Takeaways from Titans Training Camp Week 1: Cam Ward, Cody Barton, Femi Oladejo, and MORE!

Takeaways from Titans Training Camp Week 1: Cam Ward, Cody Barton, Femi Oladejo, and MORE!

The first week of Tennessee Titans 2025 training camp is in the books. How has Cam Ward looked? We’re going to talk about his overall performance this week. Famol Dejo is making plays. Do the Titans have a solution at edge rusher and do they also have a coverage linebacker. We’re going to talk about all that and more. Some transactions the team made. This is the Music City Audible. Let’s get to it. Oh, welcome everyone to another episode of the Music City Audible podcast presented by Sinkers Beverages, the premier wine, spirits, and beer store in East Nashville in partnership with 440 Sports. I’m Justin Graver. With me as always, Justin Melo. Justin, how’s it going? Doing well. Doing well. We’re what? Officially two open. Oh, we’re already hitting me with the damn thing. I always say doing well twice. Someone commented on it. I say it in real life, too, by the way. My neighbors see me. How you doing? Doing well. Doing well. Can’t complain. You can’t complain. Uh I’ll tell you who can’t complain. The Tennessee Titans. Their two days uh two training camp practices in the books open media sessions. Fans were out there. They were getting autographs. Uh two I don’t want to call them uneventful sessions, but I’m not going to lie, I’m following other teams around the league and like fans are going crazy posting these incredible clips and Jamar Chase made a one-handed touchdown grab. like Titans have been pretty lowkey by comparison, but excited to talk about Thursday’s practice cuz that’s the one we haven’t gotten to yet. Uh, lots to recap regarding what happened on Thursday. Yeah, Thursday. We’re going to look at the week as a whole. We definitely will put a specific focus on Thursday because we didn’t get a chance to talk about it. Titans, as far as we know, this is unclear. As far as we know, they are on the field on Friday as well working on third downs. That’s what Brian Callahan said in his Thursday press conference was that he said, quote, “Tomorrow we’re going to work on third downs. Saturday we’re going to work on red zone.” So, the Titans also practicing another open practice Saturday morning at Nissan Stadium. A really cool thing that they they do kind of every year. Um hopeful hopefully some of our listeners or viewers can get out there and watch that practice. It’s going to be a really fun atmosphere at Nissan Stadium. Working red zone, so you hope to see a lot of touchdowns depending on your viewpoint. Again, it’s always hard to judge this. This is how I want to open this like review of the week and this is kind of cliche and we’ve talked about this many years in a row, but it’s always hard to be like, “Oh, Cody Barton got an interception. Do we do the Titans have a linebacker that can cover?” But because on the other side you’re like, “Ah, our rookie quarterback first overall pick threw an interception. Should we feel bad about that?” It’s like everything you want to feel good about, there’s also a reason to feel bad about on the other side of the ball because they’re practicing against themselves. But um we can we will luckily they will have joint practices coming up in a few weeks. Uh, I think there’s three joint practices, one with the Bucks and two with the Falcons. Or maybe I have that backwards. Um, that we’ll actually get them a chance to see them against another team, so that’ll be fun. But for now, we can evaluate them against themselves and talk about this in a way that is both positive and negative without being too, you know, straddling the fence line with it. Um, as we get into Yeah, let’s start with before we get into Thursday’s practice. Justin, let’s just cover this really quick so we don’t have to talk about it anymore. Titans wave Colton Dowel. They sign Matt Landers. Uh, good luck. Matt Landers, welcome to the roster. You’re not going to make the team. I mean, let’s be real. Colton Dal wasn’t going to make the team. This is backend wide receiver turnurning. This isn’t anything really to obsess over or get that excited about in my opinion. Maybe he makes some plays in the preseason because he’s a huge dude. But, I mean, you want to talk about Matt Landers for 30 seconds and then we can move on to other stuff. Yeah, he played at Arkansas, was in the 2023 draft. I remember him well. I interviewed him throughout that process. uh 6’4, 200 lb, 437, huge vertical, huge broad. Heath Colton Dowel, but maybe slightly younger, right? Like they’re taking a chance on a heightweight speed guy. And they’re doing that by replacing a heightweight speed guy who they always know what he is, right? Like they’re just replacing a guy with another version of him, a younger version. That’s all nice. Under the shot clock. Good job. Um so there you go. That that just under pressure. Remember when you gave yourself your own shot clock? You couldn’t do it? I Yes. We don’t have to re We don’t have to rehash that. That was not That was not my best moment. Um All right. That we uh that’s more back end of wide receiver competition. One other big uh free not free agency roster move. I don’t know if how big it is really, but the Titans notable Matt Landers definitely more notable than Matt Landers. This