NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The case against the NFL preseason as we know it needs no further evidence.
But the Titans provided a little bit last week. On Thursday night, like many of his colleagues around the league did in Week 4 of the preseason and earlier, Mike Vrabel was risk-averse and played only guys who he could afford to lose.
That didn’t mean, however, he didn’t want the core of the 39 guys who didn’t play to have a day off. And while there would usually be a solid workout for those players, he set it in a different context, running what could be regarded as a padded practice.
Given a choice, then, between the scheduled game at his disposal 4.8 miles away the same evening or the safety of a non-tackling practice where his quarterback wouldn’t get hit and he could ramp up the tempo as he saw fit for conditioning purpose, he chose the latter.
Can anyone blame him?
