Titans OTAs Notebook: Cam Ward’s lackluster week in review, Brian Daboll is creating tight end intrigue, attendance news
The Titans finished up open OTAs on Thursday, propelling us into Mandatory Minicamp next week. Here are the big picture storylines you need to know about.
Goodbye OTAs and hello Mandatory Minicamp. Thursday was the third and final OTA practice open to the Titans beat before next week’s mandatory summer sendoff, and I have three big-picture takeaways you need to know:
Cam Ward wasn’t good this week, and that’s ok
On the whole, quarterback Cam Ward has an underwhelming week. There were some really nice throws and really nice moments of operation sprinkled in there. There was some clear miscommunication in there. And there were some bad misses sprinkled in there. It was far from disastrous. But the growing pains are real for the most important Titans sophomore.
The summer is strange, especially pre-padded practices. There are countless examples of stars having terrible weeks, sometimes even months. And there are always summer camp mirage players who can’t hang on actual Sundays. Parsing through the noise to find real signal is tricky.
That’s why my default is to observe climate, not weather. That’s the boring way to do it, which makes for less dramatic radio and takes a lot more patience. But I think it’s the right way. His struggles will be meaningful if they continue. It will be meaningful if he is volatile week to week and doesn’t show progress in key areas. But that takes a lot more data points. So I find his struggles this week to be something, but hardly everything. If Cam Ward looks like a superstar next week, I will have this same caliber of response.
One think I simply have to point out for those who are going to compare the counting stats of Ward, Levis, and Trubisky: I badly want to see a time to throw on these guys this week. Because frankly, I keep finding myself thinking “well at least Cam is trying to get the ball out quickly”.
Trubisky and Levis are definitely extending plays longer than Ward is on average. At times, “completions” feel like egregious instances of “un-sackable farming”. And more power to them, do what you do. work the play, try to improve in the best way you can. But we need to speak truth on this when comparing the QBs this week. Cam has been far from impressive, don’t get it twisted. But he’s trying to get the ball out.
Gunnar Helm, Daniel Bellinger will be interesting to watch in Daboll’s scheme
I’m pretty excited to see how OC Brian Daboll uses his tight ends this year!
Two weeks ago, TE Daniel Bellinger took to the podium and talked about how he’s willing, able, and planning on doing the dirty work for this team. The insinuation there is that second year TE Gunnar Helm will be freed up to do more receiving work in turn.
Based on what I’ve seen from how Bellinger is being used in practice, I like the way their maximizing his athleticism and grit with creativity. And I like what that means for Helm.
Helm took to the podium on Thursday and shared who he has been watching on Daboll’s team tape.
“Daboll’s not afraid to use the tight end, did so wherever he’s been,” the young TE1 explained. “There’s been great clips of (Rob) Gronkowski, Dalton Kincaid, Dawson Knox just doing things that usually you see receivers do.”
Head coach Robert Saleh said before practice that Helm looks like a real dude and seemed excited by him making a second year leap.
In an NFL landscape increasingly defined by offenses’ ability to maximize two tight end sets, I like that the Titans seem to have big plans for these two.
Important OTA attendance notes
First, make sure you’re sitting down before you receiver this important news: Carnell Tate lives. After missing Tuesday’s practice with what was ultimately a precautionary absence for a minor bump or bruise on Monday, he returned as a full participant Thursday. I asked him how he’s feeling, and he said he’s doing great. No worries there!
Second, let me be the first to say I was wrong to assume earlier this week that CB Cor’Dale Flott was among those choosing not to participate in voluntary OTAs. Head coach Robert Saleh explained before Thursday’s practice that Flott was here early on, got hurt, and has been recovering since. We haven’t seen but momentary glimpses of him on the periphery of the facility, so I thought he was doing the veteran thing. He is not. My bad!
It seems the only players who haven’t participated at all in the voluntary portion of OTAs are Jefffery Simmons and John Franklin-Myers. CB Alontae Taylor has been largely absent from team practice, though we saw him just a bit very early on weeks ago. I’ll reiterate what I wrote in a notebook earlier this week on the topic: I personally do not care much at all about this common sticking point for fans and media. Do what makes you the best person and player. But I know how it often looks when you miss, and how it gets used against you in hindsight if things go poorly. So each player has to make their own choice on that front. Mercifully, next week’s practices are mandatory. So we should see everybody who is healthy.