Isaiah Wilson DUI: 3 big takeaways for Titans rookie

Titans Isaiah Wilson gets DUI.

Tennessee Titans 1st round pick Isaiah Wilson was arrested late Friday night with a DUI, first reported by Buck Reising of A to Z Sports.

There are a lot of things that everyone should take away from this issue and the issues that the many issues that Isaiah Wilson has had in just the brief period that he has been with the Titans. However, the most important one is this:

This DUI doesn’t mean that his career is over, or that he is a bust, or that he is a bad person. He can still have a great NFL career if he wants to.

However, that doesn’t mean that he definitely will do that. In fact, all the evidence that we have on Isaiah Wilson to this point suggests that he will be a non-factor for the Titans and in the NFL as a whole.

Stepping back from Isaiah Wilson, I wanted to look at the impact of this DUI and three big takeaways that the team needs to have from this situation. Let me start with the one that I think is the most obvious and it is the one that the Titans were probably already planning for before this happened.

Don’t count on Isaiah Wilson in 2020

If the goal was to get a developmental prospect at offensive tackle, it really never made sense to spend a first round pick on Wilson. People talk about Jeffery Simmons being drafted to play behind Jurrell Casey and Daquan Jones for a season, but that was different.

With Simmons, he was actually a good player in college who won with power but also with refined technique and effort. That isn’t the case for Wilson who won because he was very big…and that is about it.

Wilson came in as a prospect who was supposed to spent training camp absorbing the playbook and trying to understand how to become a better tackle from one of the best in Taylor Lewan and a consummate pro in Dennis Kelly.

Instead, Luke Worsham paints the perfect picture of what Wilson has spent his time doing:

Right now, think of him a player with the upside of Sebastian Tretola and the off-field decisions of Dorial Green-Beckham. Maybe he shakes that comparison down the road, but nothing that he has done to this point shows us anything other than that.

Explore all options

I’m not saying that Wilson is going to be somewhere other than Tennessee next season, but there is no way that anyone can rule out the idea of the Titans trading him.

But, I don’t want to focus specifically on that. What I really want to talk about is his future position in the NFL.

Looking at how he is being described on the field and his athletic testing, it has never been more clear that he isn’t going to be a tackle in the NFL. Blame it on him being constantly overweight, his slow feet, his bad feel in space, or whatever you want, but he lacks anything that indicates that his best position is going against the Von Millers and Yannick Ngakoue’s of the world.

He isn’t going to be the Titans long term answer at right tackle because if Tennessee didn’t pay Jack Conklin to stay then they definitely won’t pay Isaiah Wilson. So, everything needs to be on the table including scrapping his 2020 season and refocusing him on learning how to be a guard.

If that works out, great then maybe you have a battle at the right guard spot for a few years and potentially someone to take over for Rodger Saffold way down the line. If it doesn’t, then you gave it your best shot and congratulations on trying every option instead of pigeonholing him into a position that he doesn’t fit from a physical or responsibility standpoint.

Trust no one

This was the worst offseason for NFL GMs, especially guys like Titans GM Jon Robinson who thrives off of seeing guys in person and evaluating their potential live.

Instead, those GMs had to rely on coaches and people close to the prospects and they hope that they are honest, and that is where the Titans were in trouble.

There are two figures that I think are to blame for instigating the Titans infatuation with Isaiah Wilson. One of these is fact and the other is just an assumption based on making leaps of common sense.

The first person responsible is former UGA OL coach and current Arkansas HC Sam Pittman. Today I went back and listened to an interview that Pittman did wit Nashville radio stations right after Isaiah Wilson was drafted and I found it…disingenuous.

He raved about how coachable Wilson was and brushed off questions about his (very bad) athletic testing and his weight issues in college. On top of that, he sold Wilson as someone that fans and other guys in the locker room were going to love, and right now that seems like a very bad guess he made.

The other connection is harder to find. On a recent live stream “Pooka” reminded Luke Worsham, Matias Wodner and myself that there is a thread that connects Jon Robinson to his worst two moves: Vic Beasley and Isaiah Wilson.

According to Spotrac, all three have the same agency CAA. Specifically here are the agents and who is assigned to them:

Todd France: Isaiah Wilson, Vic Beasley

Brian Ayrault: Jon Robinson, Vic Beasley

Ben Renzin: Isaiah Wilson

So there is a lot of cross over between these three. I am going to assume that a common agent is one of the people you would want to talk to about your potential 1st round pick.

It stands to reason that Robinson trusted the opinion of Todd France too much this offseason and it cost him twice. You have to wonder just how much Ayrault might have stood up for France and whether or not the GM was influenced at all by that.

With so much confusion this offseason, it looks like Robinson tried to reach out to people he trusted for their opinions on Wilson and was met with responses that ultimately led to him being on the Titans roster. I would make sure I took note of those names and deleted them from my contacts before the next offseason.