Titans Training Camp After One Week

Written By Jack Loeb

The Tennessee Titans are officially one week in to training camp. The Titans are only 5 1/2 weeks away from the season opener in Chicago. The Titans have answered some questions that were previously outstanding before camp broke, however — there are still many questions that remain unsolved. The Titans were lucky to get every starter back at the onset of training camp. So far no holdouts, No major i***ries (not going to jinx it), no complete ineptitude etc. Sure there are some bumps here and there but that’s to be expected during the first few weeks of training camp. Let’s get started on how it all went over the past week.

We’ll start at of course the most important position on the field — QB. Will Levis, by all accounts, looks better than he had last year and has grown himself into a leader. Granted it hasn’t all been rainbows and butterflies for Levis. At the practice at Nissan Stadium he had some mishaps missing Ridley deep and overthrowing a few receivers here and there. However, he also had a nice TD throw to Pollard on a wheel route. Recently, he was picked off by Matthew Jackson but that shouldn’t be a major concern. Take the bad with the good.

This isn’t a cause for alarm bells, especially as it’s camp after all, and there are plenty of great highlights for Levis as well. The most important voice comes from HC Brian Callahan. Callahan speaking on Levis, “[I’m] very pleased…he’s been really impressive. I think his hard work over the summer has really paid off. He’s extremely confident…” In total it sounds as if Levis is on the right track. Callahan doesn’t sound like he’s giving typical coach speak either. It sounds as if he really wholeheartedly believes that Levis is on the right track for a successful season ahead.

One of the biggest question marks coming into training camp was how defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat would perform in training camp. Short answer…so far so good! Sweat has been making a name for himself on the field so far. Terry Rocker, the Titans DL coach, mentioned that Sweat, “[He’s] not where I want him to be…in practice everday is getting better and better.” When the offense does struggle it can be attributed to heavy pressure cause by Sweat or elsewhere. The OL is still a working project with 4/5 new starters at each position.

The Titans have a great chance to have a game wrecking duo of Jeffrey Simmons and T’Vondre Sweat this year if Sweat can live up to his potential and Simmons can be the leader the Titans defense needs him to be.

Speaking of Simmons, he blew up yesterday during the first day in full pads. He not only went after his teammates unnecessarily, but he almost pulled up on Buck Reising host of 104.5 The Zone. You can see the entire interaction here. After watching the video it’s clear that Simmons was severely upset by something that Buck said about him. Buck was just starting to interview Roger McCreary when Simmons came over and started throwing expletives towards Reising. Whether Buck said something fair or not is not grounds for the way Simmons approached the situation. If a local radio host can get under his skin then that only shows that he’s not ready to be the leader of the defense. It’s not hard to make the jump that Simmons could cause the team a loss with a personal foul penalty and/or getting ejected.

Simmons is arguably the best defender on the Titans and he’s been there the longest of any defensive starter. An adjacent issue to this is if this continues it will negatively impact the young players on the Titans defense starting with Sweat. As mentioned previously Sweat needs to have a stable mentorship to keep him on his toes and keeping his head down. If Simmons can’t provide that it could lead to a much larger problem. Although these tempers running hot does usually happen at training camp it might be something to pay attention to if this bleeds throughout training camp or even into the season.

Good news is Calvin Ridley was back at practice yesterday after having a bit of an ankle scare from Saturday’s practice at Nissan Stadium. Ridley has been looking great at camp. What we’ve seen from Mini-Camp and OTA’s hasn’t let up as Ridley is consistently showing his quickness and savvy route running in training camp. He looks the part of a true #1 WR which is going to only help this team reach new heights as Callahan will look to pass the ball more given the offensive philosophy.

Now the bad news…Paul Kuharsky first reported that Arden Key is being suspended for 6 games due to PED’s. Although Arden Key didn’t light up the box score last year. He’s a salty vet that the Titans can’t currently afford to lose. The Titans are already lacking in depth across the DL. This bring into focus either the Titans making a push for Yannick Ngakoue or another free agent DE or pray that rookie Jaylen Harrell or recently acquired Shane Ray step up. If Key is suspended for 6 games the Titans pass rush will be severely affected to open the season. Last year the Titans struggled mightily to get to the QB — the Titans had 46 sacks last year and 11.5 of them came from now (also) suspended Texans DE Denico Autry.

The Titans can ill afford to lose key (no pun intended) players for petty avoidable circumstances. Expect the Titans to first take a look at guys who are on the roster first to fill the void. If that doesn’t go well a trade and/or navigating those camp cuts which will come soon enough may hold the answer (at least) for the first six games — more than likely. Cross your fingers for a Trey Hendrickson trade, although unlikely.

Offensive line still remains an issue for the Titans. It’s still early in camp and this is to be expected — even through the first few weeks of the season I expect the Titans to struggle in this area. JC Latham, the teams first pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, has so far held his own. Latham found himself getting into an early scuffle with Jeffrey Simmons earlier yesterday. Bill Callahan spoke on the skirmish between Latham and Simmons, “Those things don’t bother me so much. We know we’ve got to play within the rules and protect our teammates and we’ve got it figured out after that. I don’t expect any additional problems. (I said) those things (to the players), in a much more colorful tone…” The Titans will need to gel together quickly, soon. The Titans may have a boost to their OL soon enough. Nicholas Petit-Frere could be back to the lineup soon at Right Tackle. Coach Bill Callahan spoke to reporters yesterday that he expects to see NPF do more rehab “…on Friday. Hopefully we can get him back and then accelerate from there.”

It will probably be right up to the last preseason game that we might have a solid idea of the offensive line from RG to RT. Currently, Saahdiq Charles is in line to start at RG and Ojukwu and Watson are battling for RT while NPF is out. Coach (Bill) Callahan has his work cut out for him as he tries to navigate the entire right side of the line and a rookie LT. Thankfully, he’s one of the best to ever do it.

The Titans secondary is going through a difficult period as Chidobe Awuzie is out for a bit, L’Jarius Sneed is still heavily load managed, Jamal Adams recently has been added to the load management roster as well, but otherwise has looked solid thus far in camp. The good news is that with all the absences in the secondary the young guys like: Brownlee Jr., Gabe Jeudy-Lally, and Matthew Jackson are starting to see first team reps and doing an admirable job given the circumstances. This could speed up the process to getting Jeudy-Lally and Brownlee Jr. NFL ready as they look to supplant oft-injured Caleb Farley and maybe push Tre Avery (although I doubt it) off the roster. The Titans will have some interesting choices to make as they inevitably will need to cut down to 53. It shouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that Jeudy-Lally may find himself on the practice squad for the Titans this upcoming season to start given the excess depth at the position.

One surprise of early Titans training camp is how well Malik Willis has been playing when given the opportunity. Willis has been seemingly working hard throughout camp and working with QB Coach Sean McEvoy during the offseason to improve his skillset. That’s great news to hear regardless of how you feel about Willis. If Brian Callahan can also develop Malik Willis that only helps the team in the long run as he may either take over the backup job or find himself to have some trade value. Willis has an opportunity in the preseason to make a name for himself and cement his role on the Titans. With the new NFL rule that teams can carry an emergency QB on Sundays it may not be a bad idea to keep Willis on the 53.

It’s only been one week of Titans training camp and already there’s just as many questions as there are answers. The Titans will soon host joint practices with the Seahawks and we should know more about the team by then. Remember, there’s no need to overreact as it’s only been one week since training camp kicked off and there’s been so much (needed) roster turnover that it will still take a while for the team to become in sync. Expect this next week of practice to be more stable than the first.

Jack Loeb https://twitter.com/jakjack91
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