ESPN is reporting that Vince Young has traded in his status as “a scrambling, black quarterback” for the more media friendly “fundamentally sound, white quarterback” label. Last night, during the Saints-Patriots Monday Night Football broadcast, Jon Gruden and Ron Jaworski discussed the sudden renaissance of Titans’ QB Vince Young’s career, sagely noting that Young “learned a lot from watching Kerry Collins play”. 

Collins, as Gruden and Jaworski suggested, influenced Young to become more of a pocket quarterback. Comparing and contrasting the styles of the two quarterbacks this season, the similarity is obvious:

Watch Collins run!

Watching Kerry Collins has also encouraged Young to work more from the pocket, as evidenced by Young’s seven rushes per game, compared to…the six…rushes…per…game that Young averaged in his previous seasons as a starter. The fundamentally sound Collins, proud owner of a 57.2% completion percentage in the time that Young “watched him play” doubtlessly played a huge role in Young’s skyrocketing accuracy, which has climbed from 62.2% before his benching to…62.9% since his return.

Many pundits also credit Collins impact on Young’s ball security. Young has also shown a marked improvement in protecting the football – yielding only 3 turnovers in his five starts compared with 22 in his prior 18 games.

“I really coached Vince up on how to protect the football from the rush, and how to read disguised coverages,” claims Collins, who has turned the football over 239 times in 184 career games.

“Vince spent lots of time in the last year training on his own, studying the playbook, and working himself back into top condition, and really worked on identifying coverages. But the topper, really, was watching a near-cripple white turnover machine play 22 games at quarterback. It really gave Vince a solid understanding of how to succeed in this league,” said coach Fischer.