There are myriad things wrong with Vince Young's contract signing. I'll quickly get a few of them out of the way:

- Major Adams got him this? It looks like my prediction was wrong (I said his contract would be terrible), BUT, we don't know all the details yet, so let's not crown this the greatest rookie contract of all time. I have a hard time believing that that could be achieved by the same guy who didn't know a damn thing about the Wonderlic (maybe he learned a lesson).

- The biggest contracts in the NBA are twice as large as any NFL contract, yet LeBron James gets 3-mil-per-year for his rookie contract, and the top NFL rookies get close to 10-mil-per-year. How crazy is this? Figure in the volatility of the NFL, the greater importance of individual players in the NBA ... it defies all logic. If I were an NFL GM, I don't think I'd even entertain the thought of keeping a top-5 pick, regardless of the available players.

So, let's get to Vince Young, who may have gotten the richest rookie contract of all time (relative to his draft position, certainly).

He's going to be receiving an average of about 10 million dollars per year. This is more than Shaun Alexander, LaDainian Tomlinson, Reggie Wayne, Terrell Owens, Walter Jones and Steve Hutchinson. And almost as much as Peyton Manning and Donovan McNabb.

Huh?

Relative to the performance of other players who are earning this type of money, wouldn't Vince have to play almost every single game of the next six years, get to three or four Pro Bowls, and lead his team to the Super Bowl in order to validate this money? What if he only plays at a Pro Bowl level for the last five years of the deal, while sitting out the first year (as looks likely)?

I can't answer this question for Titans fans. All I know is that if, tomorrow, Hasselbeck got traded for Young straight up, I'd need him to win at least one Super Bowl and one MVP in order to validate that kind of payday. There are 53 players on an NFL squad, and 100 million to dole out. If I pay 1/10 of that to one player, he'd better be playing at a borderline-MVP-level every single year.

But can we assume that Young will be that good? Can we assume that he'll be half that good? Of course not! All NFL rookies are unpredictable (need I list off the Couches and Salaams of the world?), but I'd propose the Vince Young may be the closest thing to a coin flip that's ever existed in the world of athletic talent.

In Vince Young, we have a guy who's very athletically talented ... but not transcendantly talented. He doesn't have Vick's speed or quickness, nor Elway's arm, nor Manning's technique. What he has is a decent arm, and very good athleticism for a quarterback, and very good leadership. He doesn't have enough innate talent to overcome his one possible deficiency: his mind.

In college, Vince was lucky enough to have a coach who reformed an offense just for him. What do I mean? He dumbed it down. Mack Brown gave Vince Young a one-read system. Vince got a play, was told which receiver he'd be throwing to (if it wasn't a running play, of course), took the snap, and then looked at that one receiver. If that receiver wasn't wide open, Vince would tuck the ball down and run for it. That's it, that's what Vince was required to do. I'm not exaggerating when I say that an autistic kid could've run a more complicated offense.

So, going into the NFL, which is fantastically more complicated, how could anybody be confident that Vince Young will be able to handle an NFL offense? Don't get me wrong, I'm not confident that the opposite is true ... but that at least is a bit more likely, seeing as how Mack Brown felt it was necessary to teach Vince like a mother-bird pre-chewing her kids' food.

There is nothing, no reason, not a hint, not a logical argument, not a piece of empirical evidence that can point to the notion that Vince Young will be able to run an NFL offense. That's the truth. It could happen, it might happen, Vince Young could instantly displace Billy Volek and gather 6,000 yards of total offense this year. But is this possibility worth 60 million bucks? Not by a long shot.

I will say this: if Vince Young will indeed be allowed to run the option (as has been rumored), *I* won't give damn about him 'earning' his money, cause I'm not a Titans fan. All I want is to see the option in the NFL.