Titans Training Camp Notebook: The biggest reason for optimism after two days of joint practice vs falcons, road trip review
The Tennessee Titans held their second and final joint practice in Flowery Branch, Georgia against the Falcons on Wednesday. If you missed the first notebook on Day 2, click here for all the details on Cam Ward and fighting at practice. Here’s the rest of what you need to know: a big bright spot, the […]
The Tennessee Titans held their second and final joint practice in Flowery Branch, Georgia against the Falcons on Wednesday. If you missed the first notebook on Day 2, click here for all the details on Cam Ward and fighting at practice.
Here’s the rest of what you need to know: a big bright spot, the point of the road trip, and running out of time.
The Biggest Reason For Optimism
There are a lot of glaring concerns on this Titans team. Depth pretty much across the board is at the top of the list. Playmakers are another big one. but one area in which I’m confident in both the starters and (mostly) in the backups is the offensive line. Every time I watch or think about this team, one of the only comforting things about the roster is what I beleive is a very strong offensive line unit. Cam Ward agrees:
“I think the O-line and D-line bring that everyday to practice, whether we play against ourselves or are going against another opponent. And I think that’s gonna be our standpoint the whole year, and, you know, even into the future. Those guys are probably gonna be the reason why we win a lot of games.”
Well, I at least agree with the offensive line part of that! Ward went on to praise his group of big men protecting him:
“The O-line, I don’t have to worry about that. That’s always gonna be the standpoint for those guys. They bring the energy every day, especially starting with JC (Latham), so I’m excited to be behind those guys’ pass protection. They keep me clean. Really, 8 times out of 10, I won’t be able to take a bad sack this year. And they’re gonna give up some sacks this year, but we’ve just gotta continue to play.”
I’ve been pretty firm in my belief in this offensive line this summer. I think they will be good. They should be good on paper. Anything less than average or better once the season gets rolling will be a disappointment to me. And when you’re good in the trenches, it opens up the playbook of possibilities for your quarterback and the rest of the unit.
Reviewing The Titans Road Trip
Today was the 8th day of a 10-day road trip for the Titans in training camp, and we got the chance to ask Brian Callahan how the trip has gone in his eyes:
“I think I’ve gotten everything I want out of this road trip, and I think that’s part of it. There’s a little bit of the adversity factor that you’re trying to get comfortable with, and you’re trying to get comfortable being uncomfortable. And there’s going to be times in the season where you’re going to look back and the feelings are going to be familiar. And that’s the idea, to make it challenging, make it hard. Not being in our normal surroundings, not being in our own beds, all of those things, is part of the process of it. And I think that part’s been great. There’s been some days that we’ve got to clean up from an execution standpoint in practice. I don’t necessarily attribute the practice to that. But yeah, are guys tired? Yeah, of course. That’s the idea. It’s training camp. It’s supposed to be hard. And I think that’s the idea of the whole trip, that’s a key component of it. We’re going to go through some hard stuff. And so that’s what we’re doing now. And then you have a chance to draw upon some of these experiences. Because inevitably every season, no matter how good your football team is, you go through challenges. And you’re going to go through hardships. And you’re going to have things that you have to overcome. And the more you can put yourself in those positions, the better off, I think, you’re going to be in the long run. So it’s all part of the process to me when it comes to being on the road and feeling like everything’s not hunky-dory and we’re all having a good time, like it’s supposed to be hard.”
You can choose to chalk it up to good reason or cope in your own mind, but this is the reality. This camp has been long and hard on purpose for the Titans. Maybe it will be impactful for them this year. Maybe it won’t. But the design of the road trip was to be exactly how it seemed in Atlanta: hard. LB Cedric Gray chimed in after practice on his thoughts about the trip:
“I think one of the biggest things that I love that (coach Callahan) is doing this year is really trying to establish a culture and a standard within our team. Just the different things that he talks about in the team meetings, of what we’re going to be about. He talked about how this trip should bring us together. This has been a 10 day trip. We came straight from Tampa, straight here, so just trying to get everybody to build a culture and come closer together.”
Running Out Of Time
I touched on this in a Day 1 notebook, but we got a couple of good comments from coaches and players on Wednesday on this topic I felt were worth sharing. The Titans are, in fact, running out of time before Week 1 is upon us. Here is what Brian Callahan said about this team’s preparedness to face the Denver Broncos on September 7th:
“Yeah, of course not. We’re not ready yet. I mean, I don’t think anybody’s ready to play real football yet. That’s every team in the league right now, but you’re trying to stack as many good days as possible. You’re trying to keep performing better every time you step out there. And that’s where we’re at. I mean, it’s time. It’s getting close to time to go. And we and we got to feel that. I think our team does. There’s, there’s a there’s an imminent beginning here, coming very quickly. We got the roster down in what two weeks, you know, it’s coming. The season’s coming, and we’ve, we’ve got work to do still, and we’re not alone in that. But, you know, we got to get ready to go.
LB Cody Barton echoed this sentiment of urgency:
“It’s coming quick. I think we have like five or six more practices until it’s the regular season. So now is the time. These first few weeks have been a lot of hitting, a lot of trash talk, a lot of physicality, all that stuff. And now it’s really time to hone in on the details, the little things. And there’s gonna be mistakes from all of us every single day of practice, things that we’re gonna correct, things that we’re gonna fix, things you’ve never seen before. But the biggest thing is, as these things pop up, it’s just honing in on the details and correcting these little things. So over the course of the whole season, as we keep learning as a team and growing as a team, all these little things don’t come to bite us in the ass down the road, you know what I mean?”
Tennessee Titans News
Titans Joint Practice Notebook: Cam Ward clearly has a different set of rules behind the microphone than every other team employee
To recap Day 2 in joint practice against the Falcons, let’s dive into Cam Ward’s unique stance at the podium, a bounceback day, and a whole lot of fighting!
