Training Camp Week 2: Everything You Need to Know

Written By Jack Loeb

The Titans have wrapped up their second week of training camp as they are poised to take on the 49ers this weekend in Nashville. Outside of the week before Week 1 of the regular season NFL football will be on your screens weekly up until February. The Titans are a completely revamped team from last year, and this weekend will be a chance to showcase just how much they’ve changed from the top down.

Lets rip the bandaid right off. Former Titans projected starting RG Saahdiq Charles has decided to retire from the NFL. It’s almost hard to believe that Charles would decide to retire only a couple weeks into training camp. Nonetheless, here we are. Charles himself has yet to publicly state why he has decided to call it quits after signing a 1 yr deal with the Titans during free agency. There’s much speculation about what went into his decision. However, Coach (Brian) Callahan offered up his thoughts on the situation here, “[It] Was not a single event that led to Charles retiring ... Just felt like football wasn't for him ... Surprising to coaching staff.”

This is certainly a blow for the Titans. By all accounts Charles was slated to be the starter at RG after supplanting Daniel Brunskill and Dillon Radunz on the depth chart (more on that later). Now the Titans will once again turn to Radunz or Brunskill to plug up the gaping hole that was left by Charles. The Titans will need to have success on the right side of the line if they’re to have any chance of having a solid offense this year.

Speaking of issues on the right side, one of those issues (right tackle) should see an upgrade. Nicholas Petit-Frere was recently activated off PUP. As of late both Ojukwu and Leroy Watson were holding down the fort at Right Tackle. With the addition of NPF back in the fold Bill Callahan should be able to get him up to speed by the time week 1 rolls around. The Titans will surely need it as they’ll be playing against a Bears team who will be looking to exploit Will Levis and the Titans offense on the edges.

The Will Levis and Calvin Ridley connection is starting to heat up in training camp. The two have yet to create a Volek-Bennett like connection but they’re working their way there. Coach Callahan mentioned, “They’re not on the same page yet and are still working.” Regardless, each camp day there seems to be a new highlight between the pair. Levis will need to hone in on getting right with Ridley and vice versa. Most of the hiccups between the two comes down to Levis understanding Ridley’s speed. Either Levis underthrows or overthrows Ridley on deep routes However, when there’s other routes ran Levis and Ridley have a great rapport. The pair’s connection this season will be pivotal if the Titans are to have any success after paying a substantial amount of money to Ridley this offseason.

As Deandre Hopkins is out for the foreseeable future Treylon Burks will need to step up and has a great opportunity to do so. This preseason should allow Burks ample opportunity to prove himself after the past two years have been abysmal due to lack of consistency catching the ball, and his only consistency is finding himself on IR more often than not. Much like Farley, we’ll get to that later, Burks finds himself at a crossroads. The talent has never lived up to the production that the Titans expected. If Burks can show up and surprise the fans and the coaching staff he’ll still end up finding himself as WR4 early in the regular season. That’s a great problem to have if Burks does flip a switch. However, I’m of the belief that we’re still a long way from seeing the Burks that was promised.

One of the underlying storylines of this training camp is how well Josh Whyle and Thomas Odukoya are coming along. Both players are relatively young. Whyle, picked last year as a 5th round pick, and Odukoya as a UDFA in 2022. Coach Callahan recently commented about Odukoya, “If he keeps playing the way he’s playing, he can earn himself a real roster spot.” Callahan also spoke on how he viewed both Whyle and Chig in terms of positional utility, “I think Josh and Chig are two very different kind of TEs for us. Josh is a Y and Chig is more of an F….they’re both going to be used to their strengths in this offense.” Whyle being the “Y” is more of a traditional value inline TE whereas, the “F,” as Callahan refers to Chig, is more of a utility TE that can be used throughout the formation. That certainly makes sense when you see how Chig was used over the last two years. When Chig gets the ball in his hands he finds a way to tack on YAC. Coach Callahan is certainly on the right track with how to use his two young TE’s. As stated previously, this offense has a bevy of options to utilize. It’s up to Coach Callahan how to best maximize their potential.

