It looks like there could be trouble in paradise between Bruce Arians and Ke’Shawn Vaughn.
Bruce Arians is the type of coach who would fight on any hill to defend his players from anyone outside the team. Arians is not the coach to waste words and won’t protect feelings when he is trying to support one of his guys, but he is also quick to call his players out on their faults.
Arians will let everyone know if you’re playing well, but he also won’t hesitate to call anyone out when they aren’t performing up to billing. Arians has called out players as talented as Tom Brady and all the way down the totem pole, and that brings us to the current predicament that is forming with Ke’Shawn Vaughn.
While no one wants to read between the lines too much, Arians gave an interview today after OTAs that indicates that he expects more from one of his newest running backs.
In the interview tweeted out by The Pewter Report, Arians expressed some displeasure that Vaughn was not present at OTAs today, ending his response with “hopefully, he’ll make a better decision tomorrow.”
This type of language indicates that Arians does not see Vaughn’s current decision to skip OTAs as the right one, and he wouldn’t make these comments if they weren’t on purpose.
OTAs are not a requirement, but Arians is also not required to keep anyone by the same token. The players that generally skip these workouts to train on their own are guaranteed roster members, and Vaughn is far from being a member of this club.
In the end, the final say comes down to Arians, and if he believes that Vaughn isn’t going to work to turn the page on a disappointing rookie season, this could be a damaging decision to make in the long run.
Vaughn has the talent to remain on this roster and serve as a primary part of the ground game, but Bruce Arians has made it painfully clear that he has to see Vaughn at everything from this point forward if he wants to remain in good standing.
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