Okay, so Kenny Britt showed up for the beginning of offseason workouts out of shape. So his attitude and concentration were not what they should have been. So his nickname given to him by his own teammates is “question mark.” So what?

The bottom line is that when the real football starts, training camp, Kenny Britt had BETTER be lined up across from Nate Washington as a starting wide receiver. That’s right, I said real football and not voluntary OTAs or even middle of the offseason minicamps where you have 7-on-7 stuff that often turns practice squad talents scrambling to make the team into heroes (this praise that Lavelle Hawkins is getting … let’s say that we’ve heard the same about young Titans WRs from Jake Schifino to Chris Davis to Eddie Berlin to Brandon Jones who went on to not do squat in actual games).

Stuff where it is often very hard for young, inexperienced immature players who already have their roster spots secured – guys like Britt – to convince themselves to take seriously.

Yes, the offseason stuff is important and Britt knows this. We are talking about a 21 year old guy who A) knows that he is by far the best WR on the team, B) is just getting used to living without the structure that education provides and C) has been handed a ton of money.

With such people, there is going to be a gap, if you will, between their intellectual knowledge and their mental motivation. By contrast, guys who have been around awhile and know that this is their last shot – like Lavelle Hawkins – are going to be a lot more motivated to be workout wonders during offseason drills. 

Fine for Lavelle Hawkins. Let’s see if he can build on his 14 career catches for 178 yards and 0 TDs. Maybe the guy who couldn’t cut it at LSU, transferred and then couldn’t consistently make plays for the Cal Bears despite Pac-10 defenses triple-teaming DeSean Jackson  will make the Titans a good 4th or 5th receiver.

Britt has the ability to be a #1 WR. The Titans need to develop that ability by getting him on the field. It isn’t because they owe it to Britt, mind you. It is because it is their responsibility to put the best players on the field, and the idea that they have WRs on their roster better than Kenny Britt is laughable.

Nate Washington was the fifth option on offense (behind two Pro Bowl WRs, a Pro Bowl TE, and the running game) in Pittsburgh. He starts only because football requires 2 starting WRs, plus the Titans’ TEs aren’t that good either. The Titans picked Justin Gage up from the Bears because no one – including the Bears – thought much of his potential, and after 3 years of averaging 30 receiving yards a game in Nashville, we all see why.

The other guys, particularly Damian Williams and Dominique Edison, deserve their shots, but their chances should come at the expense of Washington or especially Gage, and not at the expense of Britt, the one guy who has the talent to get playing time in places like Houston, Indianapolis, Arizona, Dallas, New York… cities that actually have multiple guys capable of playing the WR position in the NFL.

That’s why if the Titans’ aren’t doing all that they can to get Kenny Britt ready for the 2010 season, then they aren’t trying to compete and win football games, because Washington, Gage, Hawkins and the rest aren’t good enough.

How many games would the Titans have won were it not for Chris Johnson (and Vince Young) rushing for all those yards in 2009? Or for Chris Johnson and that great defense in 2008? When was the last time you looked at a Titans’ football game and said “Wow, those WRs are really dominating and leading this team to victory!”

So whatever issues that Britt has, he needs to be put on the field and allowed to play through them. And why not? That’s the way that this organization has handled players with far bigger problems. Some names for instance: Albert Haynesworth, LenDale White and Adam Jones. Those guys had much bigger issues than reporting to OTAs out of shape. Haynesworth early in his career often didn’t report to workouts, whether mandatory or voluntary, and was often in terrible condition when he did.

LenDale White publicly feuded with the Titans’ coaches and with the media over what his target weight was and when he should be expected to reach it. He spent his first 3 seasons at over 260 lbs., yet he started his second season and received plenty of playing time in his third.

There is not enough space available to recount all the chances that the Titans’ front office and coaches gave Jones, who was only suspended by the team after it became obvious that the NFL was going to do so also. So why indulge Haynesworth, Jones and White only to become a disciplinarian with Britt?

Maybe it is an admission that the prior approach failed, because the Titans’ did seem to emphasize maturity and college productivity in this draft as opposed to the raw boom-or-bust types that they collected in many previous ones. Fine. But making Justin Gage and Lavelle Hawkins the beneficiary in 2010 of bad coaching and personnel decisions in prior years by rewarding them with playing time that they don’t deserve will harm the team in the present and won’t help them in the future. 

The Titans’ can’t keep playing games with the WR position. Based on their track record since abandoning the run-and-shoot and moving from Houston (or more accurately since Jeff Fisher became head coach and especially since he became the most influential person in the organization in terms of day to day operations following the 1999 Super Bowl appearance), the Titans obviously do not know how to scout or develop WRs.

It has been hilarious how they have hyped guys as future stars only to wind up cutting them 2 years later. It is bad enough that Fisher generally won’t play WRs as rookies no matter how promising they look (or how bad the incumbents are), but he also won’t give them meaningful responsibilities until they have mastered the playbook and are performing extremely well in practice.

That is not only different from how other teams bring along their WRs, but it is also inconsistent with how Fisher treats other positions. Fisher is still the guy who prefers to win with defense, running game and special teams, so he views WRs more in terms of potential liabilities when they make mistakes than assets when they make plays. The result is with WRs that the attributes that Fisher rewards with playing time are not those that translate into making plays in NFL games.

It is especially rough on young WRs because the very things that they need to make plays in the NFL (moxie, knowing when to “turn it on and step up”, and risk-taking) is precisely what Fisher’s system punishes a WR for having. Fisher is perfectly fine with playing a guy who can’t get open or make plays downfield so long as he knows the playbook and shows intensity during practice.

So, the Titans parade their annual collection of pedestrian talents who know or learn how to get into Fisher’s good graces (as Lavelle Hawkins appears to) while guys who could actually make a play or two if given the chance see their playmaking qualities – most of which is a type of edgy, risk taking confidence – waste away on the bench and get punished on the practice field. 

If Jeff Fisher wants to continue to reward mediocrity with playing time, then by all means start Justin Gage and Nate Washington. Let Kenny Britt and Lavelle Hawkins battle it out for the third spot, restrict Damian Williams to returning punts and kickoffs.

Just keep doing things that he always has during his career of mostly 8-8s and one-and-done playoff exits. But if Fisher wants to actually compete, then he needs to not only start Kenny Britt, but find ways to get some of the other young talented players like Damian Williams, Jared Cook, Dominique Edison and Marc Mariani on the field too.

So long as Jeff Fisher is less willing to live with the issues and mistakes at WR than he is at, say, CB, RB and DT, then he will never get the production at that position that he needs to beat good teams like San Diego, Indianapolis, New England, Pittsburgh etc. in the playoffs, or even Houston and Jacksonville in the regular season.

If Fisher is willing to settle for mediocrity among his players just because it is the safe, risk averse thing to do, then it is apparent that the Titans’ franchise is settling for mediocrity in a head coach. 

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