The Tennessee Titans 7th overall draft pick from 2024 is headed into his sophomore campaign with a new position and a new look. When GM Mike Borgonzi went out and signed former Steelers LT Dan Moore in free agency, the decision to move Latham back over to right tackle (where he played at Alabama) was a no-brainer. And JC, ever the team player, was happy to oblige.
Latham appeared on the Bussin' With The Boys podcast in an episode filmed previously during OTAs and released this Monday. He and hosts Taylor Lewan and Will Compton got into more topics of discussion than I could count, and it's a really good listen if you're a Titans fan. Check it out in it's entirety right here.
One of the topics was Latham's dramatic physical transformation, which fans have been marveling at online ever since the Titans tackle posted pictures of his new physique on Instagram this spring.
Lewan asked Latham what the number one thing he needed to work on after his rookie season. "Well off the field, my weight" Was the easy answer. Lewan jumped in and asked what he's weighing now: "Now I'm 340. I'm good. Well, I'm not gonna say I'm 'good', I want to get down like 325 or 330lbs. Because I was 360lbs and the Titans were like, 'hey, we want you get down to 345lbs.'"
This is in line with what I had been told a few weeks ago and tweeted about, that Latham was a good 20-30 pounds lighter. However, I proved definitively that I am no carnival barker when it comes to guessing weights. I thought he was down 20-30lbs from the 340lb range, where he weighed-in at the Combine. I didn't realize he had gone the classic route of a fake, favorable combine weight that isn't close to what you plan on playing at (the Bryce Young special).
In fairness to me, who amongst you looked at these pictures and thought this was a 340lb man? I mean, this is a cut 340lbs. It sure helps to have a 6'6 frame to carry that weight on, but its still the trimmest 340lbs I've ever seen. I think it's fair to say that's a lot of muscle.
So why was Latham at 360lbs in the first place? Well, it wasn't on accident. That's what he played at in college, as he explained his thought process from a year ago:
"And honestly I don't want to sound cocky, but I remember (Nick) Saban saying the same thing when I hit 360lbs and all the strength coaches were like 'well he put on 15 pounds of muscle, so he's gonna be ok." And then they saw how I'm moving out there and Saban was like 'okay, he's good.' So having the thumbs-up approval from Saban, I was like I know how this is gonna go, They're gonna say I need to lose weight as soon, but as they see how I move out here They're gonna say I'm good. And then after a while I realized this is a different speed, so I definitely should lose weight."
I can understand why he felt he was fine at 360 based on his college play and how be began his NFL career. The first half of his season was really strong stuff. He shared where the turning point was for him, and when he realized it was time to start cutting weight.
I'm not saying I was playing good, But I was playing, like... honestly, good! I was thinking 'I don't think my weight's that much of an issue!' And I remember thinking that after we played the Chargers. I did a really good job in pass pro. And the only sacks that I remember, I know Bud (Dupree) had two and it was like off a late spin move as Will (Levis) was trying to escape the pocket... I remember thinking 'man, I just played on (Nick) Bosa and Bud Dupree and I've been doing good up until this point, I don't think my weight's an issue.' But from there, just, yeah. It was really bad."
To his credit, he clearly took getting back into shape seriously. It's impossible to ignore how good he looks right now, something some of his teammates shared at the podium last week. How it will impact his movement ability and athleticism on the right side is something I'm very curious to follow this year. He and his fellow linemen are already getting a laugh out of how he looked on some of last year's tape:
"Shortly after that we played Houston, and I played Will Anderson and you know Danielle Hunter and that's when I was like 'yeah, I gotta lose all this weight.' Because it affected everything like my get-off, my finishes down the field, whatever it may be. And we're in OTAs now, so we're watching the film from last year and everybody knows I lost weight, but we're just looking at that stuff just laughing because it's so blatant that I was too big."
Latham stands to be the best right tackle the Titans have had since Jack Conklin, and by a dramatic margin. How he makes the transition to that side and the leap he makes in Year 2 could dictate the ceiling of this revamped OL protecting Cam Ward.
