Memo to Maurice Jones Drew: You got jobbed
Make no mistake, this here guy believes Vince Young had a good season.  That said, he shouldn’t be rookie of the year.  The best rookie this season was Maurice Jones-Drew.  Let’s go to the numbers, shall we?

Young achieves rookie of the year status because he’s a quarterback.  But did he really play as well as everyone assumes he did?  In 13 starts, Young threw 11 touchdowns compared to 12 interceptions.  Satisfactory statistics for a rookie quarterback – he didn’t set the league on fire, but he also didn’t play with loads of suckitude.  However, he finished 7 games with a completion percentage below 50%, including a 15/36 showing in the final game of the season – refuting the argument that he improved as a passer every week (at least for one game).  And he only exceeded the 60% completion mark 3 times, against the Giants, Texans, and Bills.  

On the ground, Young was pretty damn good, rushing for over 500 yards (rookie record in the Super Bowl era) and 7 touchdowns. 

All told, Young accounted for 19 scores.  He and Ben Roethlisberger are the only 2 quarterbacks to win Rookie of the Year honors.  Roethlisberger, of course, took the honor in 2004, when he led the Steelers to a 13-0 record as a starter.  He finished that year with a passer rating of 98.1, 31 points higher than Vince Young’s ’06 rating (66.7).  Young’s record as a starter was a solid 8-5. 

In a normal season consisting of a few rookies playing relatively well, you could make a case for Vince Young.  However, this wasn’t a normal year for rookies.  Now let’s see how effective Maurice Jones-Drew was in 2006. 

He averaged 5.7 yards per carry, had 941 yards rushing, and added 13 rushing TDs.  He was also a huge force in the passing attack, raking in 46 catches for 436 yards and 2 TDs. 

Compared to Reggie Bush, Jones-Drew had just 11 more carries on the season, and yet finished with nearly 400 more yards (376).  If you project his numbers into a full season, you’re looking at 1900 rushing yards and 26 TDs, along with 80+ receptions and 4 receiving TDs.  Obviously, awards aren’t given on the basis of projections, but Jones-Drew’s season was more impressive than any rookie’s, including Vince Young. 

In reality, Jones-Drew had the 5th most rushing TDs and the 33rd most carries – not a bad TD to carry ratio – along with the highest yards per carry average amongst running backs with at least 150 carries.  Even though Vince Young plays the almighty quarterback position, he only had 4 more scores than Maurice.

In other words, Maurice Jones Drew should be rookie of the year.

And Good God, I apologize for all the numbers used in this argument.