Titans Decide They Can't Have Enough Veteran QBs

Jeff Fisher has a very good idea about what he's going to do at quarterback in 2009. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a very good way to explain it.

Read this and see if it makes a whole lot of sense. As Fisher reiterated at the NFL's GM meetings, Kerry Collins is undoubtedly the Titans starter. Vince Young is definitely still the team's quarterback of the future, and it's not completely out of the question that he could still retake the job if Collins falters. And with both Collins and Young on the roster, the Titans need another veteran quarterback if Fisher is going to be comfortable heading into the 2009 season.
So Collins is the starter -- that makes sense. Young being the team's QB of the future, even as he sits behind a quarterback who is locked up for two more years, makes a whole lot less sense. But the Titans' desire for a third veteran quarterback makes no sense at all. Even if Collins were to get hurt, having Young, an NFL veteran, sitting on the bench would seem to be a viable backup plan. Signing someone like Patrick Ramsey seems to be overkill when a late-round developmental prospect would be both cheaper and a more productive way to fill the roster spot, unless you don't believe Young has a future at all with the team.

Fisher won't come out and say that however. He told ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky that he could envision a hypothetical scenario in which Young could earn his job back this year, but only if Collins falls flat on his face:

"What's interesting about our business is you get to play the best players. So we are going to do that at every position. Kerry is returning as our starter. If, for some reason, Vince has a great camp and Kerry hits a wall, I'm talking about a hypothetical, but there is always that possibility. It's clear Kerry is returning as our starter and Vince is going to continue to do what he did last year and that's put himself in position to be the quarterback we drafted him to be."

What seems to make sense is that to ensure that Collins would re-up with the Titans this offseason, he understandably had to be reassured that he wasn't coming back to be part of an open competition. With answers like this one, where Fisher says that Collins is returning as the starter, he makes that clear. But Fisher also has to try to keep Young motivated, while sticking with owner Bud Adams' declaration that Young is the team's QB of the future, even if QBs of the future rarely start as rookies, then go back to the bench during their third year in the league. And for now, that means he'll be saying some confusing things about the Titans QBs.