Michael Oher reflects on failed tenure with Titans
Michael Oher is in the midst of the best season of his career with the Carolina Panthers, but it wasn't so long ago that his future appeared bleak.
Oher signed a four-year, $20-million contract with the Titans in March 2014, but his lone season with the club was an unmitigated disaster. In 11 games, Oher surrendered six sacks and was promptly released last February.
Although his value appeared to diminish on the open market, the Panthers inked Oher to a two-year, $7-million deal and the 29-year-old responded with the season of his life.
"I was in and out of there fast," Oher said on Wednesday according to Jim Wyatt of the Titans' official website. "For one reason or another, it just didn't work out. I felt like I did everything they asked me to do, but it just didn't work. But I learned a lot from that experience in Tennessee. It made me look in the mirror and taught me things I need to do better."
Oher took responsibility for his poor conditioning ahead of the 2014 campaign.
"I could have done things better in the offseason," Oher said. "(After) surgery, it helped me see what I needed to do as far as training, nutrition and things like that.
"That season in Tennessee, it taught me a lot of things. It helped me propel to this point, taking negatives and turning it into a positive."
After a failed season with the Titans, Oher couldn't help but be jovial about his good fortune, as the Panthers finished with the league's best record, while the Titans slumped to the NFL's worst showing and will select first overall in the upcoming draft.
"I'm sure some people thought (I was done), but I am never worried about what anyone else is thinking. I know my work ethic and I was determined to keep getting better," Oher said. "It's unfortunate things didn't work out in Tennessee, but I am not an I-told-you-so guy.
"It just shows that you can do anything you want to and that you put your mind to. You can't put your dreams and the things that you want to accomplish in other people's hands. So this offseason I said, 'you've got to look yourself in the mirror. You've got to know what to do. You've got to just get it done yourself."