Edge rusher Vic Beasley was one of the big offseason acquisition by the Titans, signing a one year, fully guaranteed $9.5 million contract, but two days into camp he is still a no show with the Titans placing him on the teams reserve/did not report list. According to ESPN’s Turron Davenport general manager Jon Robinson said he has been in contact with Beasley and he will report soon, but the hold out could get expensive if this drags on for a few more days.

The new CBA agreement, in an effort to avoid holdouts, placed mandatory fines, compared to the old system of voluntary fines, on veteran players for late reporting. Beasley fits in the category of a UFA signing so he should lose $50,000 per day that he remains away from training camp.

In addition Beasley, if he misses 6 days of training camp, can trigger a breach that can allow the Titans to begin the process of recovering part of his $6 million signing bonus. This is not mandatory but can be as high as 15% for the initial breach and 25% for the entire preseason. That would add up to $900,000 for the first breach and $60,000 per day thereafter up to $2.25M over the course of camp.

The question that I would have is if Beasley’s absence has anything to do with the Covid pandemic. The original rules that were sent out seemed to indicate that reporting to camp was mandatory unless you inform the team that you are opting out of the season. This seems entirely unfair given that the NFL and NFLPA have not even finalized the rules and I think you would want to see all the rules and safety protocols in place before reporting to camp and/or making an opt out decision. Perhaps they will be able to make an exception in this case if Beasley indicated to the Titans that the decision is related to that. If not this could get quite expensive in a few more days.

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