A slender J.C. Latham ran through offensive line drills for the Tennessee Titans at Ascension Saint Thomas Sports Park on May 28.
Of course, the 6-foot-6 tackle is still among the largest offensive linemen on the Titans. But the former first-round pick (No. 7 overall, 2024) is down 33 pounds from his peak playing weight last season.
“I weighed in at 337 (pounds) this morning,” Latham said. “The highest I got (last year) was probably 365 or 370. It was bad.”
Latham, who started all 17 games at left tackle for the Titans in 2024, is making the switch to right tackle. The Titans signed veteran tackle Dan Moore in the offseason to play left tackle and Kevin Zeitler to play right guard as the organization looks to reshape a struggling offensive line.
Also reshaping is Latham, who after a promising but difficult rookie season realized his weight needed to be addressed.
Why Tennessee Titans tackle JC Latham lost 33 pounds in the offseason
Midway through his rookie season — right about Week 10 against the Los Angeles Chargers — Latham thought he had everything under control with his weight and believed he could manage it.
“I felt like I was in really good shape. Felt like I could play in this league at a high level,” he said. “But everyone was telling me, ‘Hey, watch your weight.’ That it kind of sneaks up on you at the end of the year. You get comfortable and then you just blow up. I didn’t take that advice to heart and I got bigger.”
It wasn’t until the Titans’ final game of the season — a 23-14 loss to the Houston Texans — that he knew he needed to make a change.
“I was at my heaviest and I just felt a lot slower,” he said of his performance in that game. “It was embarrassing for me.”
Latham met with Titans offensive line coach Bill Callahan, team nutritionist Lauren Silvio and his personal chef to plan an attack. The goal was to drop from 370 to 340 by training camp using a simple calorie deficit.
“We counted the calories that I’m taking in every single day. Came up with a meal plan with select meals that I’m allowed to eat. I eat twice a day, then snack in between each meal.”
Now his diet consists mostly of fish, vegetables and protein or granola bars for snacks.
His favorite meal? “Salmon, asparagus, and my chef makes a really good cauliflower mash.”
But Latham isn’t stopping at 340. He already has noticed a difference in his conditioning, foot speed and agility, which has him hungry for further improvement. Plus, looking at the weight of other successful tackles in the NFL, Latham noticed a trend.
“The majority of them are at 320 or 325 or even less,” he said.
Tristan Wirfs (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Laremy Tunsil (Texans) and Ronnie Stanley (Baltimore Ravens) all made the Pro Bowl last season, and all weigh under 320 pounds. The one outlier is Detroit Lions cornerstone tackle Penei Sewell, who comes in at 335 pounds.
So while Latham has made progress, he wants to lose at least 12 more pounds to set up a successful second year in the NFL.
“(Last year), I was thinking that my weight wouldn’t really be a factor because I’ve been that way my whole life, so I didn’t think it was a necessity,” Latham said. “But as the year went on and my weight didn’t go down, I was like, this is a different level.”
Alex Daugherty is the Predators beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Alex at jdaugherty@gannett.com. Follow Alex on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @alexdaugherty1. Also check out our Predators exclusive Instagram page @tennessean_preds.