guy will make the team and he will play during the season. The question is how much will he play? Is he going to be a rotational guy? Titans signed Jihad Ward, an outside linebacker who is a what 11-year veteran or something like that. Played last year with Minnesota. Played all 17 games and appeared in the playoff game as well. 31 pressures on the season, only one sack. The Titans, you know, Lorenzo Carter retires. I feel like Jihad Ward is almost a like for-like replacement for Lorenzo Carter in terms of size, what they did last season, and what their role is going to be on this team. Yeah, I agree. This does feel like the Lorenzo Carter replacement. What I found interesting about him is the Vikings were a really good defense last year. Yeah, you know, the sack numbers, the pressures maybe don’t fully pressures weren’t bad at 31, but doesn’t fully jump off the screen. When I went to go do a little digging, uh he played 41% of the Vikings defensive snaps last year. So, he was on the field with a fair amount of regularity for a really good defense, a Brian Flores coach defense. He’s got good size, about 6’5, 265. Uh as you said, Lorenzo Carter replacement. They’ve made a a transition to try to get bigger and stouter on the edge this year. I think Jahad Ward is going to play some of those early down run stopping snaps. You know, maybe he plays 30 35% for them this season, especially with guys like Ardan Keane not being, you know, a terrific early down run guy. TBD on Femiola Dejo like I think Jad Ward’s going to do some of that dirty work. When I you do a Twitter search of his name, you can find Remember that? Did you see this? the the game the Giants beat the Titans week one that year. What was it? 2022 I think it was. Yeah, I think it was three years ago where we thought the Titans were going to be good that year and they weren’t. But, uh, we thought they were going to be good. That was a huge upset in week one. Uh, Dererick Henry did not have a great game. Jiod Ward had a ton of run stops on Derrick Henry in that game, like setting the tone early. So, yeah, this one’s a bit more notable. He is going to make the team in my opinion. He’ll be that fourth edge rusher just like Lorenzo Carter was going to be. Uh to make room for him, they cut I’m gonna You didn’t want to say it because you’re hiding your hookum fandom. You’re trying to hide this one. They cut Keandre Coburn, the nose tackle out of Texas. Uh as it horns what what is it? Horns down because of that one. I’m kicking you out of the stream if you do that again. I I thought I didn’t know. I thought it was like it’s for a negative thing. Uh no, they they cut Ke I was surprised by this and I think you were too. Um, even Paul Kaharski who who kind of broke this tweeted about it being surprised like I had Keandre Cobborn making the 53 and then they cut him on the second day of camp. And what Paul Gowarski tweeted was I get the impression they know what his ceiling is and they want to get they got four UDFA defensive tackles. They want to give those reps to the UDFA see if they have a higher ceiling. what Paul said and this was opinion based and I agree seems kind of shortsighted to cut this guy on your second day like that should be reserved for like your worst player on the whole 90man roster and I kind of agree with that like you look they cut Colton Dowel who we think didn’t have a chance at all and I thought had a chance so I was a bit surprised by that move the younger guys a chance I think our our buddy Wes wisely put this pretty well that like maybe they just want to give him a chance to go stick on a roster somewhere versus, you know, waiting till towards the end of camp when teams are like, well, we’re pretty set. This guy might be better, but we’re not sure. Now, it’s like, let’s bring him in and see if he’s better. And I think Keandre Coburn will definitely land on an NFL roster. I feel I feel sad for myself as a Longhorn fan, but I feel sad for Tvandre Sweat who played at Texas with Coburn and they had like the friendship thing going on last season, but whatever. I think they were locker mates, I think. Yeah. Yeah. But, um, he’ll get over it. You know, it’s pro pro football. This is the the life of the NFL. It is a business at the end of the day. So, we’ll see what Jihad Ward brings to the team and then we’ll see if any of these defensive tackles can kind of show him something that makes an argument for making the roster. I think what the result what this kind of tells me, and I don’t want to spend too long on this, but what this kind of might tell me is that they maybe had been doing some number looking at the numbers at the position groups and everything and thinking we’re only going to keep four defensive tackles. We’re not going to keep five. We’re not going to keep Kandre Coburn because the four guys are Simmons, Sweat, Sebastian Joseph Day, and James Lynch. So maybe that’s where the motivation to cut him was along with letting him latch on to a little light in my opinion. Like I had five on my 53. I think four is light and they got a ton of other DTS right now. Like I said four UDFAs. They got Carlos Watkins like a nine-year veteran who’s trying to make the team as well. Like they still got enough numbers. They brought in Timothy Horn the other day. Like they’ve got enough numbers to get to five. But