Titans Training Camp Notebook: Jeffery Simmons addresses ‘camp fight’, Van Jefferson talks about drop, Ward reps against Vikings?

The Tennessee Titans held their final padded practice of training camp before the final preseason game of the year this Friday night. They’ll practice in helmets and shells Wednesday morning, play the Vikings at home Friday, and then cutdown day is here next Tuesday. With just one week left before this 53-man roster takes shape, here’s a rundown of the three storylines from today’s practice you need to know about:

Ward vs. Simmons Scuffle Cleanup

We can mercifully put this news cycle to bed now that Coach Callahan and Jeffery Simmons answered any lingering questions on it today. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, Cam Ward and Jeffery Simmons got into a shoving match at the end of Monday’s (quite boring) practice. Here’s the rundown of what happened if you’re curious.

It was an exciting moment in so far as it was a camp fight between high profile players. Those are fun! They’re also a normal part of training camp. But some folks are determined to make them mean more, and so many questions were asked. Here’s what Brian Callahan had to say of the moment:

“I think it was a training camp push-and-shove and a little bit of loud barking and that was pretty much it for me. It’s late August and we’re ready to go play some real football, I think. And I think that’s pretty standard back and forth in this point of training camp. So I didn’t think too much of it. Guys got a little hot, tempers flared and we moved on.”

What about the decision not to throw Jeffery Simmons out of practice? This is something Callahan was questioned about last training camp too. You can tell he’s sick of talking about this:

“That’s not accurate at all. Look, I don’t know where this throwing out of practice thing came from. It’s pretty bothersome to be honest with you. I’ve worked in the league for 16 years with a lot of really good head coaches, and I’ve never seen a player thrown out of a training camp practice for some pushing and shoving and some cuss words. So it doesn’t register with me the same way. I don’t know what it’s been before here or anything like that. But I’ve coached a long time and I’ve been around training camps since I was 15 years old, and the amount of players I’ve seen thrown out of a practice is— I can’t even remember one that ever happened.”

And for posterity, here’s what Jeff Simmons had to say on the topic after practice. This is the statement he opened up with, before asking for football questions only after he finished:

“Hands off the quarterback. Anybody on this team knows, everybody in that locker room knows: I love the hell out of my guys. [expletive] happened at practice. People on the outside, you guys, y’all are blowing it up. It shouldn’t get blown up. It’s training camp, tempers flare, we move on, and at the end of the day, I can’t touch the quarterback. If we were at joint practice and somebody touched our quarterback, trust me, I’m gonna be the first one in there. So I respect the hell out of our offense for having their quarterback back, having our quarterback back. At the end of the day, it’s football. Offensive line, defensive line, in the trenches, it’s hot. Tempers flared, we all are tired. But at the end of the day, we’re family. We moved on from it, we’re not gonna keep talking about it each and every day. It happened yesterday, we came back to work as a team. Yesterday, we left it on the field.”

In a rare moment of speechlessness, I have nothing to add here. I do not care about this anymore and I do not think it matters. It was just an exciting moment in camp. If it’s your kind of thing, God bless ya. I’m moving on.

Van Jefferson Addresses The Drop

Here’s a topic that’s closer to mattering to the football product: Van Jefferson. Before talking about what actually matters here, I’ll share what Jefferson said to us today after practice. It was his first availability since the Atlanta game, in which he had… the preseason drop heard round the internet?

In the dog-piling that took place since that evening, there was a strange narrative that broke out about Jefferson not taking accountability for the play. I saw a whole lot of “I can’t believe Van blamed Cam for that ball!” which was strange, because I don’t know where that came from. Here’s what Jefferson had to say today, which firmly shuts that silliness down:

“Yea Coach Callahan called a great play, it was designed up, it was ran perfect. Cam threw a great ball, I didn’t make a play, that’s pretty much it.”

We asked Van what his discussion with Cam Ward was immediately after the play:

“He asked me how the ball was, I told him it was a great ball, and I should have came down with it, that’s pretty much it. And I could have kept my angle a little higher in order for me to run through it cleanly. But at the end of the day, he threw a great ball, and I gotta make the play.”

So why did Cam talk about what he could have done better on that play after the game?

“That’s the type of leader he is, the type of guy he is. Everybody says you gotta say the right things. I wouldn’t even have been mad if Cam had said that’s on me.”

Cool, I’m happy we can put that one to rest as well. Jefferson even had a good bounceback day of practice, catching all three passes sent his way by Cam Ward. Now, as for his actual role on this team in 2025: he’s not getting cut. I wrote about how he was a roster lock back in the spring, and that hasn’t changed because of a couple mediocre weeks of training camp.

The disconnect here is his assumed role. So many folks seem to think he’s a starter on this team, which has just never been the case. Maybe he’s technically listed as a starter early in the season on the depth chart. But that won’t long be the reality on the field, and has never been the ultimate role he was brought in to play. Jefferson is veteran depth, plain and simple.

Will Starters Play In Preseason Finale?

Finally, here’s what we know about the Titans plans for starters in the preseason finale this weekend. Brian Callahan gave us this at his pre-practice presser:

“Not fully, we’re going to get through practice today, see where we’re at. I do think the intent is to still play football a little bit with our starters. How much remains to be seen, that’ll kind of be determined over the next day or two. But they definitely will be— most of those guys will play and then there’ll be a handful of select guys that we won’t. But got to play a little more football.”

If Cam Ward & Co. play as much or more as they did in the first two games, they would be bucking the league-wide trend in recent years. Almost every team the past couple season has played their starters the least in Preseason Week 3, with many resting them entirely.