Adidas Vincent Trocheck Jersey

Tennessee left tackle Taylor Lewan is skipping the Titans' mandatory minicamp while his agents negotiate a new contract for the two-time Pro Bowl lineman.

 

Titans general manager Jon Robinson said in a statement Tuesday just before the team started a three-day minicamp that Lewan's representatives told the team he would not be attending.

"We have had several constructive conversations over the last 5-6 weeks about his contract status Tom Waddle Jersey ," Robinson said in his statement. "He is currently under contract, and we are working to keep Taylor as part of this organization for a long time."

Lewan, who turns 27 in July, is younger than Nate Solder who became the league's highest-paid offensive lineman in March with a four-year, $62 million deal from the New York Giants . Lewan is under contract for 2018 after the Titans picked up his fifth-year option paying him $9.34 million this season.

The Titans drafted Lewan at No. 11 overall in 2014 out of Michigan, and he has started every game the past two seasons in being selected to consecutive Pro Bowls. He has started 53 of his 58 games played with the 6-foot-7, 309-pound Lewan a key piece in protecting quarterback Marcus Mariota.

First-year head coach Mike Vrabel, himself a former NFL player, said he is confident in Robinson and the front office to handle contracts.

"I understand that there sometimes becomes issues with those, so I think that they're best handled internally," Vrabel said.

Lewan had taken part in most of the team's offseason program, and he also helped the Titans unveil their redesigned uniforms in April. But he wasn't at a photo session Monday, and the Titans announced Lewan wouldn't be at minicamp minutes before the first practice started Tuesday.

Kevin Pamphile, a free agent signee this March, replaced Lewan in the lineup at left tackle. Dennis Kelly has been at right tackle with Jack Conklin recovering after tearing his left ACL in the Titans' playoff loss at New England. Pamphile signed with the Titans in part for an opportunity and from getting to know Robinson while in Tampa Bay.

"You've got to take advantage of every rep you get whoever's across the line," Pamphile said. "Opportunity and competition that remains the key for our offensive line, want to make sure we're all competing and getting better each day."

Lewan Reggie Wayne Jersey , a Pro Bowl left tackle, told reporters May 30 that he was letting his agent handle negotiations for a new contract and that any talks with the Titans to that point were nothing worth talking about.

Lewan, who believes he's the NFL's best left tackle, certainly noticed Solder's "awesome" contract.

"There are a lot of things I do well and a lot of things I can improve upon as a football player," Lewan said on May 30.

"But for me, if I don't walk on the field and think I'm the best player in the NFL every time I step on the field, then I'm doing something wrong."

Four-time Pro Bowl linebacker Brian Orakpo isn't worried about Lewan not being at this minicamp.

"I love Lewan, I respect every decision he makes, and one thing about Lewan whether he's right here right now or whether I see him Week 1, he's going to be ready to go," Orakpo said.

"So hopefully they'll get that situated. That's out of my control. But knowing Lewan if it gets done Saturday before the game Week 1, he'll be ready to go."

Linebacker Kevin Dodd, the No. 33 pick overall in 2016, had stayed away from the offseason program until Tuesday when he faced a fine. He literally ran away from reporters trying to talk to him after practice. Vrabel said he didn't talk to Dodd, only asked him to do what the coaches have asked all the other players to do.

NEW YORK (AP) — The NFL’s revision of the catch rule figured to grab the spotlight this season.

Then the league altered the regulations on using the helmet when making contact on both sides of the ball, basically making it a 15-yard penalty no matter where on the helmet strikes an opponent. Even players on offense and linemen in the trenches are subject to being flagged, with potential fines and ejections for particularly flagrant hits by lowering the helmet.

Players are upset. Officials are deeper under the microscope. Fans are wondering why replay review isn’t part of the entire process.

Suddenly http://www.chicagobearsteamonline.com/tarik-cohen-jersey , the Dez Bryant and Jesse James non-catches are non-issues. It’s all about the helmet hits, which unquestionably need to be removed from the game in a similar way that tacklers launching to make hits pretty much has been eliminated in the pros.