we’ll see. Yeah, we will see. All right, let’s get into training camp stuff that actually happened on the field versus transactions. And I want to talk about Cam Ward’s overall performance through two days, but also specifically what happened on Thursday because I think the he said it was mostly uneventful. Like the one event was Cam Ward throwing another interception to Cody Barton, Cody Barton’s third interception since the team started practicing back in May and Cam Ward’s fourth interception since he started practicing as a Tennessee Titan. But um I want to talk about his numbers overall, his completion percentage and all this stuff that doesn’t really matter. JJ Watt had a pretty viral tweet about how training camp stats are stupid and no one should track them. And uh I agree with that mostly that they’re stupid and that they don’t mean anything, but I also like that they are being tracked because while they don’t mean anything about the season coming up, they’re interesting. At least they give us something to talk about right now and some like baseline expectation. So Cam Board uh famously said Wednesday’s practice for the offense was quote mid and Thursday’s practice was widely reported as the defense won the day. And despite th those things like the offense hasn’t had like a great day at training camp yet. Granted, it’s only been two practices. I know that they’ve had a good day, but yeah. Oh yeah, I agree. Um two practices though and potentially a third one on Friday that we’re still trying to get confirmation if that’s actually happening. Um but Cam Ward’s numbers in those two days, 21 of 31. He was nine of 14 on Thursday according to Jim Wyatt’s observations. Like that’s for if that’s a bad day. Nine of 14 is a bad day. I understand he threw an interception. There’s no touchdowns because they’re not working down near the goal line. They’re not driving the field. You know, they’re working on specific installations of certain parts of the offense and stuff, but um and the quick game that they were working on. Quick game is not going to lead to a ton of touchdowns, right? But uh that’s pretty good for your bad day. Like if that’s your bad day, what’s your good day? 14 of 14. I guess Cam Ward did have what was a day where he had threw 18 straight completions. So I guess that is what your good day looks like. But I’m encouraged if this is what a bad day looks like for Cam Ward. I mean his interception came on the first rep of seven on seven and there’s a clip circulating social media Twitter. You guys have probably seen it. I’ll put it right here on screen so everyone can see it. Go ahead. Looks like he throws it right at Cody Barton and it was his first drop back of seven on seven. Cody Barton’s third interception as you said, but when does your video drop of this interception being thrown on purpose to Cody Barton? Is that is that coming later today or I will say I don’t think this was thrown on purpose. Um although I will also say if as we look at the video here uh there’s no receiver anywhere near I mean we can’t this is not a great angle. It’s a terrible interception at all. It’s a terrible interception. The throw is late. It floats over the middle of the field. It doesn’t have really any zip on it. But if you stare down Cody Barton, you can tell this is not an on purpose cuz Barton is sort of, you know, running across the side of the field into the passing lane to pick this thing off. But it’s not a good throw. Jiga Conquo is open in the flat to the to Cam Ward’s right. He never looks his way. I guess was maybe it wasn’t part of the progression or Cam Ward didn’t understand where his progression was supposed to go based on the coverage or something got lost on this play and they will look at it. These are the these are good moments to have in training camp because Callahan, Bo Hardigree, Nick Holtz, Brandon Allen, they can sit in the film room with Cam Ward and be like, “Okay, what were you looking at here? Why what led you to this throw? What led you away from Chika Conquo wide open in the flat and they will get to the bottom of what went wrong on this play?” And I do think it’s worth pointing out that he throws this interception on the first rep of practice, but goes on to have a I mean, for the rest of the day, he was nine of 13 after that interception. So that’s pretty I mean that’s a good that shows his ability to bounce back which we saw so much at Miami as he would throw first half interceptions that got his team in a hole and then lead them on multi-score comebacks to go win these games. So I do think that’s part of who Cam Ward is. Maybe it takes him a little bit to like warm up or get into it and that’s okay because you want to be your best in the fourth quarter, not necessarily in the first quarter. And so that all that stuff is encouraging to me. But yes, at the end of the day this is not a good pick but it’s a good learning moment. Yeah, I mean look it’s training camp, right? We’re not going to second training camp practice. We’re not going to panic over it. We’re not going to worry. It’s a bad pick. It’s a teachable moment. Like Cody Baron had a great quote after practice where he said, “Him and I will get together. We’ll talk about it. I want to know what he saw. I’m going to tell him what I saw, what led to it.” And by the way, he almost got him