NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Taylor Lewan came into the league as a gifted athlete with virtually all the qualities an NFL team seeks in a left tackle.
Except for a tendency to do some dumb stuff -- the sort that left fans with their hands on their heads and prompted Mike Mularkey to strip him of a captaincy during his second season playing in the league.
It left a lasting impression that did not help him even as he matured a great deal in his third year. He was flagged for a crucial, costly penalty late in a Week 3 loss to Oakland, when he launched himself into a pile to help receiver Tajae Sharpe and got an unnecessary roughness penalty that stalled what looked like it would be a late, game-tying drive. In Week 10, he was tossed out of the win over Green Bay early on for making contact with an official.
Even with the two gaffes, he emerged as a key, dependable piece of an offensive line that did very well protecting Marcus Mariota and blocking for DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry.
Mularkey’s faith played a big role, as did the first year with Pro Football Hall of Famer Russ Grimm working as Tennessee’s offensive line coach.
The top settling force, however, was Lewan’s fiancée, Taylin Gallacher. The couple’s daughter, Wynne, turns four weeks old Wednesday.
Gallacher sounds like a psychiatrist. She is not one, though she says a lot of people get the same vibe from her. Still, she clearly saw the issues that were holding Lewan back, both at work and at home, and she called him on them.
“Honestly, how it started is, he wanted to win me over as the girl in his life, and I was not having any of that,” she said after a recent training camp practice, her baby wrapped snuggly to her and sound asleep. “I was like, ‘I will be your friend.’ Because of the song and dance. I didn’t trust it, he was giving me a show and I didn’t care for the show. He puts on the best kind of show. Now I appreciate the show.
“He was so willing and able, he saw the direction his life was going, he just didn’t have the tools. And that’s from where he came from, it’s how we all are, it’s where we came from. As soon as he got the tools, he just took it and ran. He’s still running and he’s still growing. Having a daughter, she’s kind of taken over the next little bit of his growth here. Things plateau. I think it took six months to get those things ingrained in him, who he wanted to be and what he wanted to be and things just took off.
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