The deadline for players to opt out of the 2020 season came and went on Thursday at 3 p.m. CT, and Tennessee Titans outside linebacker Vic Beasley is officially not among those who have chosen to skip the coming campaign.
Beasley has been inexplicably absent from training camp since all players reported on July 28, and while there was some thought that he might have decided not to show up because he was opting out, clearly that is not the case.
No opt-outs for #Titans. Reporting not speculating.
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) August 6, 2020
And so, the Beasley watch continues.
Unless there is a damn good reason why Beasley hasn’t been shown up, he is set to face fines and could quite possibly lose some of his signing bonus, as Over the Cap’s Jason Fitzgerald detailed last week.
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.
Per Paul Kuharsky, Beasley has already accrued a grand total of $500,000 in fines, to be exact. Fitzgerald also notes that if the Titans choose to go after his signing bonus, he will have lost over $1 million of it already.
Vic Beasley is now on the hook for $500,000 in mandatory fines for failure to report. #Titans
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) August 6, 2020
So sounds like Beasley has missed 10 days. Thats $500,000 in mandatory fines and I believe up to $1.14 in bonus forfeiture. Forfeiture is not mandatory though.
— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) August 6, 2020
General manager Jon Robinson released a statement on the matter last week, but no details were given about why Beasley hasn’t shown up. All we know is that the absence is unexcused and that he plans on reporting “in the near future.”
Beasley, who signed a one-year, $9.5 million contract earlier this offseason, has been marred by inconsistency and questions about his effort during his career — and now he’s off to a terrible start in Nashville.
The Titans were really depending on the former first-round pick to improve their pass-rush, but at this point we have to question if he’ll ever wear the two-tone blue with all the uncertainty surrounding him.
If not, Tennessee will have to scramble to come up with another solution, as even with Beasley in the fold there were questions about the Titans’ pass-rush and the team was still pursuing Jadeveon Clowney.
However, at this late stage in free agency, the Titans’ options to replace Beasley are dwindling.
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