Vince Young said last week that he has received some interest from NFL teams, and he was apparently telling the truth. On Monday, Cleveland Browns general manager Ray Farmer confirmed an earlier rumor that Young and Tyler Thigpen will be given an opportunity to work out for the team.
“I think it’s a piece of the puzzle,” Farmer said, via Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal. “I wouldn’t say it’s the top piece. They both are mobile. They both are very good athletes. They both have had relative success — I know Vince you would easily say probably more than Tyler. That’s a good piece. I think (offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan) would tell you that he likes a quarterback that is mobile. The offense definitely is going to require the quarterback to do different things, play outside the pocket to some degree.”
Both Young and Thigpen have been invited to participate in voluntary veterans minicamp, which will run from Tuesday to Thursday at the Browns’ facility. Young is now 30 and has not played in an NFL game since 2011, but Farmer said he has done enough to catch Cleveland’s eye.
“The interest in Vince is that he’s been productive,” he said. “He’s had success in the NFL. We wanted to take the opportunity to get a chance to see where he was. We had been kind of following him through the offseason and he had been doing some things that kind of caught our eye and made us kind of take note and wanted to see what that looked like in his own timeframe.”
When the Green Bay Packers released Graham Harrell last offseason, it looked like Young was destined to win a spot on the roster. Things never worked out, and he remained unemployed for the remainder of the season. The Browns will likely be looking to draft a quarterback next month, so they are in the market for a veteran backup. And hey, Vince could certainly use the money.
