Tennessee Titans: Dorial Green-Beckham Draws Pacman Concerns
By Les Bailey
I’ll have to admit, that I was disappointed when the Tennessee Titans traded the 33rd pick in the 2015 NFL Draft and missed out on Ohio State wide receiver, Kevin Smith. I felt he was the best baggage-free receiver on the board, and was convinced the Titans were going wide receiver with that pick.
maybe the combination of Marcus Mariota to Dorial Green-Beckham will become a Joe Montana/Jerry Rice combination that will take us all to the one place we want to go…the Super Bowl.
Smith was taken by the New York Jets before the Titans made the pick at 40, leaving Missouri/Oklahoma wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham for the taking and two extra late-round picks. Getting extra players is always a good thing, but does Music City have the resourses to deal with a troubled player?
ESPN Titans Reporter Paul Kuharsky points out in a May 2nd post that the Titans, under Ken Whisenhunt and Ruston Webster looked the other way in 2014 and took a troubled Taylor Lewan who was facing some charges around a bar fight. That chance seems to have worked out and the Titans now have an NFL calibur Left Tackle.
"I asked Webster and Whisenhunt about how they make decisions on guys with questions, about how many they feel comfortable having and about weighing risk and reward.Webster said it’s important “that from a football standpoint,” they will fit in the locker room.“Obviously, we don’t want a team full of guys that would be an issue and cause problems within the team,” he said."
I’m not going to spend time here detailing DGB’s off-field problems, everyone is aware of his marijuana and possible domestic violence issues. We as fans are asking management to put an exciting product on the field, and in today’s world that involves risk.
Dorial Green-Beckham is a freak of nature and is a proto-typical NFL wide receiver on the level with Megatron(Calvin Johnson) in Detroit. He is 6’5″ and at 237 pounds is going to be a threat everytime the Titans get in the Red Zone this fall.
Kevin Smith was a safer pick, but DGB was a home run if he can stay clean. He has the potential to give us the same show Johnson gives Lions’ fans on Sunday afternoons this fall.
David Climer at the Tennesseean in a May 2nd column made references to the ten-year anniversary of drafting Adam(Pacman)Jones.
"On the 10-year anniversary of the NFL draft that brought Pacman Jones to Nashville, the Titans again stepped out on a limb.By picking Dorial Green-Beckham, a talented but troubled wide receiver, Titans management admitted potential reward is worth a major risk. Apparently, the idea of having a big-bodied downfield threat in the passing game outweighed all the baggage at Green-Beckham’s side."
I’m a firm believer that every case is a story of it’s own! Players are people with problems, some toe the mark and straighten out when they get to the NFL and some don’t. I don’t think you can relate what happened before, and be able to predict an outcome on a different person.
Everyone knows that Dallas Cowboys Pro Bowl receiver Dez Bryant came out of Oklahoma State with issues, but with the right support system around him, has turned into a pretty good option. DGB has the same talent, and if he is nurtured can be Dez Bryant in a couple of years.
If the Titans were going to take a chance on a player’s character issues, why didn’t they also draft Nebraska Edge Rusher, Randy Gregory? Did it come down to a positional issue, or was there more about Randy Gregory than we didn’t know?
If you flip a coin 25 times and it turns up heads, on the 26th flip, the odds are still 50-50 that it will come up tails. The same situation exists with questionable players in the NFL. You can’t judge one player by the failures of one that came before.
We can’t hold Marcus Mariota accountable for the failed quarterbacks in the past in Nashville, and we can’t hold Dorial Green-Beckham accountable for what Pacman Jones did.
All we can do is see where the future takes us, and just maybe the combination of Marcus Mariota to Dorial Green-Beckham will become a Joe Montana/Jerry Rice combination that will take us all to the one place Titans fans all want to go…back to the Super Bowl.
Next: Two Projections On Marcus Mariota In His Rookie Season