Talking about Titans 1st round rookie Isaiah Wilson.
Tennessee Titans rookie offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson has once again found himself in trouble, this time with the team.
Last Saturday the team announced that he would be suspended for Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns for violating team rules (though the prevailing theory is that this was a penalty after the accumulation of several smaller violations over a period of time, not one big incident).
After yet another setback in what has been a troublesome few months for the 6’6, 350 pounder, it’s becoming more and more fair to question how much he may be wearing out his welcome in Tennessee.
When the Titans drafted him with the 29th pick in this past April’s draft, everything was lined up for him to end up being the starter at right tackle.
The Titans allowed Jack Conklin to walk away via free agency in March, and while they re-signed Dennis Kelly to a three-year, $21 million contract extension, GM Jon Robinson made it clear that there was going to be a competition for the starting right tackle spot.
#Titans GM Jon Robinson on Isaiah Wilson vying for a starting role: “He’ll compete at right tackle and plug in there. Him and Dennis (Kelly) will battle that out.”
— Erik Bacharach (@ErikBacharach) April 24, 2020
Then, a whole lot of troubling events took place for Wilson.
He was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list in late July but was removed shortly thereafter and signed his rookie contract in early August.
Later that month, he was seen at an off-campus event at nearby Tennessee State University and was even caught trying to flee over a second-story balcony. This was a violation of the Titans’ no-visitor policy and the NFL’s restriction on being at gatherings with 15 people or more.
He then was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list for a second time on September 7th.
The worst of his troubles would come a mere five days later. On the morning of September 12th Wilson was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. He reportedly blew a .107 and .113 when breathalyzed (the legal limit in the state of Tennessee is .08), and was witnessed doing “donuts” in an intersection.
He did get his first action last Sunday in the victory over the Colts, but it came on three kneel-downs on offense and an extra point attempt on which he got pushed to the ground. Now to be fair, your job on PATs isn’t to knock down the defender, it is to create a wall that they have to go through instead of around and he did accomplish that.
#Titans pull off an amazingly thorough team win. AJ Brown grabs onside kick for late TD to ice it and Isaiah Wilson comes on as part of the PAT team... pic.twitter.com/TRNXAy17RY
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) November 30, 2020
Realistically, it doesn’t appear that Wilson is going to play a big role for the team this season if he even sees the field. However, with all of his troubles off the field and seeming lack of commitment on it, the question looms: at what point will enough be enough?
Cutting Wilson would not be a wise decision, nor a practical one. According to Spotrac, if the Titans were to straight-up release Wilson, they would lose around $2.8M in cap saving and accrue $5.4M in dead cap space.
The only real option the Titans would have if they were to be done with Wilson’s shenanigans would be to trade them, as that would save them $2.6M as long as they do it before June 1st, 2021.
The question then would be what another team would be willing to give him a chance. Wilson certainly is a very talented football player on the field. Getting him on the field just seems to be the hard part so far in his career.
Every Tennessee Titans fan probably still hopes and prays that Wilson gets it together. At this point, however, how many more transgressions will he be allowed to have? At what point will the Titans have enough? Hopefully, he is able to finally straighten himself out before it gets to that point.