Kudos for the comedic timing.
After the Tennessee Titans’ training camp practice on July 29 ― the team’s first with full contact in full pads ― The Tennessean asked linebacker Cody Barton about the similarities and differences between the Titans‘ defense of 2025 and the No. 3-ranked scoring defense he was part of with the Denver Broncos in 2024. He put a little bit of thought into the question before arriving at his answer: It’s an energy thing.
“There’s a lot of energy,” Barton starts. “I’ll say the energy here is ―”
Barton is cut off. An unidentified teammate speeds by and yells “CODYYYY!”
“I’d say the energy here is just at another level,” Barton continues, never stopping to acknowledge the proof he’d just been presented with.
Suffice it to say, the Titans’ defense came out of its first full-contact day of the summer feeling good. Forcing four turnovers in team periods has a way of dulling the bruises and softening the July-in-Nashville sun.
Especially when creating takeaways hasn’t exactly been an area of strength for the Titans in recent memory. Throw in the would-be sacks, would-be TFLs, would-be quarterback pressures and very-much-were big hits (looking at you, Kevin Winston Jr.), and the energy the Titans’ defense brought to practice felt warranted.
It’s hard to say whether the Titans’ defense is reinvented, revitalized or relaunched for 2025. In a lot of ways, the unit looks like last season’s group with a fresh layer of paint. The identity is still built around Jeffery Simmons and T’Vondre Sweat as interior disruptors with an emphasis on aggressive secondary play. Just swap Quandre Diggs for Xavier Woods, swap Ernest Jones IV for Barton and swap Harold Landry III for a new philosophy off the edge built around more massive edge defenders like Dre’Mont Jones.
That’s not an unfair way to look at things. Structurally and philosophically, the Titans are still mostly banking on the same things on defense. If Sweat and Simmons can collapse pockets and clog running lanes, that’s the quickest route to the ball. Take away an offense’s ability to use the middle of the field, and you’ll end up forcing them to win one-on-one matchups on the perimeter, where the physicality in the secondary can create mismatches and mistakes.
If the inside linebackers can plug holes and rove well in the middle in coverage, and if the outside linebackers can maintain edges that keep runners and quarterbacks inside by the clog, offenses shouldn’t have too many options.
Which, remember, this philosophy worked in a limited fashion in 2024. The Titans finished the year with the No. 2 total defense and passing defense in the NFL. Of course, they finished 30th in scoring defense, 26th in rushing defense, 25th in red zone defense and 22nd in third down defense. Charitably, one can say the Titans’ poor special teams and repeated offensive turnovers led to the scoring issues by giving the defense the third-worst average starting field position in the league.
Less charitably, one can say the bad field position buoyed the yards-per-game stats, the fact that the Titans were so often trailing buoyed the passing defense stats and the fact that the unit struggled so badly to get off the field when it needed to constitutes a bad season.
So now there’s a defense doubling down on energy, connection and effort. The efforts Titans coach Brian Callahan and his staff have gone to create more camaraderie in 2025 are well-documented. Three months after the leadership pods and intrasquad competitions went into effect, players are still raving about the effects. And perhaps more importantly, crediting those changes with some of the on-field results. Simmons said that through the first three practices of training camp, the defense had been penalized just two times.
Energy might not be enough to propel the Titans’ defense to the top of the league, but the early results have been encouraging.
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss. Subscribe to the Talkin’ Titans newsletter for updates sent directly to your inbox.