NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Titans love to talk about their focus being on guys who they have with them. It's a reliable cliche.
But they better be wildly concerned about the player who says he will report soon.
Their biggest veteran offseason addition, Vic Beasley, decided to show up to camp when he feels like it.
Robinson on Vic Beasley: #Titans pic.twitter.com/GLXKRqC6Cf
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) July 30, 2020
It took them three days to merely make contact with him.
That does not suggest to me he's a guy who fits the "team-first, loves-football" mold and mantra they have worked so hard to build. Name a new guy and he fits under that umbrella. The early bit of evidence on Beasley, who Robinson said will "be reporting to camp in the near future" certainly doesn't suggest he fits, and he'll have to work hard to qualify.
There is no better way to get started than to embarrass the GM who signed you and the coach who's been counting on you.
I’ve texted Beasley and called him several times, including again just before posting this, getting only his voicemail.
Later Thursday, there was this:
Could have been easily communicated with a phone call and he would have been excused if this is where he was. #Titans https://t.co/ja91L6j8Z9
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) July 30, 2020
He’s been described to me as a loner and an odd locker room guy, and there have been questions about just how much passion he has for the game.
He's put the whole franchise in an awkward spot, I believe, as fans are still deciding about opting out on season tickets while looking at more pass-rush uncertainty.
The first time I checked in with the Titans about him, after the Falcons went out of their way to announce, well before his contract expired and free agency began, that they would not be re-signing him, I was told they wouldn’t be interested.
They changed their mind and he turned out to be their biggest acquisition of the offseason, an offseason we don’t even know if he was part of.
The Titans didn't put Beasley on a Zoom chat with press to introduce him after he signed.
Mike Vrabel said the Titans can't control distractions they can only manage them.
Will he talk after he arrives and settles in, or will he be hidden and never be asked if he was at a family funeral, why he wouldn't have called his bosses to avoid fines or if it wasn't a famil funeral why he chose the delayed arrival? It'd be prudent to produce him pretty quickly but I won't be surprised if he'd sheltered as long as is possible.
If they can't get him to camp, how are they going to get him to a Zoom?
Look, the team-first, love-football mantra is great, but the Titans have grown a solid group now who are bought in. They should be able to manage a different guy like Beasley, either wrapping their arms around him better than the Falcons might have, or finding ways to allow him to be a loner who's still included enough to be part of the whole.
What matters most is production, and as my Midday 180 co-host Johnathan Hutton pointed out, a player Atlanta was done with produced eight sacks last season. Six-and-a-half of those came in his final eight games.
Harold Landry had 9 last season for the Titans, with the departed Jurrell Casey and Kamalei Correa, who was hot at the end, each finished with 5.
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