“It gets a little bit stale” – Brian Callahan looking to avoid team brain drain ahead of Titans Week 1 date against Denver Broncos
NASHVILLE — Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan is looking to keep his team mentally fresh heading into the NFL regular season. Following a 23-13 exhibition win over the Minnesota VIkings on Friday night, Callahan wants to spend time focused on internal improvement before pivoting to prep for Tennessee’s Week 1 date at the Denver […]
NASHVILLE — Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan is looking to keep his team mentally fresh heading into the NFL regular season. Following a 23-13 exhibition win over the Minnesota VIkings on Friday night, Callahan wants to spend time focused on internal improvement before pivoting to prep for Tennessee’s Week 1 date at the Denver Broncos.
Preparations have started for Denver, of course, but Callahan wants to avoid stagnation where he can.
Titans will spend one more week focused on themselves, before switching to Broncos homework
One could make the argument that a football team coming off of a 3-14 finish last year could stand to be over-prepared for an opponent.
Callahan, wrapping up the preseason with a press conference this weekend, explained why the Titans would operate the week before Week 1 as an extension of training camp.
“It’s not that it’s harmful,” Callahan said of diving into the team’s opening day opponent immediately. “It’s just that you get— you spend two weeks talking about one team and then three weeks talking about one team and then you’re right in the mix and you’re doing one every week after that. There’s a rhythm to it. You can spend too much time doing it, it gets a little bit stale and you’re just trying to get— is this ever going to come? It’s like these two weeks start to slow down a little bit in a sense.
“It is not harmful necessarily in any way. We’ve definitely done our work on Denver over the course of the summer. And we’re way ahead on that, the first couple of opponents as it is. So it’s just more about keeping your mentally sharp and fresh and the focus where it needs to be, especially right now. It’s still— we’ve got still things we’ve got to get better at fundamentally. And then we’re going to keep hammering those things, and then we’ll get the Denver prep when it’s time.”
Roster cuts are ongoing this week ahead of Tuesday’s 3 pm CT deadline.
Beyond that, Tennessee currently holds the No. 1 spot in the NFL’s waiver claim system, so additional churn will continue at length for the better part of the next month. Working through the personnel chaos is at the forefront while still trying to work on fundamentals and technique for those players that remain. Callahan still plans on a “small introduction” to Broncos prep work this week before the granular game-planning begins.
Featured Image: USA TODAY Sports.
