Jeffery Simmons didn’t call out teammate JC Latham publicly by name. He did, however, call out the false starts on offense. He didn’t need to use a name.

Of the Tennessee Titans’ five offensive false starts in their Nov. 16 loss to the Houston Texans, three were logged by Latham, the right tackle who also had a holding penalty in the fourth quarter.

While passionately venting to assembled reporters in the locker room at Nissan Stadium, Simmons said he was “tired of sugarcoating.” He said the Titans need to protect quarterback Cam Ward better, and they, of course, “can’t have that many false starts.”

“I agree,” Latham said simply when asked about Simmons’ comments.

That was the most concise answer Latham gave during a post-practice interview session on Nov. 19, which lasted more than 10 minutes. For many of those 10 minutes, Latham repeatedly expressed contrition and frustration over his pre-snap penalties, noting how they overshadowed what had been a relatively solid afternoon of protection against the Texans’ fearsome pass rush.

“Pre-snap penalties, we’ve preached on that since OTAs,” Latham said. “It frustrates me even talking about it, because that’s the first thing in every single meeting we talk about . . . That in one game was just extremely unacceptable, extremely immature. I’ve got to grow up from it.”

This hasn’t been the easiest season for any Titans player. But especially not for Latham, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Having started 17 games at left tackle as a rookie, he switched to the right side for 2025. Trimmed down, he stood out during preseason practices.

But he aggravated a hip injury in the season opener. So far, he has played in only six of 10 games and hasn’t yet had the breakout that the Titans would’ve hoped by now for a player drafted so high.

As Latham noted: “I feel like I had a lot of pressure to be great early.”

“You lose a one-on-one rep, that’s part of being in the NFL. Everybody is going to lose,” he said. “Where the issue comes in is the pre-snap penalties. You’re a highly drafted guy. You’re a guy the team chose to be a cornerstone, a leader. So stuff like that can’t happen.”

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and hang out with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social