Vince Young to Philly? Sproles to Saints, My Take on Plaxico
By Adam Meckler
Vince Young was released by the Titans not long after they announced to the public that he was not in their plans for the future. It became clear when they drafted Jake Locker in the first round, and then subsequently brought in Matt Hasselbeck in Free Agency. Vince Young has been known as a troubled young man from time to time, though he seemed to be off to solid start in 2009. 2010 brought some turmoil with the team where VY reportedly blew up at his coach Jeff Fisher mid season. Now, it looks like Young could be headed to Philly to play for the Eagles and back up Michael Vike. Young has gone on the record to say that he would be excited to learn from Vick, who has seemed to hit is own stride when he came back to Philly to back up McNabb a couple of years ago. Young is the same style of QB as Vick, and could maybe learn something from how Vick has reinvented his image over the past couple of years, after the dog fighting incident that landed him in jail. We’ll see as teems make their final FA moves coming up.
Darren Sproles has landed the gig over in New Orleans. Just as soon as the Saints say goodbye to Reggie Bush (who many in Steeler Nation thought could be on his way to Pittsburgh, or at least hoped), they welcome RB Darren Sproles to their scheme. The Saints never were much of a running team, though rookie RB Chris Ivory showed some flashes of potential last year while he filled in for the injured Bush and Pierre Thomas. The Saints made it clear that they were taking another stab at RB when they drafted Ingram in the first round. Bush has landed the gig over in Miami.
OK, less reporting and more me time. Here is what I think about Plax and the possibility of him coming to Pittsburgh: I was talking to a guy on Twitter yesterday about it (follow me at @AdamMeckler) and I basically was arguing that if we think that Plax is going to change in any way, then we are dreaming. My friend, who I respect as a mind of this game, simply argued that it does no harm to talk to him and that Tomlin will be able to see through the bullshit to see if he is really ready to come back.
I just think the risk/reward ratio doesn’t add up. I play a lot of poker, and when the pot odds are not in my favor, but I’m riding a pretty sweet nut flush draw, I lay the hand down. The money in the pot and the potential for what I could win just doesn’t add up to make the risk worth it. So, we have to be the same way with Plax. Say we sign him, and spend a bunch of money like $10.5M or something, what if he is like a cancer to the other WRs on the team? We’ve seen players who are like cancers. They spread their bad attitudes and drag the other players down with them (ie Randy Moss). Do we really need more of that right now? After what happened in the off season? So, even if we believe that jail humbled Plax, and the boys behind bars actually softened him up, then I’m not sure he’s worth it. I believe in these young guys we have and the more we let them play, the faster they will become the great players of the Steelers’ future. Which I believe is where these guys are headed.
Needless to say, we’ll know soon. Plax was one of Big Ben’s favorite targets, so I am sure that will count for something.
Also, this just in: The Steelers have released LT/RT Flozell Adams. This comes as a bit of a surprise to me since Flo is the only offensive lineman who did not miss a start last season. Sure, he’s old, but he’s the only one who didn’t get hurt enough to miss a start. If that’s not reliability I don’t know what is. And the one thing we need in the offensive line right now is stability and consistency. We’ll see how guys like Jonathan Scott can do stepping up in the LT or RT positions. They did sign Willie Colon and J Scott but neither of them can start practicing for about a week because they were both Free Agents. Adams was set to make $5M this season, I suppose after releasing him, if he is not snatched up by anyone else, they could potentially bring him back for less. That being said, Flo said he only wanted to come back if he were going to be the starter. For what it’s worth, not sure if that would be in the cards anyway.
All for now. More news and more things happen. We’re in the thick of it, can’t wait til we get rolling!