The Titans just got dealt a big blow as training camps across the league open. Starting left tackle Taylor Lewan announced on Twitter that he’ll be suspended for the first four games of the season.
In a video explaining what happened, Lewan said he unknowingly took a substance banned by the league. Lewan forcefully denied taking it on purpose, and said he even took a polygraph test to prove it, the results of which he’ll be publishing shortly. Either way, it’s a huge loss for Tennessee.
Lewan has been a rock for them, starting at least 15 games in each of the past four seasons. Lewan filled in for six games as a rookie due to injuries, then took over the full-time starting job in his second year. He originally entered the league as the 11th overall pick back in 2014 and has blossomed into one of the league’s better tackles since, making the Pro Bowl in each of the past three seasons.
The Michigan product signed a five-year extension last summer that made him the highest paid offensive lineman in league history. The Titans open up the season with the Browns, Colts, Jaguars, and Falcons. While Lewan already announced the news himself, there is apparently a sliver of hope. Lewan’s ‘A’ sample tested positive, but his ‘B’ sample hasn’t come back from the lab yet, a source told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). If the ‘B’ result comes back clean, Lewan could potentially be spared.
Lewan is probably one of the NFL’s most underrated players. If he was on Dallas’s O Line he’d be hyped beyond belief
I totally support him and appreciate his stepping up and doing the video. I really like this guy.
Seems like trouble just always seems to find him, huh?
It also raises more questions about Lewan, one of the more polarizing star players in the Big Ten in recent years.
“I was actually breaking something up and some guy said that I slugged him, but that’s not who I am off the field,” Lewan told reporters at the NFL combine in February. “That’s not the kind of person I am.”
Who is Taylor Lewan? Good citizen or bully? Textbook tackle or dirty player? All of the above?
Few would deny he’s an exceptional football player — a tall, strong, athletic, smart offensive tackle who should have a long NFL career. He’s a two-time All-American and three-time All-Big Ten selection who won Big Ten offensive lineman of the year honors in both 2012 and 2013. Any credible list of Michigan’s top offensive linemen in the past 20 years should include Lewan’s name.
But he’ll also be remembered for twisting the facemask of Michigan State safety Isaiah Lewis in last year’s loss to the Spartans. Lewan later apologized.
Two years earlier, he was on the receiving end of a punch from Michigan State defensive end William Gholston that resulted in a one-game suspension for Gholston. But many believe Lewan wasn’t free of blame in that incident.
Lewan also had to defend himself against allegations he tried to intimidate a woman who said she had been sexually assaulted by Michigan kicker Brendan Gibbons, another of Lewan’s friends.
It doesn’t add up to a squeaky-clean image, which Lewan acknowledged at the combine.
-Sincerely,
A bored Ohio State fan