Titans Radio Insiders
Mike Keith: Biggest News Of Busy Week
June 18, 2010
Vince Young got in a 3am fight in a Dallas strip club.
Chris Johnson still isn't in Titans' camp for Organized Team Activities and says that he can’t play 2010 for $550,000.
Stephen Tulloch signed his tender offer, but still isn't pleased that he doesn't have a long-term deal and is also AWOL for OTAs.
Rod Hood is out for the year with an ACL tear.
Derrick Morgan arrested driving too fast.
You want news from the Titans' camp, you got news from the Titans' camp. Plenty of it.
But, from a football prospective, none of the above stories are as significant as linebacker Gerald McRath's four-game suspension for violating the league's ban on performance-enhancing substances.
The lasting impact of the other stories doesn't match that of McRath's suspension. The obvious is that he is going to miss the first four games of the year.
With Keith Bulluck unsigned and David Thornton on the mend from shoulder and hip surgeries, McRath was regarded as a huge key to Tennessee answering their linebacker questions. With McRath's emergence and the signing of Will Witherspoon, THE huge Titans' off-season concern seemed to be fixed.
Now, that fear is back for the first four weeks of the season. Ouch.
How will this suspension affect McRath's development? The Tennessee brass sees the second-year man from Southern Miss as a potential Bulluck or Thornton, a guy who can be a standout linebacker and cornerstone for the Titans defense for years to come.
His ascent to that role was already beginning, but does it continue in August?
Can you give McRath rep after rep in training camp practices and pre-season games knowing that someone else must start in his spot in games one through four?
And what if David Thornton or another player is doing well in that spot when McRath returns in October --- do you make a change when something is going well?
No matter the answers to those questions, clearly McRath's rhythm will be affected by the missed time. A young player who needs every rep and all the experience possible is going to have to be away from Baptist Sports Park for a month.
It's fair to worry some about McRath's mindset, too.
For those who know this thoughtful young man, it is hard to believe that McRath's violation of the league policy was anything that he knowingly did. McRath is clearly embarrassed, as his reputation is important to him. He is going to try hard to prove that he wasn't taking a shortcut, that he's wasn't trying to cheat. McRath will attempt to show the football world that he is simply a guy who made an unknowing mistake.
For banned substance offenses, the penalty is the same for a cheat and for an honest man, but the perception between those two is vastly different.
McRath will be desperate to make sure that this distinction is made.
The fear is that he might try too hard.
He may come back in October bound and determined to show everyone the "true Gerald McRath" and might try to do too much, to have too much of an impact. Players who “press” sometimes lose confidence.
It’s a legitimate concern.
Gerald McRath has the potential to be a really good football player. He seems to be a fine young man, as well. Hopefully, the four-game suspension does not totally ruin what should be a good second year for him.
It’s important to McRath.
And it’s important to the Titans defense…for 2010 and beyond.
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