The Tennessee Titans have begun the padded portion of Training Camp, which means football players are actually hitting one another again! Aside from the general excitement of strapping on the shoulder pads for the first time in front of fans, there were some interesting storylines to emerge from the fourth day of open practice. Here's what you need to know in the Titans' world today:
Dennard Wilson’s Difficult Defensive Scheme
I think Dennard Wilson is a very good defensive coordinator. Now, the performance of his unit last year doesn’t exactly bear that out, especially how they played down the stretch. But I think within the context of the pieces he was working with, and the positions he was put in, we saw the makings of somebody who absolutely knows how to run a defense if you give him workable tools.
I can’t say that the Titans have exactly done that this offseason, though. The EDGE, LB, and CB rooms all have some serious questions we’re in the middle to trying to answer right now. but at Tuesday’s padded practice—and really all throughout the beginning of Training Camp so far—the strength of his scheme has been on display.
Tennessee has hammered 3rd down, situational periods the past week. As one person with the team put it to me on the side: “we need it. If you want to be good, you have to do hard things… also need to fail.” In talking with Titans coaches, the constant 3rd down situations they’re practicing—which are naturally advantageous positions for the defense to find themself in—are more complicated than Cam Ward and company will face much if at all this year.
Outside of Todd Bowles, who Dennard Wilson cut his teeth under, there’s an internal belief that just about nobody in the NFL is doing it like Dennard Wilson is doing it with exotic blitz looks. This passes the eye test at least anecdotally at practice. There’s nothing straightforward about the junk Wilson is throwing at Cam pre- or post-snap. The construction of the defensive line (more uniform in size: heavy) and the versatility of the players up the spine at LB and S really lends to this approach.
Now, let’s see if enough of the question mark players trying to execute pan out to make it matter.
Padded Practice Reveals Stars In The Trenches
I think the Titans have two young studs on their offensive line, which is something I haven’t been able to say in a very long time. On Day 1 in pads, they both absolutely looked the part.
Today was the first time we got to see offensive and defensive linemen face off in one-on-one drills. Now, this is an imperfect exercise. Effective trench play is just as much about chemistry and teamwork as it is beating the one man in front of you. But it does give you a good look at weight classes so to speak, as well as techniques and movement ability.
Watching all fifty-ish reps of one’s today, no players on either side of the ball stood out to me like Peter Skoronski and JC Latham.
I think Peter Skoronski is this team’s best pass protector, and I’m not sure it’s particularly debatable. He finished the back-half of the 2024 season as one of highest graded pass protectors in the entire league. He was fantastic in that phase, even as the OL situation around him deteriorated. He looked like absolute nails again today. I think there’s a chance this season shuts up the crowd still angry about taking him so highly in the draft in the first place.
And then there’s JC Latham, comfortably in 2nd on this roster in terms of protectors. You can already see his improved movement ability due to his weight loss in my opinion. He looks nimble, yet no less strong. That remains my only concern: his superpower has always been his unbeatable anchor. Hopefully cutting all that weight didn’t alter that, and so far, it doesn’t seem to have.
Stock Up, Stock Down
There are a handful of notable players who I'm sure I'll write about in greater detail soon, but I didn't want to wait too long into training camp to at least mention them and what makes them notable. So here are a couple more names that continue to stick out, for better or for worse:
Rookie tight end Gunnar Helm was impressive during OTA's, but was relatively unimpressive in the opening pad-less first week of Training Camp. Once the pads came on today, though, he came back to life. He had a very impressive day in all phases of the tight end game. let's see if he keeps it up.
On the exact opposite side of that coin, some narrative momentum for rookie EDGE Femi Oladejo had been building last week. Head Coach Brian Callahan spoke at the podium over the weekend about Oladejo being further along than they had anticipated at this point. But in his first padded practice, the raw rusher showed his greenness. In one-on-ones, it looked like he hardly even had a first move. His skillset needs to continue to sharpen and diversify.
At linebacker alongside Cody Barton, it's been the James Williams show. the very tall former safety has pretty much been the guy so far in Training Camp, and I'm getting close to flat-out expecting him to be the starter in that role.