a second time. Like he had a PDU, I believe, later on that same drive. That was almost his second interception of the day. And you or maybe it was another drive, but it was on board. Yeah. No. Um, I just wanted to bring that up cuz I think that play also made it to Twitter. Unless Cody Barton had another nice PBU at that one, so I I saw it and to me calling this an almost interception is extremely generous to Cody Barton. This is like a classic pass breakup. So, I mean, he was close to being there in time to pick it off, but he was really getting there as the ball was arriving and knocking it down unless he had a third play. Yeah, go ahead. You did say after practice though, I haven’t seen it so I’ll take your word for it, but he did say, “I’ll think more about the one I missed than the one that I made.” So, okay, he felt like he had a chance. I mean, guys always feel like maybe, but he it’s not like he felt like he had a chance at it. So, we’ll we’ll quickly touch like Cody Baron’s been good, man. He’s been as advertised. Yeah, he’s been I mean, he’s been everything the Titans. Before we move on to Cody Barton, sorry, let’s finish up with Cam Ward here because there were some nice throws that were noted him having as well a dart to Van Jefferson early and Jim Wyatt said he found him again later. Van Jefferson’s getting run with the with the ones. I think there’s a real chance that he could potentially be a starter on opening day. He’s been been the opening camp starter so far and everyone’s rotating in. But I do think when we get to opening day, it’s going to be Jefferson and Lockett alongside Calvin Ridley. Cam Ward on Wednesday, we missed this. I wanted to just note it that he threw a reportedly a very nice ball into a very tight window up high for Calvin Ridley to go up and get over a defender. And those are the kind of confidence building throws that you love to hear about because it builds on his connection with Ridley and it allows him to understand, okay, that’s a window I can get. I’ve been watching quarterback. Justin, have you watched quarterback yet? I just finished it actually. Yeah. Okay, great. I’m I I’m almost done with it, but I haven’t quite made it there. But I just watched the episode Joe Burrow talking about now or never throws and so much of what he was talking about made me think of Cam Ward and just like it made me hope that Cam Ward is watching quarterback to like pick up some of the training techniques like Joe Burrow’s working with a physical trainer on his own time like in the morning or on his off day. I think it was probably on a Monday because the rigors of getting beat up during an NFL season are like a lot to handle. And I just hope that Cam Ward is watching this to like pick up tips and habits and routines from all these veterans and just to understand what life is like as an NFL quarterback. But anyway, the now or never throws where it’s like you got to get the ball out of your hand and you don’t know like sometimes these are risky throws that could end up in as interceptions, but they can also end up as big plays. And those are the kind of throws that I that we are hoping Cam Ward is going to excel at and that he did excel at at Miami. And I think this one to Ridley was an example. So, I wanted to bring it up before we move on and talk about Cody Barton. Yeah, Barton’s been terrific, man. And I want to quickly mention friend of the show, James Foster at No Flags Film, who’s a certified psychopath. You know, when the Titans signed Cody Barton, I’m pretty confident he went through every single rep. Cody Barton played last year, probably more than one year. And he came back to us and said, “This guy was good last year.” Like, both as a run defender and in coverage. Like James’ opinion was a bit different than everyone else’s. He’s like, you know, the typical, oh, good in run coverage, but, you know, not great in the passing game. James liked him in the passing game. So, there were some athletic limitations in man coverage, but thought he was pretty good all things considered. I mean, again, tracking stats and all that, but three picks for Cody Barton this summer. I think it does say a little something. Probably not all a fluke or a coincidence. Far and away the Titans best linebacker. Uh, you’re seeing more and more every day uh why Mike Borgansi was so excited to go and get this guy. And speaking of the linebackers, James Williams, again, still getting first team reps, but Cedric Gray has also been out there. And according to Taylor Zarzo, am I saying that right? The Titans new playbyplay guy, who is a great Twitter follow. If you’re not following him on Twitter, he’s been like responding to fans questions about what he saw at training camp and like posting great content. Yes, he is. So, go follow Taylor. I don’t know if I’m saying his name right. We’ll we’ll figure it out one day. But um he said that Cedric Gray has looked really good too and that he’s excited to see how this competition shakes out. And then Brian Callahan on Thursday pretty much said what you and I have been saying which we took from what he said longer ago but he said it again which is that um the linebacker competition is not going to be decided until the pads come on. And I think we know that but it’s worth reminding people who are getting excited about James Williams. Like