posted February 28, 2006 at 12:17 EST in NFL Articles

Has Young dropped?

All of the fuss lately has been surrounding what Texas QB Vince Young scored on his Wonderlic test. In case you’ve been out of the country or have chosen to ignore this story, the test in question is a 50-question exam that’s done in 12 minutes. Young was reported to have scored a pathetic six, and then it was amended to 16. Supposedly, the exam measures your intelligence, your smarts, hence its importance to NFL owners and management. They want any prospective new player to be someone they can count on to make the right decisions- both on and off the field.

Talent is the major element that attracts scouts and GMs to a player. But this Wonderlic test is the syncher, the tiebreaker in terms of whether or not to draft the athlete. You might be asking “Well, not every superstar is brilliant, who cares if he is dumb?” That’s just not a fair point anymore.

There are many reasons why teams want players to score high on this test. One reason would be the notion of a player having the intelligence to make the right decisions in life. In other words, they want to know that off-field problems will not be an issue with this player.

Then there’s the on-field part of the equation. The Wonderlic is done in a timely manner, you have to think on your feet and answer quickly. This is completely relate-able to football situations. For example, it’s vital that quarterbacks score well on the test because they have to make split decisions all the time. Standing in that pocket with the game on the line, your QB MUST be able to make the right reads on the fly. You better have the intelligence to react or your whole season goes down the tubes.

So whether or not Vince Young got a 6, 16 or 50, is very relevant to teams who’re thinking about drafting him. Not only is he slightly embarrassed about his score, but his value actually decreased in the process. If rivals such as Matt Leinart and Jay Cutler outperformed him by wide margins on this test, it does not bode well for him being selected in the top four picks.

Comments? Email Matthew@BetUS.com.