The Ultimate Gamble

At Texas, Young did all those things. He led the Longhorns to 30 victories in his 32 starts, completed 62% of his passes and ran for 37 touchdowns in 37 career games. "The thing he doesn't get enough credit for is how much of a leader he was," says Longhorns teammate David Thomas, a first-day draft hopeful at tight end. "Superstar or freshman walk-on, he treated everyone with the same respect. That's why we loved playing with him."

Watching three Texas games from 2005 on tape broken down for coaches, it's easy to see why Young is such a tantalizing-and vexing-prospect. Early in a 47-28 win at Oklahoma State in October, for example, Young stood tall in the pocket, waiting for Thomas to get open on a seam route down the middle. With a defensive end steaming in from the left, Young waited until the last second before threading a bullet between two defenders into Thomas's outstretched hands-and then got leveled. Touchdown. In the third quarter Young weaved through traffic at the line, pump-faked a linebacker so convincingly the guy leaped to block the imaginary throw, juked another Cowboy so hard the player actually pulled up with a hamstring injury, and glided 80 yards for a touchdown. But earlier in that same game Young had made a lazy, off-balance throw to a receiver who had four defensive backs around him. (It wasn't intercepted.)

Young appeared to have the most difficulty against blitzing teams that shut off his rushing lanes. Oklahoma and Texas A&M played him that way, holding him to 64 yards on 28 carries combined. Yet Young made enough plays (he had three TD passes against the Sooners and led two late scoring drives to seal the win against the Aggies) that Texas won both games.

In the NFL the field will seem smaller for Young because the defensive players are quicker, and his new coaches won't give him as much freedom to run. Here's one reason why: Michael Vick, who averaged 10.6 rushes per game at Virginia Tech, has carried the ball about seven times a game for the Atlanta Falcons over the last four years-and even with that reduced load Vick has missed 14 games because of injuries. "I've watched a lot of tape on Young," says ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski, the former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, "and if he runs in the NFL like he did in college, guys like [ Baltimore Ravens safety] Ed Reed are going to bust him up."

At Texas, Young wasn't required to perform most of the NFL passing basics, such as taking a five- or seven-step drop, planting the back foot, surveying the field and firing a 10- or 12-yard out or comeback route to the sideline. More often he was in the shotgun, throwing fades and counting on his receivers to beat defensive backs. Often he threw on the run. So, after the 64-year-old Rhome was retained by Young to help him work on fundamentals, one of the things the 27-year NFL coaching veteran concentrated on was the drop-back and throw to the sideline.

Last Thursday, Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer put Young through a 45-minute workout at the University of Houston. In many ways these drills gave an indication of how far Young has progressed under Rhome. The young quarterback was polished and accurate in front of Schottenheimer. He dropped back smoothly and quickly, set up and threw tight spirals to receivers on the sidelines, and completed most of his passes. When the workout was done, Schottenheimer walked up to Young and said, "Very impressive. I saw a lot of things I liked."

But the fact that Schottenheimer was the only Jets representative at this workout, so close to the draft, spoke volumes. In the previous four days a Jets traveling party of Schottenheimer, coach Eric Mangini and general manager Mike Tannenbaum had worked out and dined with Leinart and Cutler; owner Woody Johnson had joined the group in Nashville to meet Cutler. That's one slight. Here's another: Young isn't even on the radar screen of the teams with the first two picks. The Texans, who've cast their lot with shaky incumbent quarterback David Carr, will choose between Bush and Williams. The Saints, who signed free-agent passer Drew Brees in the off-season, brought five candidates for the No. 2 pick to New Orleans last week. Young wasn't one of them.

"I'm thinking Tennessee is the best possibility," says Young's agent, Major Adams. Maybe. The Titans will likely draft a quarterback with the third pick, though there were indications over the weekend that they were most interested in trading down and taking Cutler-or addressing their quarterback need in the second round with a less-heralded prospect, such as Alabama's Brodie Croyle.

Young acts as if the notion of sinking in the draft doesn't bother him. He exhibits a naive sort of confidence when talking about the doubts surrounding him and the perceived slights in the draft run-up. "I don't care about any of that," he says. "Teams have different needs. God will find a team for me. A lot of people love my skills. If some teams don't want Vince, that's fine. All I want to do is get to a team, begin learning the system and start to get the offense down."

"But will you remember who passed on you?" he's asked.