The Titans will start QB Vince Young vs. Jacksonville on Sunday, The (Nashville) Tennessean reported Thursday, citing sources "familiar with the situation."

Young replaces Kerry Collins, who started the first six games of the season. Young has logged 29 career starts, but he has not started a regular-season game since Week One of the 2008 season.

Speculation that Young would replace Collins has increased in recent days after The Tennessean reported that Titans owner Bud Adams wanted Young to take over the starting job.

Young has completed 444-of-780 passes for 4,964 yards with 22 TDs and 33 interceptions. He has played in two games this season, but both appearances came with the games well out of hand.

The PFW spin

At age 26, Young enters the most important stretch of his professional career. Were the Titans playing well, he might never had gotten his old job back. But with Tennessee 0-6 and desperate to salvage something from what is likely a lost season, Young gets a chance to jump-start the Titans just like he did three years ago.

It is easy to forget, but Young is less than three years removed from playing in the Pro Bowl. That's how good he was in 2006, when he led Tennessee to an 8-5 record as a starter. Young's scrambling ability vexed opposing defenses, and he very much looked like the Titans' quarterback of the future.

But he couldn't build off of that effort in 2007. His completion percentage improved by more than 11 points, but he also threw 17 interceptions, and criticism of his passing intensified. When he struggled in the '08 season opener, appearing to hesitate re-entering the game after a fourth-quarter interception and later suffering a knee injury, head coach Jeff Fisher turned to QB Kerry Collins, who led the team to the division title and was the undisputed starter entering this season.

But Adams has made his preference clear: he wants to see Young on the field this season. The Titans are slated to pay Young $7.5 million in salary next season, and his salary-cap number will be more than $14 million. Even if the 2010 league year is not played under a cap, that's a lot of money to pay a backup quarterback.

Opportunity knocks again for Young. Can he take advantage of it? The path that his career will take in the years ahead could very well depend on how he fares in these next 10 weeks.

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