it doesn’t mean James Williams won’t win the job. It just means that what we’re seeing right now doesn’t hold nearly as much weight as what we’re going to see in a couple weeks when the pads do come on. So, finding Cody Barton’s running mate is going to be, you know, priority one of this defense during training camp. But knowing that you have a guy as solid as he is, who’s not only a good player on the field, but a great leader and a vocal leader who brings the energy, he this was a great signing for the Titans. And I think it went under the radar in the national media landscape. But I’ve compared this roster turnover to what the Commanders did so many times. The Commanders went out and signed Frankie Louvu last year and he was like an anchor and a captain in the middle of their defense. And the Titans need Cody Barton to be that for them as they look to have the same kind of turnaround that Washington pulled off last year. It’s also interesting that Barton, I want to say before this off season signed consecutive one-year deals, right? And then now the Titans go and give him three years. And we know, you know, you always you can always shave a year off, right? Probably get out of it after two years if you want to. But it was a vote of confidence that they gave him a three-year contract. No doubt about that. Um the only thing I’ll add on James Williams is I don’t know if you saw this, but um after Cam Moore threw the interception to Cody Barton, Williams hit Cam with the Zombieland celebration. I mean, talk where does your loyalty lie? He went to Miami. He’s a Miami alum. He doesn’t care about that. He’s sticking with his position group. He and he tried to embarrass Cam Ward, hitting him with the ci when his teammate picked him off. I think that’s something Titans fans, this is I’m really glad you brought this up, Justin. This has nothing to do with training camp or anything really. This is just Titans fan experience, what to expect this season. By the way, James Williams did go to Miami, but obviously they didn’t play together cuz Ward was only there one year and Williams was in the NFL last year. Teams are going to do this to the Titans. I think probably every time he throws an interception, maybe even when he gets sacked, if he throws a pick six, it’s 100% coming out. Teams are gonna hit him with the zombie land a lot to like smack talk and mock him. And he’s going to hit them with it plenty of times himself, but uh that’ll be a fun little thing just to watch us here as other teams come out and do that celebration at him when they make a play on defense. Yeah, fully agreed. Um I’m going to move us on to the defensive line. two guys that I’m gonna hit rapid fire before we spend more time, but as you said, the defense won the day. That was the main takeaway from Thursday’s practice. Jim Wyatt, his observations, mentioned Ardan Ke and Draymond Jones as kind of blowing up plays. Draymond Jones got a bit more love in that observation. I want to quickly mention, I just thought this on the spot, like when Brian Callahan was speaking at the podium before Thursday, Thursday’s practice, I thought what he said about Jones was pretty interesting. He said uh to the tune of I played against him when he was in Denver. He’s a really good player. I know it probably didn’t go according to plan in Seattle, but we’re excited to have him and he’s been making plays for us here. The Titans continue to hype up Draymond Jones. I don’t know if you remember at mandatory camp, Dinard Wilson lit up like a Christmas tree when they asked him about Draymond Jones and how excited he was to have him. Brian Callahan doing more of the same. Good to hear that him and Art and Key, their veterans at that spot, are already making plays. But moving on to Femiola Dejo who as the Dline won the day. I would say Feiola Deja was a big-time winner. Uh there were a couple pressures. There was one that I think forced Cam Ward to roll out and overthrow or throw it threw the ball away. I think it was and some said it would it would have been a wouldbe sack, you know, if contact was allowed and Femi was allowed to close in on his quarterback. Uh two practices in a row, first team reps for Feiola Dejo. He’s been in that lineup with Draymond Jones. If you’re wondering who the partner has been, and he’s been everywhere, been making plays, kind of exploding out of his stance. You see the size, you see the athleticism really. I mean, if I had to pick a winner out of everything I’ve read out of the first two days of Titans training camp, rookies or veterans, I I might go with Femiola Deja. I agree with you. And I think I’ve said this so many times, but this is huge for what the Titans defense can be this year because they need somebody to step up and be a reliable pass rusher who can pressure the quarterback consistently. And if Fejo can be that for them, one, it eliminates a major offseason need. I think there’s still a need, but right now you almost feel like you need two of those guys. And if you find one in Feed Dejo, that’s great. And if Draymond Jones can step up and give you a lot of good snaps, that’s that’s good, too. But a one-year deal, noted. But yes, exactly. So you still need again you still need two assuming he’s on an expiring deal too, right? So I I’m really excited about what Fejo has brought so far to