Young presents puzzle for scouts

Nobody quite knows what to make of Vince Young.

A quarterback? For sure. The best one on this weekend's draft board? Well, it's funny how a player's stock can rise and fall in the span of weeks and months.

The Texas quarterback, one of the best "athletes" in the draft, once struggled so much with the Longhorns that some felt he'd be better off at another position. These days, that conversation is long gone. But so is some of the luster from his Rose Bowl performance, a game in which he led the Longhorns to the national title and surpassed USC's Matt Leinart in many opinions as the best quarterback, maybe the best player, in the draft.

Floyd Reese, general manager for the Tennessee Titans, who are considering taking Young with the third pick, said "I don't think I've seen a quarterback with the athleticism he has, and we had Steve McNair for a while."

Young's athleticism is stunning. And his timing was impeccable. He showed off the whole package, playing for the national title on Jan. 4 in the Rose Bowl. He passed for 267 yards, ran for 200 more and scrambled 8 yards on fourth down with 19 seconds left for the winning touchdown -- his third of the night -- in a 41-38 win over Leinart and USC.

It was sweet redemption for the junior out of Houston, who was bitterly disappointed after losing the Heisman Trophy to USC's Reggie Bush. And Young outplayed Leinart, who came into the game viewed as the better, more polished, more NFL-ready quarterback.

Suddenly, a player who wasn't even sure if he would leave Texas looked like he might be the best player in the college game. He decided to go pro. With his hometown team, the Houston Texans, picking first, many thought it would be a perfect fit.

"I walked into the grocery store the other day and some guy was hollering Vince's name at me from three aisles over," said Houston's new coach, Gary Kubiak. "I've been places where people are talking about Reggie Bush. I guess I don't see it that way as much as some people may see it."

Like most coaches who have seen Young work out, Kubiak said he was impressed. Still, the Texans signed David Carr to a three-year extension in February, signaling they're set at quarterback for a while.

"There's too much time from the end of the season until draft time, so everyone gets over-critiqued," Longhorns coach Mack Brown said.

There is a lot of time for opinions to change after the gleam of the championship game fades.

That's especially true for a player like Young, the likes of which nobody has seen before, the kind of player who doesn't fit a particular mold.

"He has the size, the accuracy and the throwing action," Ravens coach Brian Billick said. "He's a spectacular talent, but he doesn't look like anybody. So that tends to make us all nervous. He gets downgraded for that."

There are issues about his arm strength and his awkward, sidearm delivery.

There is the fact he played almost exclusively out of the shotgun in college.

There is his penchant to think run first, which worked at the college level but hasn't proven to work in the pros.

Since the NFL combine, he has had a successful workout in Austin, and has traveled the country for more individual workouts and interviews with teams -- stopping in St. Louis among other locations.

Scouts want to see him with their own eyes and coaches want to sit down and talk to him to find out what kind of person he really is.

"Vince Young seems to be the most interesting and debatable topic right now," Billick said. "After the fact, if Vince Young makes it, then you'll hear, 'I knew he would.' If he doesn't make it, you'll hear, 'That's why we had him rated that low.'"