GREEN BAY — Mike McCarthy has been coaching quarterbacks for a long time, and he's been the Green Bay Packers head coach for going on eight years.
But he doesn't have the faintest idea how the Vince Young experiment is going to work out, even after Young looked OK during Friday night's preseason-opening loss to the Arizona Cardinals at Lambeau Field.
"I don't know if I've been through one like this, where you bring in a guy this late," McCarthy said of Young, whom the Packers worked on Aug. 5 and signed the next day. "I've been part of situations where you sign a veteran quarterback at the last cut, but I've never brought one in three days before the first preseason game."
For a guy with limited exposure to the team's playbook and only three practices with his new team under his belt, Young acquitted himself well. Entering the game after backup Graham Harrell and playing two series, he completed 1 of 3 passes — a 7-yard completion to Alex Gillett to convert a third-and-7 — and also ran twice for 12 yards, including a 5-yard scramble on third-and-2 to pick up another first down.
Quarterbacks coach Ben McAdoo said in advance of the game that Young would have to learn the offense differently than his quarterback counterparts because he missed the first seven installations of the offensive playbook.
"The other guys have had the benefit of getting the installations three times. The hard part is, he's not going to get them. He's going to get them by game plan," McAdoo explained. "So you're going to have to teach everything by game plan. I will say this: When he showed up, he was ready to work and he was excited to work. I think a lot of the guy in the short time he's been here, he's approached it the right way, he's fitting in in the room and he's working to take our terminology and put it into what he knew in the past and merge them so he has something to sink his teeth into and then go out and perform.
"He's also trying to digest what we're asking him to do fundamentally, and that's a lot, but he's very capable. Very capable."
What Young will be capable from here remains to be seen, but McCarthy sure sounds encouraged. Look for him to get more work in practice this week and perhaps see more playing time at St. Louis on Saturday night than he had in the opener.
"We were able to spend some time (Friday) morning and iron out a package for him. I thought he did some nice things," McCarthy said. "It was good to just get him out there. I wanted to get him out there. He hasn't played football in a year. Obviously, playing the quarterback position is a little different than playing other positions. I was happy to get him into the game, get him into the flow of the game and definitely get him started. We'll try to do more with him next week."
Why is McCarthy so excited about Young? Despite an up-and-down career, he's won 31 of the 50 games he's started in the NFL and won the 2006 national championship at the University of Texas.
"I'll be honest with you, the thing about Vince Young just from my personal opinion in the evaluation process was, the man's winner. The man's won games. He's won championships," McCarthy said.
"He fits good into our room, but obviously he's at a disadvantage because he hasn't been here. He's got a lot to learn, and Ben McAdoo's doing a great job with him. Them two are spending a lot of extra time. We'll do a much better job of getting him ready to play against St. Louis."
For his part, Young wasn't getting head of himself.
"It's football. It's a game that I love. I'm definitely happy to be back out there playing and definitely happy that Green Bay gave me an opportunity to play with a fantastic team," Young said. "But overall, I'm just happy to be back out there and getting my feet wet."
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