The Tennessee Titans announced Tuesday they signed guard/center Rob Turner, formerly of the St. Louis Rams.
Turner, who turns 29 in August, entered the NFL in 2007 as an undrafted free agent with the New York Jets. He played in 57 games with the Jets from 2007 through 2011 before joining the Rams last offseason. He started at center for the Rams when big money free agent acquisition Scott Wells was recovering from injury and played left guard the rest of the time. He was credited with two starts for the Jets, but that's a little misleading; one of them came at fullback and the other as a sixth offensive lineman. That means all 16 of his real career starts came for St. Louis last season, and he's started just as many games at right guard in the NFL than I have.
In the statement released with his signing, GM Ruston Webster indicated he would either fill a starting role or serve as the interior swing backup. If he is starting, my guess/hope is that it would be at center for Fernando Velasco rather than at the vacant right guard spot. I believe Velasco is the favorite to be the starting center, though, and Turner's most likely role is as the swing backup. I do not really want to see him starting at right guard, but he could be a fallback plan if whatever the Titans do to get a starter at right guard (hint: draft one) does not result in someone ready to play Week 1.
At the minimum, Turner should be a better interior backup than Kevin Matthews and has upside beyond that. So long as the Titans did not overpay him, I like the move from what little I know of Turner. I'll have more on him, and the Titans' other new acquisitions, in due course.
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