Lewan Happy to Be a Voice of Experience
Whether it happened at the beginning of training camp or earlier this offseason, Tennessee Titans left tackle Taylor Lewan approached first-round draft pick Isaiah Wilson and let him know that the door was open.
Any advice or mentorship the rookie right tackle needs, Lewan said he will be there for Wilson as much as he needs him to be.
For a rookie -- especially a first-round draft pick -- figuring out when, how and who to take advice from can be a challenge. Lewan explained that in many ways, it can feel overwhelming.
“... There’s a lot of people trying to help you,” Lewan said on Friday. “There’s a lot of people trying to tell you what to do, and vets from all over the place are going to be like, ‘Hey, try this or that.’ It kind of goes all over the place.
“So for me, I went up to Isaiah, and I said, ‘Hey man, I’m here for you as much as you want me to be. If you need any help with anything, I’m there for you,’ and he and I have talked a lot. There’s been some growth there for sure and I think he’s working towards getting to where he needs to be.”
Lewan also was a highly touted first-round draft pick. Drafted 11th overall by the Titans in 2014, he said he didn’t know which way was up that season.
The reasons for that seem obvious now.
In 2014, the Titans were going through a coaching change. Ken Whisenhunt, who was the team’s head coach for a season and a half (2014, part of 2015), took over for Mike Munchak and implemented his own offensive scheme. For rookies and veterans alike, much was brand new.
“It was all over the place,” Lewan said. “It was a different building back then. It was very difficult. Guys were learning a new offense. I was coming into a team that was learning a new offense.”
On top of it all, Lewan was thrust into a leadership role as he continued to acclimate himself in the NFL. After the Titans went 2-14 in Lewan’s rookie season, Whisenhunt named the left tackle a captain for 2015. After one win in the first seven contests, Whisenhunt was fired and Mike Mularkey was named interim head coach. In turn, Mularkey stripped Lewan of the captain’s ‘C.’.
While his time in a leadership position was a short-lived experience, Lewan in the spring that he was trying to be someone that he wasn’t.
“I think I have done a poor job of stepping up as a leader,” he said in May. “That’s been by choice, and a little more by fear. Realizing who I am and what I can bring to the table is really important. I owe it to this team to be a better leader.”
As the senior member of the offense on a contending team and more comfortable with his abilities now, the 29-year-old expressed his desire to assume a leadership position once again in the near future as he enters his seventh season with the Titans.
In 2020 or some time down the road, Lewan’s approach to mentoring rookies at this stage of his career, which now includes 80 starts at left tackle, could be a step toward just that.
“It’s fun to be in a position to help people,” he said. “...This is my third year in the same offense, essentially. It’s good. “It’s fun. You start to know things. You start to learn little details here and there which makes it much easier to help guys out. Long answer of it all is it’s been half and half. I’ll go to them a lot and they’ll also come to me, so it’s been really awesome.”
