Everyone’s least favorite offensive tackle is back in the news again, well sort of. Tennessee Titans fans may remember last year’s right tackle for his abysmal performance in games. If you don’t remember him from that, you may remember him taking pot shots at the Tennessee Titans organization once they let him go.
No matter what you thought of him before, this can only depreciate his value in your eyes. The Tennessee Titans best offensive lineman Taylor Lewan was being interviewed today and skirted around the topic of how this year’s offensive line is different from their 2014 counterpart.
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Paul Kuharsky seems to think (and I agree) that if you read between the lines it looks like Taylor Lewan is telling everyone that Michael Oher was not a good fit on the field or off.
Let’s look at some of the quotes from this interview that ESPN’s Paul Kuharsky highlighted in his piece.
“From an offensive line perspective, we’re really young,” he said. “The good thing about that is, we’re all really young. We all get along, we’re all around the same age. The chemistry between us now and last year is just way better. We hang out. We have a group text that is constantly going …”
-I read that as, there was a guy last year that was older than us that we didn’t get along with. Now that he is gone our chemistry is a lot better and we are a lot closer.
FanSided
For those worried that the Tennessee Titans new right tackle won’t fit into that bracket, the newest starter (Byron Bell) is only 26, while Michael Oher is 29.
“We’re becoming friends, and when that happens, you want to play better for the guy next to you. We’re doing a lot better running down field, chasing the play. We really want to be that offensive line where we’re an enforcing unit and not looked at as a liability on this team. And that’s kind of what we were last year and that’s what people think of us now.”
-Again, this is just my interpretation, but that looks like Taylor Lewan saying that the offensive line as a whole is much closer with their newest addition. Not only that but they actually feed off of each other. The last two lines also seem to indicate that Taylor Lewan may have felt that Michael Oher didn’t have that enforcer mentality in him and that now that he is gone this offensive line is going to have some personality.
While I don’t think you can blame the offense’s entire collapse on Michael Oher, no one should be defending him. Teams don’t like him and his play on the field shows why. I think some of his tape in college and his big name are the only thing that gets him starting jobs, and at this point you have to wonder how many more chances he is going to get.
Meanwhile in Tennessee, there is a young offensive line brewing (with an average age of 25, that goes down to 23.8 if Jeremiah Poutasi starts) with a lot of talent around. If this offensive line can step up and defend the new franchise quarterback everything else will fall into place. With Michael Oher gone, they are one step closer to doing that.