The Titans recently dropped their starting Depth Chart and there are quite a few interesting nuggets held within. See below:

Hindsight being 20/20 it was confirmed with the first official depth chart that this team viewed Charles as the starting RG. Now, Radunz and Brunskill will battle it out for RG. Another interesting tidbit is the RB depth chart. Both Tyjae Spears and Tony Pollard are indeed “1A and 1B” as was alluded to earlier in the offseason. Coach Callahan has been quite straightforward this offseason and I believe him when he says something, or information comes out of his coaching staff.

Another item of note is this team is VERY high on T’Vondre Sweat. He’s already labeled as the starer over Quinton Bohanna. That’s a great sign especially after many, including myself, had some eery doubts. However, so far so good. Sweat has been tearing it up this training camp. Often he looks to be a truly dominate force in training camp. If Sweat can be what this coaching staff believe he can be the sky is truly the limit. As in his ceiling is a Haloti Ngata All-Pro level player. Sweat is consistently showing he has what it takes to line up against NFL level talent and compete.

Jamal Adams without much fanfare or even practice reps has already supplanted Elijah Molden as the SS alongside Amani Hooker. That’s certainly interesting especially as Adams has been nursing an injury and hasn’t seen much on field experience. Either Dennard Wilson has seen enough of Molden on tape and in practice to make the assumption that he isn’t up to the part ,or Jamal Adams is just that good. I’d venture to guess it’s more the former than the latter. With the addition of Quandre Diggs it’ll be intriguing to see if Wilson replicates the Seahawks secondary of the past 3+ years. Whether or not that’s the right way to go we’ll have to see. However, it’s obvious that Wilson and Callahan had a plan going into this offseason to completely revitalize the defense at every level.

In addition Kenneth Murray Jr. has really started to come into his own and become the leader of the defense. Recently Sneed was questioned by the press and stated, “[He’s] Our leader” in reference to Murray Jr. That’s quite something to hear from a recently added star player in Sneed and for him to bypass Simmons is probably even more intriguing, and not something you necessarily want to hear. Last week Simmons got into a verbal scuffle with 104.5 The Zone and AtoZ Sports reporter Buck Reising. However, they squashed the beef and Simmons has apologized. Back to Murray Jr, by all accounts he’s been having a solid training camp and showing leadership. Although it’s still early it’s great to see that as it stands now that Murray Jr. is at least becoming a leader on the Titans defense, one who may get that all too overhyped green dot.

As L’Jarius Sneed and Chidobe Awuzie are still out of the practice lineup CB’s: Roger McCreary, Tre Avery, Caleb Farley, Gabe Jeudy-Lally, Jarvis Brownlee Jr. and others are getting their shot at practice reps. The Titans starters for the first game of the preseason will probably end up being Avery, Farley, and Brownlee Jr. This could be Farley’s last ditch effort the next two or so weeks. Farley has been in and out of practice reps during training camp. It seems nearly every day he’s out there he ends up getting looked at by the trainer and subsequently taken back to the locker room. At some point enough is enough. After 3 seasons in the NFL, and finding himself on the IR before or during the season, it comes to a point where the organization needs to do what’s best and cut ties with the former 1st round pick. Titans fans should feel far more comfortable on a day-to-day basis putting faith in Brownlee Jr. (who received high praise from All-Pro caliber CB L’Jarius Sneed). The Titans have a great stable of young and talented corners on the roster. They’ll need them to learn all they can from the talent that’s splattered along the secondary. The Titans best position group is undoubtedly its secondary. With the addition of Quandre Diggs the Titans have an immense amount of depth. Dennard Wilson will need both Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs to get back to their early 2020-2021 selves. Although that may be a long shot if those two can hold the line and have moderate success it’ll be worlds better than the Titans safety situation last year.

It’s been an interesting two weeks of training camp and the Titans are now slated to take on the 49ers this Saturday at Nissan Stadium. I hope you’re all excited, I know I am. This season should be loads better than the previous two years with the various additions added to the team thanks to Ran Carthon and his extreme makeover

Jack Loeb https://twitter.com/jakjack91
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