Here’s where things stand from a variety of constituencies as we head toward the kickoff of the 2018 schedule:

THE LEAGUE

NFL executives were encouraged that the flags thrown for helmet-initiated hits dropped from 51 through the opening two weeks of the preseason to nine for Week 3 — when many regulars get on the field, though in a limited capacity. Officials have been instructed not to flag incidental or inadvertent contacts with the helmet or facemask by defensive or offensive players. The deeper we get into games that count, the better those with the whistle or ball in their hands or the guys attempting tackles will have a handle on what’s legal.

“These are necessary changes where the rules come in,” says Troy Vincent, the NFL’s football operations chief and one of the hardest hitters in the league when he played defensive back from 1992-2006. “As stewards for the long term, the well-being of the players comes first.”

Adds Giants owner John Mara, a long-time member of the competition committee that advises rules changes for teams to vote on:

“I think officials and players will adapt to the rule, that is what happens every time we have a change based on player safety. There’s an outcry at the beginning that it will change the game, and it never works out that way; statistics don’t bear that out at all. Players should not lower their heads is what it is all about, and we should not have some of the injuries we have seen.”

THE OFFICIALS

The rule change has placed the men in stripes in even sharper focus. Simply put, at the current speed of play and with the size and power of players, any call is difficult. Now, a bit more judgment has been added, with decisions made in split seconds.

“It’s still a work in progress because officials need to learn to instinctively read and react to this type of hit that they’ve never looked at before as a foul,” says recently retired referee Terry McAulay, now an analyst for NBC. “So there is going to be some learning curve yet to come http://www.dallascowboysteamonline.com/leighton-vander-esch-jersey , but I think they’re in a much better place than they were a week ago.”

One somewhat puzzling question remains: Why isn’t video replay involved when some of these calls, especially if they lead to ejections, can be game changers?

Well, it actually is, on a limited basis. Should a player be ejected for initiating helmet contact, Al Riveron and his staff at New York headquarters can affirm or overrule the ejection.

“Our charge is, No. 1 player safety: Make it safer in all ways,” Riveron says. “No. 2, make sure we still have a product that is entertaining. And No. 3, find a happy balance with replay and how much it gets involved. We always stop the game to get it right.”

Mara believes replay could play a further role if officiating the rule becomes too problematic.

“I certainly think are a lot of people who would support adding those calls to instant replay and making them reviewable,” he says, “and I think that’s another discussion we could have in the offseason if it is warranted.”

THE DOCTORS AND RESEARCHERS

Thousands of hours and millions of dollars of data gathering, research, technological innovations and testing helped lead to the new rule. Every penny will have been well spent if usage of the helmet as a weapon disappears.

“It’s an offshoot of all that work,” says Jeff Miller, the league’s executive vice president of health and safety initiatives, whose department works with medical professionals http://www.dallascowboysteamonline.com/kavon-frazier-jersey , researchers and equipment manufacturers. “An identification of what causes concussions and why there was a troubling increase in them.

“We see patterns, the increased velocity of the hits, the positioning of the head and neck … that increase in force and magnitude of a hit, and not just with the crown of the helmet.”

Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s medical director, believes all the data helped construct a comprehensive story that required immediate action.

“Everything we saw said we must act on this,” Sills says of the injury rate for helmet-first hits. “There was a sense of urgency when the data was so compelling to do something now on this.”

THE COACHES

For decades, the head was taught to be part of the tackling process. That has changed 180 degrees — at least in the NFL — as the consequences of that technique became so clearly grim and far-reaching.

NFL coaches — yes, even those who don’t win with regularity — are the elite of the profession. Still, changing a culture that was part of football for so long, and might still be at lower levels of the sport, is challenging.

Throw in that some coaches were caught by surprise by the wide-ranging change, and others aren’t truly certain when flags will fly, and there’s concer Adidas Vincent Trocheck Jersey