this roster and that his and then number two like you need that guy this year. It doesn’t just eliminate a future need. You need that guy this year. So I’m I’m very happy for what to see the reports about how well Fei is getting pressure and like looking like a natural edge rusher. However, Justin, this goes back to what I talked about at the top of the show. This Titans offensive line is supposed to be better and rebuilt and good. And this Titans pass rush is supposed to be like the weakest part of the roster. Is it an overreaction? This isn’t for me. This is for any listeners or viewers who may be wondering the same thing. Is it an overreaction? Only two days of camp, no pads to say, is this offensive line not going to be as good as we hope? Nope. Number one, no pads. Number two, it’s not like we’ve been hearing the D lines blowing them up. Like it’s that hasn’t been the word coming out of practice. So, no, I’m not there yet. Well, if you want to pump a little sunshine, I’ll say uh talking about Fei and Draymond Jones, you just hope that they’re a bit better this year than the general expectation. And if that’s the case, that comes to fruition, maybe this edge room is not quite as bad as we fear it is. But TBD, I’ll also add, I’m not putting too much stock into Ardan Key being the clear number three right now because number one, he’s the guy that they know the best because he’s the only one that was here last year and the year before, even though this staff wasn’t here. But point being, they know Ardent Key best. I wouldn’t put a lot of stock into him being number three. Who they got to find out about is Draymond Jones and Femiola Dejo. their two new players, especially Fei, of course, being a rookie, a raw one at that. So, I still think Ardan he’s going to get a lot of run in this room. Um, but it’s it’s good that they’re spending a lot of time with Draymond Jones and Fei because they’ve really got to find out what those guys are going to give them this year. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely true. Um, offensive line, I I saw somebody ask about this somewhere on Twitter. I can’t remember where this question popped up, but uh it’s hard to judge anything from the offensive line right now because there’s no pads on and the fact that we haven’t heard anything is generally a good thing. Um so I’m just going to leave that there and talk about two guys Justin now who didn’t play who didn’t participate in these spring practices that are finally taking the field with the Titans in Kel Mullings, the sixth round running back and Kevin Winston Jr. the the third round safety that was possibly the biggest steel of any player in this draft. Both guys now fully healthy, fully participating on the field. Khal Mullings has looked pretty good. I’ve seen some Twitter clips of him just like, you know, routes on air, warm-up type stuff. He looks like a natural route running back with natural hands. It doesn’t look awkward for him to catch the ball. So, there may be a little more upside in this Kell Mullings thing. Like, we’ve talked about the future of the running back room and what’s Taj Spear’s role look like next year and and in the final year of his contract and then beyond that. And is Kell Mullings a threat to become like an RB2? Tony Pard’s also no spring chicken. He’s getting up there in age. How much longer is his career? Khlo Mullings could be more than just a special teamer. I don’t know if I’m going to put any expectations on him to produce anything on offense as a rookie, but I like the what we’ve seen and what we’ve heard about Mullings so far. Uh if you want to quickly comment on Mullings because the real interesting one here is Kevin Winston Jr. That’s what I’m hyped for. But anyway, Mullings. Yeah, I’ll just say our buddy Zack Lions uh has been at a couple practices and said that K Mullings looks big, fast, explosive. All good signs for a guy who’s coming in and trying to carve out, you know, a couple carries for himself per game. And then Kevin Winston Jr. had what was probably the second best play of practice. Yeah. Where um they they weren’t sure whether to rule it an interception or a strip and fumble recovery. But either way, it was a takeaway on Josh Wy comes in as Josh Wley’s bringing in a pass and gets his hands on the ball and rips it out of Wigh’s arms to take the ball away. I mean, I don’t know. This sounds like it was probably a second team rep if Josh Wley’s on the field and I know it wasn’t Cam Ward throwing the ball. So obviously they’re not working in Winston. I mean nobody expected him to be working with the ones. I just wanted to point out that he’s in Yeah. Right. Like it’s not that this is bad or good. It’s just what it is and I wanted to acknowledge it. Um but Kevin Winston Jr. like a guy that I think Titans fans should be very excited about. almost reminds me of when the team drafted Kevin Bard and there was this like overwhelming sense that the Titans just got a steal in the third round with this safety. Um I do think they’re different like style of safety so I don’t want to confuse it that way but just the idea that like this guy’s a really good player. Why was he available to the Titans in the third round? And obviously Kevin Byer didn’t even get invited to the combine. So that was sort of a different level of snub and sleeper and