Without a multi-year contract in place, franchised Tennessee Titans safety Michael Griffin easily could have skipped the team's OTAs and minicamp while agent Ben Dogra worked out a long-term deal by the July 16 deadline.
Griffin could have gone to the media to ask why a team so paper thin at the safety position wouldn't want to sign a two-time Pro Bowl player to an extension.
Griffin instead has remained quiet about his contract plight, and even has signed an injury protection waiver that allowed him to participate in voluntary workouts.
"Since I've been here, I've always been a no-public type guy," Griffin said Wednesday, via John Glennon of The Tennessean. "I've always been quiet. That's just me as a person. That's my nature.
"I'm not saying anything (Cortland Finnegan) did was wrong," added Griffin in a reference to his ex-teammate's well documented contract squabbles with the Titans. "I respect him as a friend and player. Apparently maybe it's working out because he signed for five years at $50 million (with the St. Louis Rams). But that's just not me. I'm just going about it the way I want to go about it."
There's no guarantee that the Titans are going to reward Griffin for putting the interest of the team ahead of his own long-term future in the NFL, but he's impressed general manager Ruston Webster.
"We have talked with his agent at different points of the offseason about a long-term deal and that will continue," Webster said. "I have really been impressed by his approach to this situation and the work he has put in this offseason."
