The Tennessee Titans wrapped up Day 2 of training camp practices on Thursday, with just one more practice left in shorts and t-shirts (at Nissan Stadium on Saturday) before the pads come on next week. Here are the three big takeaways from the day at Titans HQ:

Let It Go With Treylon Burks, I'm Begging

People simply will not stop talking about the Titans' 2022 First Round draft pick debacle. We've seen three full seasons of the Treylon Burks experience already, yet for some reason, we seem to be flirting with giving this story additional consideration in 2025. I implore you: stop.

Cam Ward was asked about Burks at the podium on Wednesday and had glowing things to say about him. Brian Callahan was asked similar questions on Thursday, and said nice things as well. I'm not going to cite those quotes here, because what they said frankly does not matter.

There's this vicious cycle going on here where folks are intrigued by how much the Titans have talked about Burks already, as well as by how positive the comments have been. It's already led to multiple radio segments, articles, and a healthy dose of social media chatter over what it all means for Burks on the 2025 Titans. Nowhere along the way do any of these people stop to consider, given their knowledge of Burks' career up to this point, that perhaps the only reason he's being discussed is because the team keeps being asked about him!

Being a jerk about players is very much not my style. I have nothing against Treylon personally. I wish him nothing but the best on and off the football field. And none of my vitriol here is directed at him. He's not in control of what the media and fans talk about. I would love nothing more for him than to see a miraculous career turnaround during his time in the NFL. But we have to stop trying to rewrite his story with the Titans, because that book is being closed.

This next month is the final chapter of the Tennessee Titan Treylon Burks story, at least as far as any kind of roster competition is concerned. Perhaps he goes to the practice squad. Perhaps he's traded for scraps. But the overwhelmingly likely outcome is that he is cut. He is not good enough to make this team right now. Plain and simple. The Titans traded away the best receiver in the NFL and tried to replace him with somebody who never panned out. That's the story, and it's not changing in 2025.

Jeffery Simmons… The Edge Rusher?

Alright, moving on to something much more pertinent to the Titans football product this year: the defensive front. We saw Tennessee address the sudden retirement of Lorenzo Carter with the signing of EDGE/DL Jihad Ward on Wednesday evening, a move that was anticipated due to their need for depth on the end.

The Titans are signing EDGE Jihad Ward, per source. @Schultz_Report first.

Here is your replacement for Lorenzo Carter, who suddenly retired this week.

Ward fits Tennessee’s theme of getting bigger up front at 6’5 287lbs. He played nearly 500 snaps in all 17 games for the…

— Easton Freeze (@eastonfreeze) July 24, 2025

Ward is a big boy, and while he isn't going to revolutionize this front in any way, he constitutes badly needed depth. This Titans defensive line is made up of some very, very big individuals. And due to the lack of standout talent at EDGE, it's gotten people wondering: does a slimmed-down Jeffery Simmons make for a decent option lined up out wide? Brian Callahan weighed in on Big Jeff the EDGE:

I think Jeff’s (Simmons) got versatility to do all that. I think even some last year he rushed as an edge on different spots. So there’s— we didn’t do a ton of it, but Jeff’s got versatility and I think that’s what makes him unique.

There seems to me no doubt Jeffery Simmons needs to be the Titans best pass rusher this season, position agnostic. He's the only guy with reasonable superstar potential on that line, and they need him to be a game-wrecker like we often saw in 2021 and 2022. And at his trimmer size, he's reaching some impressive benchmarks:

“Well, he’s still a 300-pound human, you know? I would say ‘smaller’ is not the word I would use. I would say he got leaner, and I think that is the difference. His lean body mass and his strength are still exactly what it was 20 pounds heavier but he’s got different weight on him and I think his power is going to be the same but yesterday, I pointed it out in a team meeting, Jeff (Simmons) was running down coming out of the stack chasing the ball down and hit 18.2 miles an hour in practice, which for a man of his size is really impressive. And I that’s what you see from a guy that refined his body type and he’s become a little faster, but I don’t think he’s lost any power or strength by any stretch.”

So maybe big Jeff gets lined up over a tackle more often this year. It's certainly something to monitor. With the way they've built this room, there's no telling yet how they'll choose to deploy these guys.

Cody Barton Flying Around The Defense

One of the only players who really stood out in Thursday's practice was linebacker Cody Barton. He picked off Cam Ward early in the session, jumping a poorly thrown ball for what may have been a house call in a real game. We caught up with him after practice:

“It was a good day. I mean, it’s good to compete back and forth, But we had a talk yesterday as a defense and we felt like we weren’t dominant enough on the first day. And so I think as a group, a collective group, we decided today’s got to be something, that we’re gonna make that emphasis as a group to win. Take it one rep at a time, one play at a time. And then that collectively will just add up into a day’s win, I guess you could say. But yeah, today felt like it was a good day. There’s always things to improve and always things to correct, obviously. But a good foundation to build upon.”

Barton was supportive of his QB, saying this is the time to make these mistakes, and he's committed to helping identify the problems when he causes them.

“It’s just good to compete, and those kind of mistakes, I know they happen. But it’s good to have them in camp early for him to learn from them, okay? And we’ll talk later when the time comes and walk him about what I was seeing, what he was seeing. And how we can correct that going forward.”

Barton has been a standout early this summer, and it's not surprising to hear that he's really taking to DC Dennard Wilson's system.

“Yeah, I feel great in this defense. The way coach calls it, it lets you play fast. And I feel like that’s an attribute of mine and just, it’s a lot of fun.”

I've reached the point where I think we need to look out for Barton as one of the best players on this team who won't always get the buzz he deserves. The Titans really need him to anchor the heart of this defense, and so far, he looks like just the guy for the job.