Taylor Lewan answered the biggest question for the Tennessee Titans heading into training camp by showing up for work along with the rest of his teammates.
How long it takes to get a new contract for the two-time Pro Bowl left tackle remains to be seen.
General manager Jon Robinson said they're making good progress
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"It's good to have him back," Robinson said Wednesday after the Titans reported for camp. "I know that our coaches are excited to work with him and had really good discussions over the last 24 hours with his representation and nothing's finalized. But I would say we're certainly headed in the right direction."
Robinson said contract talks had been going on the past couple days and ramped up Tuesday night.
"I'd say we've made really good progress and that's about all I can really comment on that for now," Robinson said.
With the Titans firing Mike Mularkey in January after the franchise's first playoff victory in 14 years, Lewan took part in the team's voluntary offseason program with new coach Mike Vrabel . Then Lewan skipped the mandatory minicamp in June over a lack of progress in contract talks.
The left tackle is due $9.34 million this season after Tennessee picked up the fifth-year option for the 11th selection overall out of Michigan in the 2014 draft. He has started 53 of 58 games, including every game the past two seasons, protecting quarterback Marcus Mariota's back. Lewan, who turned 27 last weekend, is younger than Nate Solder who became the league's highest-paid offensive lineman in March with a four-year, $62 million deal from the New York Giants.
Lewan and the rest of the Titans showed up on Wednesday for the start of training camp, joining quarterbacks, rookies and injured players who started last weekend.
The left tackle was not among the handful of players made available to reporters Wednesday. Veteran linebacker Brian Orakpo, going into the final season of his contract, was glad Lewan reported since that means both sides must be talking again.
"I know what he brings to the table, so hopefully I mean stuff can get done and we can play ball and move forward," Orakpo said. "Nobody really wants to be worried about contract situations when we're trying to be you know coming together as a team. And they understand that, Taylor understands this so hopefully get it done sooner than later."
The Titans already are without right tackle Jack Conklin, who was placed on the physically unable to perform list last weekend. Conklin tore his left ACL in the Titans' divisional playoff loss to New England , and Vrabel had no timetable for Conklin's return.
Vrabel said Lewan is in great shape along with the rest of the offensive line. Center Ben Jones said it was good to have everybody in and ready to work
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"We're a band of brothers," Jones said. "We want us all out there at all times and that's all we do is go out there and grind every day. Taylor's the lead guy he's a guy we can put our hat on. You know he's going to work hard every day."
Vrabel said all the Titans passed the running test, but veteran wide receiver Rishard Matthews still is being evaluated. Matthews was sidelined during the offseason program with an unspecified injury.
"When he's ready, he'll be out there," Vrabel said.
NOTES: Robinson said he met Tuesday with Kevin Dodd before the Titans released the outside linebacker. Dodd was the 33rd selection overall out of Clemson in 2016 and the second player Robinson drafted in his first year as general manager. "I take full responsibility for that one. I've got to do a better job scouting moving forward," Robinson said. The move leaves the Titans at 89 players, and Robinson said they are looking to fill that spot.
— One of the great leaders football has seen, Ray Lewis used his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speech to call for more enlightened leadership in the United States.
The last of the seven members of the class of 2018 on hand to be enshrined, Lewis eschewed notes and the lectern, instead strolling along the stage and passionately urging his listeners to come together.
“Are you living every day to make this world better?” Lewis asked Saturday night at the end of his 33-minute oratory, often invoking the teachings of Martin Luther King. “Think what we can do if we work together as a country … teaching our nation to love each other again.
“It’s how we react to the challenges in our life that shows our greatness. How do we execute that dream? Who will answer that knock on the door in the middle of the night? And it has to start right now. We need people willing to fight for what is good and what is right.”
Turning to the 140 Hall of Famers on the stage, he told them: “We can go from being legends to building a legacy bigger than football, bigger than sports. Look at what unites us … the answer is simple, love. Hope, faith and love, and the greatest is love.”
Lewis was joined by Randy Moss, Brian Dawkins, Brian Urlacher
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One of the best linebackers in NFL history, Lewis won two Super Bowls with the Ravens; he often chanted “BALTIMORE!” during his speech.
“Tell me something can’t be done is like pouring lighter fluid on an open flame,” said Lewis, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year who won a second Super Bowl for the 2012 season — coming back from a torn triceps — then retired. He was the MVP of the 2001 title game.
“I came back, and boy did I come back,” Lewis said. “When you walk off the last time with that thing, that Lombardi, it’s a confirmation I am living proof of the impossible.”
A first-year nominee, Lewis was selected 26th overall in the 1996 draft — what were other teams thinking? He wasn’t even Baltimore’s first choice: Jonathan Ogden was, and the big tackle made the Hall of Fame in 2013.
His impact was immediate, both on the field, in the locker room, and even in pregame introductions, when his “squirrel dance” fired up fans and teammates alike. He and Ogden even did a short version on the stage.
Lewis was the first player with 40 sacks and 30 interceptions in a career. An eight-time All-Pro and inside linebacker on the 2000s NFL All-Decade Team, he had a franchise-record 2,643 career tackles.
Dawkins also delivered a powerful speech and, as he promised
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One of the hardest-hitting and most versatile safeties in NFL history, Dawkins stared at his bust and nodded his approval to the crowd.
“The majority of success I have had has come on the back end of pain,” he said noting he had suicidal thoughts when he battled depression. “On the other side of it, all of a sudden I became better. There’s a purpose for my pain.
“I have grown leaps and bounds because of the things I went through. For those going through this now, there is hope on the other side. Keep moving, keep pushing through.”
Dawkins was the leader of an Eagles defense that made four straight NFC championship games and one Super Bowl. Voted to the 2000s NFL All-Decade Team and a five-time All-Pro, Dawkins intercepted passes in 15 consecutive seasons and had 37 picks overall. He averaged nearly 100 tackles a year and spotlighted his versatility as the first player in NFL history to get a sack, interception, fumble recovery and touchdown catch (on a screen pass) in a game, against Houston in 2002.
Urlacher became a record-28th Chicago Bear inducted into the hall. A first-year nominee who filled the tradition of great middle linebackers in the Windy City so brilliantly, Urlacher actually was a safety at New Mexico. Chicago selected him ninth overall in the 2000 draft and immediately converted him to linebacker. He spent two weeks in training camp on the outside, then was moved inside — for 13 spectacular seasons.
“I love everything about football: the friendships, the coaches, the teachers, the challenges, the opportunity to excel. I loved going to work every day for 13 years,” said the 2000 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and 2005 Defensive Player of the Year, a season in which Urlacher had 171 tackles.
The five-time All-Pro and member of the 2000s NFL All-Decade Team even did some work on special teams.
But it was in the heart of the defense where he shone.
“The most coveted position for a defensive player to play is middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears
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Another first-year nominee, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Moss brought the perfect combination of height, speed, soft hands and agility to Minnesota as the 21st overall draft pick in 1998 after a rocky college career. His 69 receptions, 17 for touchdowns, and 1,313 yards helped the Vikings go 15-1 and earned him Offensive

honors.
That was just the start for the eccentric but always dynamic Moss. When he finally hooked up with an elite quarterback, he caught a record 23 TD passes from Tom Brady in New England’s perfect 2007 regular season.
Moss rubbed the face and top of his bust, then delivered a sermon worthy of any church or synagogue. He paid tribute to his family, to the fans of his five teams, and to his roots in West Virginia.