Live Press Conference: 12:00 PM CT: HC Brian Callahan

Live Press Conference: 12:00 PM CT: HC Brian Callahan

Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up [Music] [Music] here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Well, since I just talked to you a day ago and nothing’s changed, go ahead. Uh well, the un unofficial depth chart that you guys put out at I Manor, starting as one of your three receivers, what have you seen out of him that’s elevated him to that status? Uh it’s consistency. He’s shown up in in practices. He’s shown up in games. He’s he’s strong, he’s fast, he’s made plays when the ball’s come his way. Um he’s earned a right to to be the first guy to walk out there, but that doesn’t mean that he’s the only guy that’s going to be out there. You know, we’re going to have receivers up on game day. They’re all going to play. are all going to have roles. We’re counting on all those guys to to produce and perform for us. So, um he’s earned a nice little uh bump as a starter on paper, but they’re all going to play. What did you see from him progressively get better, I guess, through through camp in the preseason? Uh just the performance, I think the consistency of performance just showed up every day, you know, made plays every day. Um he’s gotten better every time he stepped out there. He’s a good he’s a strong runner. He’s a powerful route runner. um he’s made plays on the ball and that’s that’s that’s what we’re looking for. He’s he’s earned himself a earn ear earned himself the right to be called a starter. I guess with Gray and and Williams on the depth chart too, you anticipate both those guys playing and and what what did Cedric do maybe to earn that nod? I think Cedric Cedric showed up when when it was time to play football. That was really the biggest separator I think between the two of them. James had a really strong camp. U wasn’t anything that James didn’t do. It was more what Seth did. Uh he showed up, played physical, we played hard in the run game, played sideline to sideline. Um he’s he’s really showed well for himself when we had the chance to go compete for real in the preseason games and earned himself a spot just like Eller did. He’s earned the role. Uh it was great competition. Both those guys are going to be counted on this year in in roles. Um happy with where both of their progress is at, but I think Cedric uh Cedric at the end of camp there really showed up I think in the games which was good to see. Bo’s ability to kind of move around, use his feet, too. How disciplined is you guys have to be defensively? Oh, it’s critical. That’s really what what’s made their offense so uh you know, so dangerous is he’s really strong in the pocket. He’s hard to bring down. He’s he’s a really strong pocket presence. He can run when he’s breaks contain. He’s a re he’s a real threat as a runner. Um and he’s got great feel for when and where to escape. So you quarterbacks like that, which there’s more and more of them in the league nowadays, you have to really do a great job balancing your rush, knowing where your where your rush lanes are at, knowing where the quarterback launch point is at, uh condensing the pocket and making sure that we don’t give up free lanes for the quarterback to run. That’s a huge part of of playing all these quarterbacks that can run nowadays is you do your best to don’t give them free ones. You know, they make a great play and escape and that happens, but uh we try to not give them give them easy lanes to run in. Going into an environment like that, how important will it be to get Tony Pard going early and how do you feel he’s going to be able to to carry if a heavy workload is required? Yeah, he’s proven he can do it. He did it last year for us. Uh he’s he can he can carry the ball a bunch. He’s a productive runner. He’s a hard runner. Uh all those things are things that we’ve seen from Tony. So there’s not a whole lot of mystery what that looks like uh for him performing in a in in a role where he’s going to take a majority of the carries. We’re still going to need the other guys to play for us. You know, Joyce is going to have to step up. Kell might have some work in there. Um those guys all got to contribute for us to win, but very confident in Tony’s ability to handle it. Um you know, obviously you got to run the ball well in this league if you want to win and so u we’re going to have to run the ball well when we run it. Does that get amplified a little more being as though you have a rookie quarterback making his first start? Um not any more than it would for any normal game, I don’t think. Yeah, certainly we’d like to to run the ball well and and keep him out of some of the tough situations uh that you can get in if you got to drop back a bunch or face the pass rush a bunch. They’re very clearly an excellent pass rushing football team. their production is is what best in the league. So, um yeah, we got to be mindful of of what the spots we put them in and running the ball always helps that. But at the end of the day, we’re still going to do what we think is going to help us win a game and if if we got to throw it, we’ll throw it. Ryan, in your eyes, what’s the most important thing for a quarterback to do a rookie that is um to successfully get through game one and how does Cam fit into that? The biggest thing for a young quarterback is just stay within yourself. you know, play within what’s asked of you. Do the things that you’ve done all training camp, all offseason. You know, it’s week one, I kind of alluded to it the other day, week one gets made into this this benchmark moment of a season. It’s really just one game of 17 that you certainly want to play well in. Um, but it’s it’s uh it’s you still got to have some perspective on it and and not you don’t need anything crazy. He just needs to be one of the 11 guys on the field on offense doing his part to help us win. um making smart decisions with the football, keeping us on track, keeping us on schedule. Obviously, protecting the football is a huge part of of winning football games in the NFL period, but certainly in week one, uh is going to be critical. So, I think it’s just playing football the way that that we ask them to play and and play within himself. Um he’s got all the talent in the world to go make the throws we need him to make and um the rest of the guys around him got to play well, too. So, we’re counting on everybody to play well together. Is there something