NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Isaiah Wilson won’t be disappearing from the Titans’ roster soon.
The 29th pick in the 2020 draft played four snaps in his troubled rookie season before he was suspended for Week 13 then basically exiled for the last four weeks of the season when the team placed him on the rarely used Non-Football Illness list.
Last we spoke to Mike Vrabel he said he had not spoken to him since then, and Jon Robinson said the same in a press session on Tuesday.
“We did a lot of work a year ago leading up to selecting him,” Robinson said. “the evaluation process, talking to different sources, visiting with him countless numbers of times. And for whatever reason, the player this fall that was here in Nashville wasn’t the guy that we spent time with last year. [Unlocked]
“So I think he is going to have to make a determination if he wants to do everything necessary to play pro football and that’s going to be on him. I know what the expectation level is here, it’s no different than any other player on the football team. We have a certain standard to prepare and perform at professionally as people, and there is a lot of work to be done there.”
Who read that and thought, Oh, Wilson for sure will change his ways, fall in line and be in the mix on the Titans’ offensive line in the fall.
Yeah, nobody.
He’s actually on the active roster now, lists like Non-Football Illness don’t exist at this stage of the league’s calendar year.
The distinction is not important. Wilson is the least-trusted Titans in memory and certainly during the Robinson regime.
That he was a first-round pick makes it disastrous, especially considering the team’s list of pending free agents – Jonnu Smith, Corey Davis, Jayon Brown, DaQuan Jones, Desmond King – and the deep list of needs on a defense in need of overhaul or supplementation: Edge and defensive line no matter what and inside linebacker and cornerback depending on what happens with the team’s free agents and in cost/cap-cutting moves.
If Wilson somehow gets it together he’s gravy, the Titans can’t count on him. It’s far more likely he makes more missteps – an additional car accident, more social media posts of him living the party life that don’t indicate he’s making smart choices (like at least not being filmed when he’s out).
#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
“We tried to exhaust a lot of resources trying to help him, but at the end of the day he’s going to have to make a determination if he wants to do things the way we want it done,” Robinson said. “We’re not asking anybody to do anything different than we are the other (89) guys in the offseason program or (52) when we get down to the cut time.”
The NFL is filled with great reclamation projects. The Titans had a phenomenal one that was a return from injuries in Kyle Vanden Bosch. I’m not thinking of any that were great returns from not giving a shit.
I don’t think we can get odds on Wilson not playing again, but I’d take them if I could find them. He’s got about two months until the offseason starts. About five and a half until camp. Maybe seven until his second season.
It’s just hard to imagine him on the 53, having won over the people he needs to win over.
In the meantime, Robinson knows what he is looking for and while he didn’t mention Wilson specifically there is no doubt he was talking about @_LayZay_ on Twitter.
"We’ve got to continue to find guys that love ball,” he said following a season when he also missed badly on Vic Beasley who didn't care, collected $9.5 million and got cut after seven games. “Guys that want to be pro football players, not guys that just put ‘pro football player’ as their hashtag on their Instagram or Snapchat or their Twitters. Guys that actually want to play the game of pro football.
“It’s a strain. Pro football is hard. And you’ve got to really love football and want to do it. And that’s more than just putting it on your Twitter as your occupation.”
Wilson doesn't even have that right now.
You are not authorised to post comments.