billy volek on sportsline

Tj...

I honestly think that they brought in Collins for 2 reasons...one for insurance so if our starter went down with an injury, VY wouldn't be FORCED to start before he was ready. Secondly, I expect an open QB competition between Volek and Collins and let the best man win. The other guy would be the real #2 starter though VY would be there in the depth chart so he could play, but if Volek went down, Collins would have become the #1 and VY would have stayed at #2.

Makes perfect sense to me.

More importantly, we'd get the best of the 2 starting at QB after a competition (once Collins learned the offense). Mainly, I think the Titans figured there was a good chance Volek could struggle or get hurt behind a porous OL. Investing $3mil between the 2 of them is not a lot of money comparatively. Would it really matter who was the #1?

In actuality, I expect VY to be ready to start or at least be a REAL #2 sometime this season. At that point, I think whoever was the #3 QB would have been traded (if before the trade deadline) or cut.

If KC was given the job from day 1, how come no one knew that? Collins said he was going to learn the offense as quickly as he could and that then the coaching staff would decide who to start. If he was going to be the starter, the Titans would have been better working out a trade of Volek BEFORE they signed Collins, not after.

And taking reps away from Volek is the ONLY way another QB could come in here and not hurt the development of VY. From what I read, he didn't take all his reps but they split Volek's reps so they didn't take any away from VY. Is this not correct?

On the other hand, since Volek demanded a trade the day after KC was signed, I could see why they would have taken away all of Volek's reps if they already decided to trade him and not play him. I don't think this was the best idea though. They should have forced a QB competition and not worried about Volek being scared of a little competition. They can handle the cap hit of Collins.

C'est la vie.

Fisher lying to the media is nothing new...nor is it new for any head coach. Come on...you ALWAYS have to read between the lines with HC speak! ESPECIALLY when it's guys who 'tell it like it is.' They lie the MOST!

Gut

 

On TitansCentral there's a post of Chris Mortensen article on ESPN (http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/titanscentral/vpost?id=1397599).

Apparently the lie that shattered Fisher's confidence in Volek was when Volek said he was out of town, when they wanted him to come in for an unscheduled meeting at BSP, and in reality he wasn't... WOW! Big stuff, missing a voluntary meeting.

And I still have not seen anything to the fact that Volek ever threw teammates under the bus in public. He may have done it in private at BSP, but if it's against the rules to comment on teammates who are not performing to your coaches it's no wonder this team sucks.

 

Well...

TJ, if you don't feel Volek is getting it done and VY is not ready, why WOULDN'T you sign KC to come in and compete with him? And since you're not hiring Joe Montana, why would you simply resign yourself to giving Collins the job when he's never been with this team or has any relationship with any of the coaches and we have no idea how fast or how well he'll learn the offense. To me, that doesn't sound like KC gets the starting job day 1. Furthermore, the Titans nor KC even hinted that he was being given the starting job when he was signed.

Maybe that's what the Titans HOPED would happen...Collins comes in and takes a month to learn the offense and then takes over at starting QB if the offense is struggling. Either way, Volek would have had time to prove himself since I think we'd all agree KC was not ready for the first 2 games at least.

Fisher said when they signed KC that he and Volek would split the reps (Vole's reps)...not KC gets all of Volek's reps while Volek just hands out water at practice.

We'll never know how or what might have gone down since Volek demanded a trade and this eliminated any shot Volek might have had.

I firmly believe that Volek would have started the first game or 2 if he'd just kept his mouth shut (or better yet...welcomed the 'competition') and worked hard.

As far as Volek demanding a trade as being proof he got a raw deal, why did he demand a trade before last season too? Last season he SHOULD have thought 2 things...McNair is brittle so even as the #2 I'll get to play...and McNair has a huge contract/bonus the Titans don't want to pay so it's likely I'll inherit the starting QB job. And yet...he demanded a trade?!?!?!?

As far as paying KC to be a starter or backup, you're looking at each individual player. You can't do that especially since neither Volek nor KC are making a large sum of money for the position. Even combined they aren't making much...which is my point.

The simple fact is, Fisher and Reese know their jobs are on the line. If they didn't sign KC and Volek had gone down, they would have been left with an ill-prepared VY leading this offense which probably would not be beneficial in the win/loss column and his chances of getting hurt are increased. The other unappealing option would be to start Mauck...which also wouldn't help us in the w/l column and we'd be staring at a top 5 pick in next year's draft as well as a new GM/Head Coach! Signing a vet QB to backup and/or compete for a starting job makes perfect sense since KC is not commanding big money.

