Outside of a few snaps against Chicago, Tennessee Titans linebacker Monty Rice has notably been absent for the majority of the preseason.
This was a rather odd development since he was in the midst of battling with Jack Gibbens for one of the Titans’ starting inside linebacker jobs.
Naturally, many of us assumed it was due to some sort of injury, but that doesn’t appear to be the case as Rice confirmed on Monday that his absence wasn’t an injury-related issue, instead attributing his unavailability to “life and God”.
#Titans LB Monty Rice said it's not been injury that's kept him off field since playing a few snaps against Minnesota in first preseason game.
The reason? "Life. Life and God. That’s the best way to put it.”— John Glennon (@glennonsports) August 28, 2023
While it’s unclear what he exactly meant by that, we won’t speculate any further than we need to. More importantly, let’s just hope everything is OK with the well-being of Rice and his family.
Nevertheless, now that the Georgia product is back, he figures to have at least a depth role on the team going forward barring something shocking happening between now and cutdown day on Tuesday.