Tennessee Titans Very Quiet During Legal Tampering
By Les Bailey
My Son-In-Law, who is a long-time Tennessee Titans fan said it best this morning via Twitter. The silence out of Nashville as the “Legal Tampering” period is almost over and the dance about to begin, is almost deafening.
I find that if you want any news about the Titans plans, you won’t find it on ESPN, or the NFL Channel, or surprisingly, Titansonline.com. Titans reporter at The Tennessean(subscription required), Jim Wyatt remains the best source for news about what is going on with professional football, in Music City.
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ESPN Titan reporter, Paul Kaharsky is tuned-in to some news, and appears to have as much problem as I do in finding anything positive to write about when it comes to news regarding the Tennessee Titans.
General Manager Ruston Webster
Even though Titans President and CEO Tommy Smith has promised Titans fans that they would be “very active” in the 2015 free agency period, I think Webster is gun-shy after a couple of disastrous decisions during free agency in 2014.
He told Jim Wyatt during an interview in The Tennessean that when you enter free agency, “You have to be Careful”.
After reading the interview, I get the idea that maybe Ruston doesn’t have the “gun-slinger” mentality to play in the free agency market, and came away thinking he felt safer with the up-coming draft.
"“What you would like is for the two to work together, and if there’s a strong position in the draft then maybe you wait for the draft,” Webster said. “But clearly, it is like anything else, you may target guys you don’t get, and if you don’t get them in free agency prior to the draft then that becomes a need position for the three-day draft.”"
All though he hit a home run last year with Tight End Delanie Walker, he felt the disasters that came with Michael Oher, Shaun Phillips, and Shonn Green were big enough to leave him gun-shy during this period.
He also told Wyatt:
"“You just don’t really know the player quite as well (as those in the draft),” Webster said. “It is not what you see on film so much as the other things. Going into the draft you are doing months and months of research. Free agency is more difficult to do that, because these are teams you are competing with. So it is not like the information is free-flowing.“Sometimes you may have to make a deal on a player without him coming to your place, so you haven’t really seen him, talked to him, given him a physical prior to making a deal. So that is a difficult part and the part that frustrates me the most. And unless it’s a cap issue, teams keep as many good players as you can. There’s some pitfalls there, so you have to be careful.”"
I know that I am disappointed with the news, or the lack of it, coming out of the Titans camp since Friday, but hold out hope that the activity picks up as it all gets underway today.
It’s a little like Dan Akroyd told Eddie Murphy in the movie Trading Places”, as the stock market was getting ready to open, it requires a unique talent to endure the inhumanity that happens when the bell rings.
When the sharks start churning the water, and it comes down to dog-eat-dog, I’m not convinced that Ruston Webster has the killer mentality that an NFL General Manager needs to survive between now, and draft day.
I’m hoping, for the sake of the great fan base in Music City that I’m missing the boat on Webster, but I don’t think so.
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