC’s Matt Leinart has far more Manning in his makeup than Ryan Leaf.

While the media was salivating over Young in the Rose Bowl and quickly casting aside Leinart’s amazing three years at USC, as well as his tremendous stats in the January 4th contest (29 of 40 for 365 for those keeping tabs), I, sitting on a cruise ship in the Atlantic night, told everyone and anyone around me who would listen, that Young will likely be a flop.

I don’t care how tall, how strong or how mobile he is, so was Ryan Leaf and so was Dan McGwire. Where many see Vince Young evolving into a more successful Steve McNair, a pre-2005 Daunte Culpepper, or a more mobile John Elway, I see a hybrid of Ray Lucas, Scott Frost, Tommy Frazier and Akili Smith. Take your pick.

Has anyone ever seen Vince dart a pass down field 35 yards to a bleeding hands receiver? No, but we’ve seen Matt Leinart do it. Heck, we saw Ryan Leaf do that too. To echo the sentiments of more than a few of my friends, Vince Young “throws like a girl.”

The first pieces of the Young dynasty to fall were when he arrogantly decided not to throw nor run at this past week’s NFL combine; a decision to which much of the sycophantic media, naturally, applauded him. Then this past weekend, Vince Young scored just a SIX on the NFL’s famous “Wunderlick test.”

The test, given solely by the almighty NFL, generally determines if soon-to-be NFL players have the mental makeup to be successful pros and/or a high pick. Leinart scored 20. Again, Young scored six. Ryan Leaf also scored lowly, as we were informed after Ryan’s cryin’ began.

Vince Young is no Ryan Leaf yet, and hopefully he’s no Bode Miller either. But to me, his talent at the pro level is suspect and he is off to a less than impressive start, even if the detrimental results are extremely innocuous at this juncture.

Now, enough from me on the NFL and the Olympics; it’s March, bring on the Madness, then the 2006 baseball season.

Vince, see you in September, and please remember to do your summer reading.

ADDENDUM:

I listened to the brilliant Colin Cowherd of ESPN radio today for just about one minute. He was noting other Wunderlick scores of the past. See if you can detect a trend:

Above 25: Both Mannings, Tom Brady, Carson Palmer, Trent Green, Ben Roethlisberger…

Under 15: Akili Smith, Jeff George, Heath Shuler, Ell Roberson, Aaron Brooks, Leaf…