Titans coach Robert Saleh opened his first Tennessee training camp with a clear message: this camp is going to feel different.

Saleh addressed reporters Tuesday at the Titans’ opening press conference ahead of Wednesday’s official start, and the picture he painted should have every player on the roster bracing for a grueling preseason in Nashville.

The first-year Titans coach laid out a philosophy rooted in process, competition, and an all-or-nothing approach that represents an adjustment  from recent camps under previous coaching staffs.

Saleh wants one of the hardest camps in the league

Saleh made no attempt to sugarcoat what’s coming. He told reporters the team has coordinated across every department to prepare players for the grind ahead.

“I feel like we’ve done a really good job communicating with all the departments, whether it’s strength and conditioning, training, performance, nutrition,” Saleh said. “Just educating our guys on what they need to do over the course of the 40 days to get themselves ready for training camp.”

Then came the line that should grab everyone’s attention: “I do think this will be one of the more difficult, trying training camps for our guys,” Saleh said. “There’s going to be a lot of volume. There’s going to be a lot of contact. There’s going to be a lot of strenuous days with the 3 scrimmages we have. We’re playing in the preseason games, so we’re going to get a lot of volume. We’re going to get a lot of opportunities to see our guys operate on a day-to-day basis, and we’ve got what I feel is a really, really good game plan to get us peaking at training camp, peaking when training camp ends, and to allow us to build the armor that’s required to survive a 17-week season.”

Reading the tea leaves from what I’ve heard around the building this summer, this tracks with what people inside the organization have been expecting. Saleh’s management style appears to be binary when it comes to player health. If a player would be able to suit up for a game, he’s going full speed. If he can’t go, he’s sitting out. There won’t be much of the half-speed, selective-participation ramp-up that Tennessee has seen in past camps.

Saleh confirmed as much when asked to elaborate. If you can’t go, you can’t go. But he also acknowledged reality.

“At the same time, after the first day in pads, there isn’t a single player on the roster that is healthy for the rest of the year,” Saleh said. “They’re hurt, they’re dinged, they’re bruised. You have all those things and you just have to differentiate whether you’re injured and you can’t go, whether it’s a nick or a bruise.”

Roster competition will feature heavy rotation

The other takeaway from Saleh’s opening presser was how Tennessee plans to handle its open roster battles. Fans and media following camp should prepare for a lot of shuffling across the depth chart, because Saleh made clear that first-team reps on any given day won’t necessarily reflect the pecking order.

“In OTAs we deliberately split the reps evenly between the 1s, 2s, and 3s,” Saleh said. “Obviously it’s going to be distributed a little differently here in training camp, whether the 1s and 2s are split evenly and then the 3s will pick up half knowing that they’re going to get a lot of extra playing time in the preseason. But it’s an open competition. Just because you’re taking the first team reps today, it doesn’t mean you’ll take first team reps tomorrow.”

Saleh added that we should expect to see players who clearly aren’t projected starters still rotating in with the ones, all in the name of thorough evaluation.

“Sure, you guys are going to see guys who you know aren’t going to be the starters still taking first-team reps just so we can decide whether or not that person’s capable of being an NFL player,” Saleh said. “There’s going to be a whole lot of moving parts, just to make sure that we’re evaluating to make the best 53-player (roster), to select the best 53 players we can.”

Setting the tone

As for the general expectations Saleh has for the culture he’s building, he summed it up with an instant classic.

“I’ve always said that confidence is always projected in the volume of your voice,” Saleh said. “By the end of training camp, I hope we’re loud as s**t.”

The Titans get started Wednesday. If Saleh’s words are any indication, it’s going to be a camp worth paying close attention to.