The Titans have been fairly consistent in overspending and if VY is ready to start this year, KC would become a backup QB anyway....even at his $2mil salary.

If we still had Volek, one of them would have been the #2 guy (though listed at #3 for gameplaying purposes) and if Reese were smart, he would have checked to see how close VY was to being ready at week 5. If VY was within a few weeks of being able to start, he could then trade Volek or KC (whomever was not the starter) to free up some cap space since VY would have been ready to become at least the real #2 about that time. If VY wasn't ready, they could have carried them til the end of the season after which Volek would probably have left anyway.

Whether you want to place blame at the feet of Fisher and the Titans or Volek ( or some combo), the team has been screwed a bit from this and not signing KC sooner is on Reese's shoulders.

Gut

 

Well...

I think that is the point of the sword, not the slash.

If you spent your NFL career as a backup and this looked like the year you finally would get a shot, he SHOULD have come in instead of lying to do whatever he felt like doing.

Mangini of the Jets categorized the type of players the Pats and now the Jets look for and one of those characteristics is a firm committment to football. They cite that your football career is short so there is plenty of time for everything else AFTER your football career. If you remember back when the Titans first moved to Ten, there was a lot of flak over certain players NOT making the 'voluntary' workouts.

If you have a firm committment to football AND you want to be the starter at the most important position on the field, you need to do everything in your power to get the job done.

If you see yourself as a backup QB, then you'll act like one and I think this is what Fisher referred to in his comments on the matter.

However, I don't know the actual situation since Mort implies one thing and Volek somewhat countered that when he said he cut short a fishing trip to be at the facility.

And no one said Volek threw his teammates under the Bus IN PUBLIC. I said he did throw them under the Bus in comments he made (when you said he never did). I have no problem with him sharing his thoughts about the team or it's personel in a private meeting with Fisher.

But the Titans are right in the sense that Volek hurt the team by jumping ship and forcing us to play a less than prepared KC in our first 2 games.

Of course, Reese should have brought Collins in way before this (but Collins also hadn't decided he would play more football).

Of course if they HAD brought in KC way before, we would be seeing the same people talking about how Volek was given a raw deal and never given a chance to start...blah, blah, blah...!

Gut

 

Check this...

How about this...I've shortened the article to address your point...

Addition of Collins creates competition for Volek
By Teresa M. Walker
The Associated Press
NASHVILLE, TN, Aug. 28, 2006 --

...The Titans are 0-3 this preseason and finally decided they needed more competition at the quarterback spot.

...Fisher said he could see both Volek and Collins on the final roster or Mauck still around.

..."It's mine to lose, and even though we're not putting a lot of points on the board ... I feel comfortable with this," Volek said.

..."Right now, I like this place. We're still going through some growing pains with the offense. We've only had a year under our belt ... " Volek said.

...Both Collins and Volek agreed the competition will be good.

..."It's going to make us a better team whoever comes out the other end of it," Collins said.



For all of Fisher's lying to the media, Volek is the only one who has done the opposite of what he's said. According to Mort and Fisher, this isn't the first time.

Gut

 

GuT, you still haven't answered my post on whether you really think it's a good idea to split gameweek reps between 2 quarterbacks? That means neither of them will be adequately prepared against the opponent.

No coach in his right mind has "competition" at the QB spot during the regular season. Giving half reps to your starting quarterback won't win you many games.

 

Well that might fly, if we didn't have a franchise quarterback who didn't do a whole lot of voluntary anything for the last couple of years. Yet it wasn't a problem for him, but if Volek refuses to drop everything he's doing and immediately report to BSP he's no commited? How would you feel if you were at the zoo or whatnot with your kids on a sunday and your boss calls you tells you go to work. Do you go? I don't.

 

Tj...

If that were an isolated incident, I could understand why you'd read between the lines and come up with that result.

BUT

What's your explanation for Volek demanding a trade LAST YEAR?

And that was without competition and him standing on the verge of inheriting the offense....

And frankly, Volek is out of his mind not to stay. Forget the whole slap in the face thing...we all knew Collins wasn't ready and after a bad performance or not (even if you were right and they just handed an ill-prepared Collins the starting job), Fisher would have had to make a change at QB...especially after the first half of SD.

This was Volek's shot and percieved slight or not...he needed to suck it up, work hard and wait for another shot (again, assuming you are right). SD will give Phillip Rivers a lot more leash because letting Volek play and with the weapons Rivers has, he doesn't have to carry too much of the load.

Gut