specific you really want him to focus on or hone in on in practice these next three days? Um outside of the game plan, you know, the normal stuff. No. Again, try not to make it something that it isn’t. You know, it’s still just a football game. He’s played a lot of football. Um this isn’t this is not any different. you know, sure that the talent’s different and the environment is going to be fun, but um you know, you walk in you walk on the on the field there, it’s still 100 yards long and 10 yard end zones and 53 and a third yards wide and doesn’t really change. So, you know, just that approach I think helps. You know, you don’t we don’t need him to do anything super human. Just need him to play good football and need the guys around him to play well for him. Nick said yesterday that the game plan’s probably at 65 70%. And what’s the timeline to getting it to 100%. left to tinker with and just kind of what are you guys trying to to get on these last couple? I think we’re right. We’re we’re right on track where we are on a normal week. Um, you know, we get a couple extra days here just because of the bonus week now without that fourth preseason game. But, uh, right on a normal normal rhythm of the week. You know, we got our base downs and third downs and red zone. We just sort of follow that same rhythm. Um, maybe a little bit ahead of it just because of the extra time, but but pretty pretty squarely on where we need to be. Y experience, what what do defenses often do with with a rookie quarterback or or guy starting his first game? What are maybe some generic things that you usually see from defenses that you might not see against a vet? Uh they test you. I mean, they’re they’re they’re going to see what you can handle. Um and the the old adage for most quarterbacks is, you know, if they test you and they pressure you and it works, probably coming again, you know, and they you’re going to get tested until you show you can handle it. And I think that’s an important part of the position. and and every defense is going to have their DNA and and how much they pressure and why and where and but I I I’ve always believed that especially young players, you know, first second year quarterbacks, you’re going to get tested and once you show you can handle it, those things tend to fall by the wayside a bit and they don’t they don’t do anything reckless. But, um, look, Vance is Vance is is an outstanding coordinator. He’s done it for a long time. Uh, I don’t think he’s going to go out of his way to to to veer much off of what they believe in and what they do. Um, but I just know that young quarterbacks get tested and and until you prove you can handle it, um, you’re going to keep getting tested. Did you choose the placement of guys in the locker room? I know it’s been a while they’ve been in it. First we saw it the other day, but how intentional were you about who was next to who and who’s between who? Yeah, I would say it was there was definitely thought put into it. um not not all of it was, you know, every single person, every single spot, but there was certainly some spots that uh had some intention behind him and some thought put into it on on where we wanted those guys to be. The biggest point for the locker room to me was just to make sure that there was enough guys uh intermixed offense, defense, special teams by position to have more opportunities to to connect. And I think when you guys walked in there, you saw we took out the those big pod lockers in there that were around the post. So, it opens up the locker room more. So locker rooms a little more open, more guys can kind of see and talk and and you can see the whole space a little better. So that was really the biggest thing. But yeah, there was certainly intention behind some of it. On Kazir White and and I guess what’s going to be like kind of getting him up to speed and or being help? Yeah, excited excited to have Kazir. He’s uh he’s a proven veteran in this league. Been very productive over the course of his career. Um he’s, you know, he’s been captains on a captain on teams. He’s he’s well regarded amongst the places he’s been. um excited to have him and and he hadn’t been anywhere, you know, for the offseason or training camp. So, get him back in shape, get him back in the groove. You know, these guys have been been working for a lot of weeks now. So, to catch him up on that process, make sure he’s in shape and then ready to roll when we need to count on them. Such a vertical passer. You know, he likes to push the ball down the field. This team, they’re going to blitz. They were 10th last year. How do you go about like making sure, hey, I want you to take your shots, but we got stuff underneath is options as well. That’s part of playing the position in the NFL. You know, there’s there’s a um a discipline and a patience involved in playing quarterback. Um I would say there’s probably, you know, 80% of the game that the quarterback has to do the right thing. And then there’s those 20% that they got to make the play. Uh make a great throw on third down, make a great throw in the red zone, create on a scramble. Um but a lot of the position is is the discipline and patience um that’s required to keep moving the team down the field. And those are the things that Cam’s learned along the way. You know, there’s there’s teams that can rush the passer just like this one. you got to be mindful of how long you hold the ball um and how often you’re going to hang back there because they’re coming. Um but that’s all part of it and then but you just don’t ever want to take away the stinger and and Cam’s got one and um you know he’s going to take some chances and take some risks and and put the ball in some tight windows and that’s that’s part of what makes him who he is and we don’t want to take that away from him. So uh he’s going to go play football the way he’s played football his whole career. um he’ll learn the differences in the NFL as he plays more NFL games, but um you know, he’s there’s not a there’s not a whole lot of things that I’m going to I’m not going to tell him how he’s got to go play. I can point out the things that he needs to do well and where he can help the offense, but when it’s time to go play quarterback, go play quarterback. Thanks, guys. Thank you. [Music] [Music]

Titans Head Coach Brian Callahan addresses reporters on Wednesday at Ascension Saint Thomas Sports Park.

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