Randy Moss learns playbook during 1st day with Titans

Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl

How long the Tennessee Titans and Randy Moss stay together remains to be seen. For now, Jeff Fisher is thinking playoffs and the Super Bowl that has eluded the NFL’s longest tenured coach with his current team.

Fisher said Monday he isn’t thinking past the end of the season — whenever that is. The contract extension Moss has been seeking most of this year won’t be on the table until then.

“I don’t have a ring. He doesn’t have a ring, so we’re going to try,” Fisher said.

Moss arrived early Monday, and Fisher said the receiver passed a physical, worked out and met with coaches to start learning the offense. He also got his locker and met everyone in the building. Moss was even seen running around on the team’s outdoor practice fields Monday afternoon.

Fisher insists what happened between Moss and the New England Patriots or the Minnesota Vikings is not an issue now. The coach does think Moss is in the best place possible, saying the changes would have taken an emotional toll on any player.

“Usually, it’s the case where you really don’t have all the information,” Fisher said. “There’s a lot of things that go on, and I think that was the case there. We discussed a lot, and we’ve put it behind us. I’m excited for him. He’s got a bounce in his step, and he’s looking forward to getting on the field and helping us win.”

How Moss feels remains unheard.

He hasn’t commented publicly of being waived a week ago by Minnesota or on the Titans being the only NFL team to put in a claim on the receiver. Since the Titans won their waiver claim last Wednesday, both Fisher and Moss’ agent have said the receiver is excited Tennessee claimed him.

Moss arrived in Nashville late Sunday afternoon but didn’t talk to a handful of reporters staked out at a private airport terminal. The Titans currently plan to make Moss available to reporters Wednesday after practice. That doesn’t mean Moss will actually speak or take questions.

The receiver hasn’t spoken to reporters since Oct. 13 and was fined $25,000 by the NFL for failing to cooperate with the media.

Fisher said Moss won’t be treated differently than any other player on the roster, and he sees no risk whatsoever in bringing the well-traveled receiver to town. Fisher said Moss obviously has talked to people who knows how the Titans do things.

“He’s heard great things about the locker room, and I don’t see a risk at all,” Fisher said. “He’s a very good football player who became available to us, and it’s a new start. It’s a new start for him, and it’s an opportunity for us to get better offensively,”

The timing is perfect.

The Titans (5-3) enjoyed their bye by moving back into a tie with Indianapolis (5-3) atop the AFC South with five divisional games left. Fisher still sees the defending champion Colts as the team to beat despite their list of injuries with 12 players on injured reserve.

“You’re going to have win the division to get in the playoffs … There’s no telling how the wild card thing’s going to fall,” Fisher said.

Fisher expects Moss to play when the Titans visit Miami (4-4) on Sunday. Moss didn’t have a catch against the Dolphins in his last game with the Patriots on Oct. 4 before being traded to Minnesota, and Fisher said the receiver may have only a set of plays he’s familiar with as he works to also learn the offense and a game plan.

He also gets to meet another new quarterback. Vince Young spent part of the weekend in Austin, Texas, opening up a steakhouse and treating his left ankle, but the Titans are due back at work Tuesday after a four-day break for the bye.

As the waiver claim worked out, Moss wound up enjoying a bye week that will leave him playing just 16 games this season instead of the 17 he had been on pace to play in if he had stayed in Minnesota.

But it’s time to get back to work.

“He enjoyed his off weekend, his bye week, just like we did,” Fisher said.