went to Middle Tennessee State like a like come on versus Kevin Wizen Jr. who went to a big time program and played big- time snaps for them before getting injured. Again, not total parallels, but just the idea that there’s this safety they were drafting in the third round that everyone just kind of says is like, “This guy’s already a really good player. Why is he there?” And uh we’re seeing it play out. He’s making plays. These are the kind of plays that the Titans did not have nearly enough of last year. Just going out and taking the ball away on a play where the offense didn’t really do anything wrong, so to speak, other than Josh Wy not holding on to the ball. Like that’s what we were hoping when the Titans hired Dinard Wilson coming from the Ravens who led the team in turn led the league in force turnovers generated and like this mindset of like always take the ball away, generate turnovers, make plays like that’s how you win football games. Kevin Wson Jr., welcome to the team. Yeah, he’s been really impressive by all accounts. I’ve had some sources tell me he looks really good out there. And and Jim Wyatt, the Thursday observations, he pointed out this play. He said he was ruling it as an interception based on his vantage point and that um he’s been blown away by Kevin Winston through two days. Certainly the way he’s moving, the way he looks, uh looks the part, right? An a full-time NFLer and curious to see how the Titans work him in this year. You know, again, Xavier Woods is in that number two safety spot next to Ammani Hooker. He had a PBU. Xavier Woods did, I believe, on Cam Ward at Thursday’s practice as well. He’s not going to give up that spot obviously with any relative ease. I we talk about that second linebacker spot. a lot, right? And I wonder um you take one off the field and you get both Kevin Winston and Xavier Woods who are both, you know, of course a little undized to play a linebacker role, but they’re great tacklers and they’re both good playing around the line of scrimmage, so they do give you something in the downhill game. Uh, you know, very encouraging stuff coming out of camp on Kevin Winston Jr., is there anything else that you wanted to touch on, Justin, from this camp? Because I think we’ve covered everything notable. Like for me, I just want to throw out some names that we haven’t talked much about that I’m sure people are curious about. like Gunnar Helm, has he been making plays or not? David Martin Robinson is getting run with the ones because it was reported that the pass that was intercepted or no, the the pass that was almost intercepted, the second Cody Barton play was targeted to David Martin Robinson. So, he’s out there like we are, you know, somewhat projecting. We weren’t projecting Josh Wy to get to not make the team based on our own, you know, analysis of the players, but based on what we’ve been hearing, we’re saying David Robinson might be tight end three and make this roster. And so he’s getting run with the ones. Like I don’t know if there’s any random players you want to just like pick out and say a sentence or two about. We might have been wrong about that one initially. Uh I’m plug shameless plug. You want to ding me? I don’t know. I’m sitting down with David Martin Robinson next week for an exclusive one-on-one. Really excited about that. That’ll be coming to Titansized. Uh he I’ve heard by all accounts he’s one of the players who has shown the most growth from last year to this year. So I’m excited to talk to him about that. Uh Tyler Lockett, we talk about tracking stats. I’m not a big fan, but Jim Wyatt had him with a team high three catches at Thursday’s practice. I only mentioned it because we didn’t see Tyler Lockett at all at mini camp OTAAS on the field. Not surprised. I think I said this then. Literally, if you gave me a list on football players who could be ready to play a game tomorrow without practicing at all, Tyler Lock would be very high on that list. So, but good to see that he’s working in and and made a couple grabs and is building that chemistry with Cam Ward going to be very important. That’s all I really had on anyone else that we didn’t talk about. I got two more. Legerious been like running on a side field or something, so at least his leg is not immobilized and he’s able to move like an athlete and we’ll see how how quickly he’s back on the field. And the last one is a player the Titans fans have been very excited about, maybe prematurely, Xavier Restreo. according to our little sparrows out there at practice, uh, is not running very high in the pecking order. Um, not really running with the ones much, not really running with the twos much. Maybe not even really running with the threes very much. Behind the threes, so he’s got to be running with threes, the fours. Um, no, I know. It’s just I just want to like temper maybe expectations for Xavier Restrepo that a slow start. Yeah, it’s been a slow he’s not getting looks with the high group of players right now and that can change and if he goes out and has a monster preseason game or something and they’re like well wait a sec maybe we should give him more opportunity. Uh but just so Titans fans are aware like Xavier Restrepo everyone’s projecting him to make the roster including us. Um there might be some there might be a journey ahead for him to get to that point because I think if they had to cut it to 53 today they probably would not keep Restrepo. They might even keep like a Trayon Burks ahead of him. Do you want to mention Taylen Burks at all? Another jumping catch. The Titans social media tweeted out and some people are like, “Oh, well Mike Brown was coming to hit him, so he’s jumping to brace himself.” How is jumping bracing yourself? You have no control of your body when you’re in the air. If you are expecting a big hit, you catch and turn and tuck. You don’t jump in the air. Give me a break. This is a bad habit that he’s had since he came into the league. And I’m out on Tayen Burks and the Sleeper Titans account, which is one of the worst new aggregator accounts out there, is tweeting like Tayen Burks continues to shine at Titans camp. It’s like continues to sh What are you What are you talking about? What are people talking about? I can’t stand the aggregator thing. Um, but anyway, we didn’t Go ahead. I’m still out on trailing Burks and that it’s funny that that clip even made it out there because he had absolutely no business jumping for that ball. I got no idea why he jumped for it. Brian Callahan said some really nice things. I mean, how much he meant it, we don’t know. But it’s like, I like the way he works. I like his attitude. Now he’s got to produce. I mean, they’re going to give him a chance. He’s in camp. They might as well give him a look, right? But it’s on him to make the most of his opportunities, no, I don’t have any faith in his ability to actually do that. PSA to all of our Titans fans listening or watching this show. Just because a coach or a player goes to the podium is asked a specific question about a player, just because they give a glowing response about that player’s abilities or what they’ve seen from them or whatever doesn’t mean that any of it is true. It if you get if you’re a coach or a player and you get asked second timer on this one, so you’re starts now. No, I wasn’t ready for that. It starts I’m not good at clock management, Justin. I’m calling timeout. It starts right now. Um, Nathaniel Hacket over here. It starts right now. Okay. Um, just because a player says something, when they are asked a direct question about a player on their team, they are going to give a positive glowing answer. They’re never going to sit there and be like, “Ah, well, you know, actually, we’re out on him. He’s just out here cuz he’s still under contract.” Like, that’s not the way that this stuff works at all. Uh, they are going to be glowing. They are going to be praising. It’s called coach speak. It doesn’t mean anything. So, stop taking it so seriously and literally done. Thank you. Thank you. Didn’t need to be said, but I’m glad you got that off your chest. Uh, thank you. I’m just frustrated by it. I think that’ll do it. I agree. Let’s call it an episode, Justin. Thanks to everyone for tuning in. Um, remember to like the video, subscribe to the channel. Remember, the best way to help our channel grow is to watch these videos all the way through. Start click on every video and watch it all the way through. If you don’t have time to watch it all the way through, you’re not that interested, just like let it play in the background with no sound on. That’s the best way to help our channel grow along with liking the video, subscribing to the channel, and leaving a comment below. What have you seen that you’re impressed by or that you’re concerned with through the first week of training camp for the Titans? Let us know and Justin and I will hop in those comments and respond to you. I love have having a good dialogue with our audience. It really stimulates the brain, takes me back to my MCM commenter days when I would just sit uh on my laptop late at night, smoke weed, and comment to people on musiccitymiracles.com. Um, anyway, Justin, I wanted to tell everyone I’m working on a new video and I don’t know how long it’s going to take me, but I’m hoping to have it out soon on the connection and the relationship and the bromance that has been forming between Calvin Ridley and Cam Ward. I think it’s super important for the success of the offense that these two guys are connected like they are. And uh, the story of their connection, I’m going to tell it in a new video coming out soon. So, hope everyone gets excited for that. Thanks to Sinker Beverages for sponsoring this channel. Remember to check out Sinker Beverages 40th birthday jamberee. The link is in the podcast description. Final word to you. You guys stay safe out there and tighten up. A Broadway Sports Media production.

Justin Melo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Justin Graver⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ are back to recap the first week of Training Camp practices for the Tennessee Titans! We start by covering some roster moves made by the team before moving on to Cam Ward’s overall performance, Cody Barton’s impact on the linebacker room, the defensive line and emergence of Femi Oladejo, and other odds and ends from the first week on the field.

0:00 Intro
2:58 Roster Moves
8:55 Cam Ward’s Overall Performance
15:53 Cody Barton and the ILBs
19:47 Femi Oladejo and the DL
24:12 Kalel Mullings and Kevin Winston Jr.
28:23 Rapid Fire Other Notes
33:26 Wrap Up

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