GM Jon Robinson on Vic Beasley: 'It Wasn't Good Enough'

Tennessee Titans' top personnel man said he had reasons to believe the free-agent outside linebacker would thrive with his new team.

NASHVILLE – Jon Robinson said he never really considered cutting outside linebacker Vic Beasley until a day or two before he made the decision.

The Tennessee Titans general manager clearly spent time thinking about what might have been and what went wrong with one of his most high-profile offseason additions. The Titans officially cut Beasley on Wednesday the one-time All-Pro outside linebacker with the Atlanta Falcons failed to register a sack in five games played.

“I’ve gone back and watched some of the Atlanta stuff over the last few weeks, and he was a guy that showed burst and he showed chase and made some disruptive plays,” Robinson said Wednesday. “Those just never manifested themselves here, and [that] was the reason why we made the move that we made.”

Beasley signed a one-year, $9.5 million free-agent deal with the Titans in May – all of it guaranteed. It included a $6 million signing bonus and a $3.5 million salary.

Before it cut its losses, the franchise got precious little return on that investment. Beasley missed the first 10 days of training camp due to an unexcused absence and one he did report, he spent the rest of the time on the non-football injury list. He did not make his Titans’ debut until Week 3 at Minnesota, and in five games he was credited with three tackles, one forced fumble, no sacks and one tackle for loss.

“I thought in practice he was coming along,” Robinson said. “There were practices where it was like we were turning the corner. It was a new defense a new team and he was working to figure all that out.

“And the when we got to the games, it wasn’t that the effort wasn’t there, the production wasn’t there. So, that’s what we’re all judged by in this business is performance and at the end of the day, it wasn’t good enough.”

Robinson said the Titans were not the only team interested in the eighth overall pick of the 2015 NFL Draft who was a Pro Bowler and All-Pro in his second NFL season, when Atlanta went to the Super Bowl.

In recent years, though, questions about Beasley’s desire and effort became common. His time with the Titans did nothing to quiet them.

“He was a player with really good measurables. He was fast. He was, obviously, a high draft pick. He was productive at pressuring and sacking the quarterback at Atlanta. And that a fresh start and the system that we were going to play him in, a head coach that had played the position and could teach him maybe some new tricks of the trade that all that might manifest itself into him really blossoming in our system. Unfortunately, that did not work.

“… And it’s frustrating for me that it didn’t work out. At the end of the day, that’s on me that it didn’t work out. But we made the decision that we made, and we’re moving on.”