Former Tennessee Titans right guard Nate Davis not re-upping with the team came as no surprise, as it was pretty much known back in February that he’d likely not be back.
On the first day of free agency on Monday, Davis was already off the board, with the Charlotte product agreeing to a three-year, $30 million deal, with $19.25 million guaranteed.
So, what was behind the Titans not wanting to bring Davis back in the first place? Well, it might have to do with the fact that head coach Mike Vrabel reportedly really, really wasn’t a fan of his right guard.
Per Bill Zimmerman of Windy City Gridiron, he was told that Vrabel did not like Davis at all, with the source even going as far as saying the Titans head coach “hates” him.
Talked to someone close with Titans to get an idea of Nate Davis. His first response:
"Vrabel hates him."
Also noted Titans chose Andre Dillard who is a year older with 45 less career starts to replace him and signed him to basically identical contract that #Bears gave Davis.
— Bill Zimmerman (@ZimmermanSXM) March 14, 2023
That’s pretty strong language, but I would venture to guess that, if true, it had to do with Davis as a football player rather than a person.
And, to take it a step further, perhaps it had something to do with his injury issues because we know Davis was a solid player when on the field.
Vrabel has not been shy about blaming player injuries on a lack of work in the offseason, so maybe Davis, who has missed eight games the past two years, falls under that umbrella.
“I don’t mean it’s all on the player; there’s just some responsibility that you take that your profession pretty much relies on your body and your health,” he said in November. “We try to coach everything that we can talking about routines and trying to find veteran players that have really good routines and look at their career. Like Kevin Byard, how has his career gone and what kind of career has he had? So that some of the young DBs may want to emulate that routine.”
Whatever the case may be, if we take this report from an outsider at face value, it gives insight into why Davis didn’t land back in Nashville, even though it lacks specifics.
Zimmerman’s report indicates that the Titans may have signed Andre Dillard to replace Davis at right guard, so take that how you will. The expectation, of course, is that Dillard will play left tackle, but he does have some experience on the inside. Still, I’ll have to see it to believe it.
