GREEN BAY — While Vince Young certainly did his part in getting released by the Green Bay Packers, completing only 26 of 49 passes (53.1 percent) with one touchdown, no interceptions and three sacks (71.6 rating) in four preseason appearances, general manager Ted Thompson said Sunday that there's someone else to blame:
Himself.
Even though Young had piqued Thompson's interest earlier this spring, the Packers didn't sign him off the street until Aug. 6, after seven of the eight installations of the Packers' offensive playbook had been completed. Thompson acknowledged earlier in camp that he should have signed Young earlier, but on Sunday, after cutting Young a day earlier, Thompson was even tougher on himself.
"Quite frankly, it probably wasn't fair to Vince," Thompson admitted Sunday during his annual post-cuts press briefing. "We threw a lot on his plate and the fault is probably mine. I probably should have had him in here earlier. He was a great teammate, he seemed like a very humble good guy. You guys all talked to him, so we enjoyed his time here and like I say, if there was fault it was probably mine."
Young sealed his fate with an uninspiring performance in the preseason finale against Kansas City, completing only 14 of 30 passes for 144 yards with no touchdowns, no interceptions and two fumbles (one lost) for a 61.0 passer rating.
As of now, the Packers have B.J. Coleman — the 2012 seventh-round pick who was even worse than Young statistically in preseason. Coleman completed 14 of 34 passes (41.2 percent) for 128 yards with one touchdown, one interception and two sacks for a passer rating of 49.6 this summer.
"Anything that happens to this team, if we didn't do it right, it's my fault," Thompson said.
Asked if he was prepared to open the season with the two quarterbacks he has on the roster, Thompson replied, "That's where we are right now, sure."
A league source confirmed that the Packers had indeed signed ex-University of Wisconsin and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Scott Tolzien to their practice squad, although the team did not make an announcement of any of its practice-squad signings Sunday.
Jason Wilde wrote: